Chapter 6 Chapter 6 What It Is Impossible Not To Know And Not Allowed To Believe In America

As a direct consequence of Barbicane's report, all astronomical problems related to the moon suddenly became the talk of the street.Everyone is tirelessly studying the moon.It was as if she was appearing on the horizon for the first time, and no one had seen her in the sky before.The goddess of the moon suddenly became all the rage: now, although she is a queen, she is still unpretentious, and although she is sideways among the stars, she is not domineering at all.Many old stories featuring "The Sun of the Wolf" have been revived in newspapers.They mentioned how ignorant primitive people thought she could influence the fate of the world.They sang her praises in various tunes, and if it went on, they might quote her witticisms, and the whole of America was completely intoxicated with "Moon Mania".

A number of scientific magazines, devoted to their special subject, dealt with the project of the Gun Club, and they published the letter of the Cambridge Observatory, with numerous footnotes and citations without reserve. In short, he said that even the most ignorant American must know all the common sense of astronomy about the earth's satellites, and even the most stupid old woman must no longer believe in superstitions about the moon.Science came to them in various forms, and it penetrated their hearts through the eyes and ears: it was impossible to be a fool in astronomy. At that time, many people did not know how to calculate the distance between the earth and the moon.People then took this opportunity to tell them that this distance was calculated from the parallax of the moon.If the term "parallax" surprises them, they are told that "parallax" is the angle between two straight lines drawn from either end of the radius of the earth: ; to the moon.If they suspected that this method might be defective, it was at once proved to them not only that the average distance was two hundred and thirty-four thousand three hundred and forty-seven miles, but that the calculations of the astronomers did not differ by more than seventy miles. .

For those who are not familiar with the motion of the moon, the newspapers prove to them every day that the moon has two different motions, one rotation and one revolution around the earth, and these two motions are in the same period, that is to say, in the It was completed in twenty-seven and one-third days. The rotation produces day and night on the surface of the moon. There is only one day and one night in a lunar month, and the time of both is 354 and one-third hours.But, fortunately, the side of the moon facing the earth is illuminated by the light of the earth's rather dry fourteenth moon.The other side of the moon that we can't see is naturally a 354-hour absolute night, and you can only feel pale. When you complete a circle, you have turned once yourself.very good!The dining room is the sky, the table is the earth, you, you are the moon! "They went away happily after hearing this parable.

Therefore, one side of the moon is always facing the earth, but for a more accurate view, we should add that because the moon has a swing from north to south and from west to east called "liberation", the area it allows us to see is slightly More than half, that is to say about fifty-six percent. When the least educated people, like the director of the Cambridge Observatory, understood how the moon rotates, they began to worry about the moon's orbit around the earth. Twenty scientific magazines quickly introduced this knowledge to them.Then they knew that the starry sky could be used as a great clock face, on which the moon moved, pointing out to all the inhabitants of the earth:

real hour.The celestial bodies in the night show different moon phases in this movement. When the moon faces the sun, that is to say, when these three celestial bodies occupy a straight line and the earth is in the middle, it is called a full moon. When it faces away from the sun, that is to say, When it is between the earth and the sun, it is called a new moon, and finally, when it forms a right angle with the sun and the earth and is at its zenith, it is the first quarter moon or the last quarter moon. A few thoughtful Americans have concluded that lunar and solar eclipses can only: Occurring at the new moons and lunar phases, their conclusions were correct.The moon can cover the sun at the new moon, and it is the earth that covers the sun at the full moon!Solar and lunar eclipses don't happen every month because the moon's orbit is tilted to the ecliptic, or in other words, to the Earth's orbital plane.

As for the question of how high the celestial bodies in the night can reach the skyline," the letter from the Cambridge Observatory has fully explained. Everyone knows that its true height varies with the latitude of the observation site. However, the moon passes the zenith, That is to say, the place where it can climb the observer's head must be located in the zone between the earth's equator and the twenty-eighth latitude north and south. Therefore, the letter repeatedly asked that the experiment must be carried out in this part of the earth, so that the cannonball can vertically Launch it so that it can escape the effect of gravity as quickly as possible: this is an indispensable condition for ensuring the success of this experiment, and naturally it will not fail to attract the attention of public opinion.

Regarding the orbit of the moon as it revolves around the earth, the explanation given by the Cambridge Observatory is clear enough even to an uneducated person in any country.The observatory said that the moon's orbit is an inflexion line, but it is not a circle, but an ellipse, and the earth occupies the center of the two circles.All planetary orbits are elliptical, as are all satellites, and theoretical mechanics precisely demonstrates that the orbits of celestial bodies cannot be otherwise.It is not difficult to understand) the moon is farther away from the earth when it is at apogee, and closer when it is at perigee.

All of these are things that an American cannot and should not know.However, although these truths were quickly popularized, many erroneous concepts and some unfounded fears were difficult to eliminate for a while. ~ For example.Some good people insist that the moon is originally an ancient replacement star orbiting the sun along its narrow orbit, and when it passed by the earth, it was caught by the earth's gravitational circle.It is hopeless misfortune that these family astronomers take it upon themselves to use this term to explain the scarring on the surface of a radiant celestial body.But when they were reminded that comets have no atmospheres, and that the Moon has little or no air, they were dumbfounded, not knowing what to answer.

Others are Rufus, who are quite afraid of the moon, and they have heard that observations in the time of the Caliphate have proved that the moon's revolution is somehow faster and faster: so they reasoned - and quite logically - ——The greater the speed of movement, the smaller the distance between the two celestial bodies. These two mutual causal effects will continue forever. Finally, one day the moon will fall to the earth. However, according to a famous French mathematician Laplace According to Stanley's calculations, the increase in speed of operation is minimal, and the ensuing corresponding decrease in speed makes it impossible for the balance of the solar system to be disturbed in the coming centuries.

After hearing this, they were relieved and no longer worried about future generations. What remains at last is an ignorant superstitious class; dissatisfied with their ignorance, they know many things that do not exist, and they know a great deal about the moon.Some people look at the round moon as if it is a smooth mirror that can see all parts of the earth, and they can rely on this mirror to transmit thoughts between places.They insist that observing a thousand full moons, 950 of them can cause significant changes such as riots, revolutions, earthquakes, floods, etc., so they believe that the celestial bodies in the night have mysterious power to influence the fate of human beings, "the gunmen see it As "true weighing hammers" for the balance of all things in the world, they believe that every lunar person has a resonance relationship with every inhabitant of the earth; insist that boys are born at the full moon, girls at the last quarter of the moon, etc. But at last we must abandon these vulgar errors and return to the one truth, if the moon were deprived of it superstitious influence, it will lose all its power in the eyes of those who worship it, and if these people turn their backs on it, the vast majority of people will praise it. A new continent in the sky, planting the American Star-Spangled Banner beyond the highest mountain on the moon, has no other ambition.