1937.02 One estimate places the temperature of that matter freshly torn from a star at more than 600,000° centigrade. back
1937.02 You may be interested in one solution of the problem of getting hydrogen under great pressure safely. They use two retorts, one inside the other, like an arm in a sleeve. The "arm" is the hydrogen retort, with hydrogen at a pressure, let us say, of 2000 pounds to the square inch. The sleeve is a heavy steel retort about it. Between the two, in the hollow , is nitrogen at 2010 pounds. The hydrogen leaks and weakens the inner retort, but that's under no real strain. The nitrogen keeps it from reaching the outer sleeve, taking all the strain safely because it is not weakened by seeping hydrogen. back
1937.03 From "The Sidereal Messenger," by Galileo Galilei, 1610; translated by E. S. Carlos, 1880. back
1937.04 His original statement read: "aaaaaaacccccdeeeeeghiiiiiiillllmmnnnnnnnnnooooppqrrstttttuuuuu," which he transposed in 1659 to read: "Annuto cingitur, tenui, plano, nusquam coherente, ad eclipticam inclinato." Since every proper scientist of the day wrote and spoke Latin, it was clear enough that "it is encircled by a ring, thin, plane, nowhere attached inclined to the ecliptic." back
1937.06 The idea of the fractional exponents is not at all far from the truth, and indeed may be said to be the present theory. It will be remembered that the orbit of Mercury advances in a manner not wholly accounted for by Newton's law of gravity, but explained almost entirely by Einstein's law of gravity. However, Einstein's law does not account for a small residual discrepancy, and, further, does not account for small motions of Venus', Earth's, and Mars' orbits. Using a fractional exponent in Newton's law accounts for these motions better, but fails to explain other things. On the other hand, remember that the square term in most physical laws arises from the theory of conic sections. But Einstein proposes a space in which neither straight-line-sided code, nor plane is possible. Hence, in effect, the exponent cannot be 2, but must have some other value. back
1937.07 See the accompanying letter in Science Discussions. back
1937.08 A new metallic element was isolated in the year 1801, an element that has since found application in a number of minor things, including the making of cigarette-lighter "flints." Named in honor of the discovery of this planetoid, it is Cerium. back
1937.08 North and south have meaning in this sense, since one end of the Earth's axis is north of the plane of its orbit, and the other south. Hence we can legitimately speak of going north of the plane of the ecliptic. back
1937.11 "ordinary" with intent aforethought. There are also certain objects called "supernova" with sound reason, but they are a subject to themselves, and a very limited subject. So rare are they that none has yet been observed in our galaxy of thousands of millions of stars. However, they might conceivably represent that complete loss of control, which an ordinary nova, definitely, does not. back