TLDR
The Contraction of a Body—Helmholtz Explained Sun-heat—Change of a Mile every Eleven Years in the Sun’s Diameter—Effect of Contraction on Temperature—The Solar Constant—Limits to the Solar Shrinkage—Astronomers can Weigh the Sun—Density of the Sun—Heat Developed by the Falling Together of the Solar Materials—Contraction of Nebula to Form the Earth—Heat Produced in the Earth’s Contraction—Similar Calculation about the Sun—Earth and Sun Contrasted—Heat Produced in the Solar Contraction from an indefinitely Great Nebula—The Coal-Unit Employed—Calculation of the Heat given out by the Sun.
The law which declares that a body which gives out heat must in general submit to a corresponding diminution in volume appears, so far as we can judge, to be one of those laws which have to be obeyed not alone by bodies on which we can experiment, but by bodies throughout the extent of the universe. The law which bids the mercury ascend the stem of the thermometer when the temperature rises, and descend when the temperature falls, affords the principle which explains some of the grandest phenomena of the heavens. Applied to the solar system it declares that as the sun, in dispensing its benefits to the earth day by day, has to pour forth heat, so in like manner must it be diminishing in bulk.via the TL;DR App
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Written by robertsball | I was an Irish astronomer who founded the screw theory.