Part 56

Newly fallen snow having a depth of about 11¹⁄₃ inches is equivalent to one inch of rain. A cubic foot of newly fallen snow weighs 5¹⁄₂ pounds and a cubic foot of fresh or rain water weighs 62¹⁄₂ pounds or 1,000 ounces. An inch of rain means a gallon of water spread over every two square feet, or about a hundred tons to every acre. The density of snow naturally varies a good deal according to the speed with which it falls. Temperature, also, has much to do with its bulk. In cold, crisp weather, when the thermometer registers several degrees of frost, snow comes down light and dry; but in moist, cold weather, when the temperature is only just below thirty-two degrees, the snow falls in large, partially thawed flakes, and occupies much less space where it falls than that which reaches the earth during the prevalence of a greater degree of cold.

How Are the Stars Counted?

Stars are counted by means of the telescope and photography. The Astronomer-Royal for Ireland, Sir Robert S. Ball, in one of his lectures mentioned a photograph which had been obtained by Mr. Isaac Roberts representing a small part of the constellation of the Swan. The picture is about as large as the page of a copy-book, and it is so crowded with stars that it would puzzle most people to count them; but they have been counted by a patient person, and the number is about 16,000. Many of these stars are too faint ever to be seen in the greatest of telescopes yet erected. Attempts are now being made to obtain a number of similar photographs which shall cover the whole extent of the heavens. The task is indeed an immense one. Assuming the plates used to be the same size as that above mentioned, it would require at least 10,000 of them to represent the entire sky. The counting of stars by the telescope was first reduced to a system by the Herschels, who introduced “star-gauges,” which were simply a calculation by averages. A telescope of 18 in. aperture, 20 ft. focus, and a magnifying power of 180, giving a field of view 15 in. in diameter, was used for the purpose. The process consisted in directing this instrument to a part of the sky and counting the stars in the field. This, repeated hundreds of times, gave a fair idea of the average number of stars in a circle of 15 in. diameter in all parts of the sky. From this as a basis it is possible to reckon the number of stars in any known area.

How Is the Volume of Sound Measured?

Sound arises from vibrations giving a wave-like motion to the surrounding atmosphere, the wave gradually enlarging as it leaves the source of disturbance, while at the same time the motion of the air particles becomes less and less. The simplest method of determining the number of vibrations of a sound is by means of Savart’s apparatus. This consists of two wheels--a toothed or cog-wheel and a driving-wheel. They are so adjusted that the cog-wheel is made to revolve with great rapidity, its teeth hitting upon a card fixed near it. The number of revolutions is indicated by a counter attached to the axis of the cog-wheel. Suppose that sound is traveling in the air at the rate of 1,000 ft. per second, and that Savart’s wheel is giving a sound produced by 200 taps on the card per second, it follows that in 1,000 ft. there will be 200 waves or vibrations, and if there be 200 waves in 1,000 ft. each wave or vibration must be 5 ft. in length. The velocity of sound through air varies with the temperature of the latter, but is usually reckoned at 1,130 ft. per second.

At What Rate Does Thought Travel?

Thought travels 111 feet per second, or about a mile and a quarter per minute. Elaborate experiments have been made by Professors Heimholtz, Hersch, and Donders, to ascertain the facts on this question, the result of which was that they found the process of thought varied in rapidity in different individuals, children and old persons thinking more slowly than people of middle age, and ignorant people more slowly than the educated. It takes about two-fifths of a second to call to mind the country in which a well-known town is situated, or the language in which a familiar author wrote. We can think of the name of the next month in half the time we need to think of the name of the last month. It takes on the average one-third of a second to add numbers containing one digit and half a second to multiply them. Those used to reckoning can add two to three in less time than others; those familiar with literature can remember more quickly than others that Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet.” It takes longer to mention a month when a season has been given than to say to what season a month belongs. The time taken up in choosing a motion, the “will time,” can be measured as well as the time taken up in perceiving. If it is not known which of two colored lights is to be presented, and you offer to lift your right hand if it be red and your left if it be blue, about one-thirteenth of a second is necessary to initiate the correct motion.

What Is the Largest Tree In the World?

In San Francisco, encircled by a circus tent of ample dimensions, is a section of the largest tree in the world--exceeding the diameter of the famous tree of Calaveras by five feet. This monster of the vegetable kingdom was discovered in 1874, on Tule River, Tulare County, about seventy-five miles from Visalia. At some remote period its top had been broken off by the elements, or some unknown forces, yet when it was discovered it had an elevation of 240 feet. The trunk of the tree was 111 feet in circumference, with a diameter of 35 feet 4 inches. The section on exhibition is hollowed out, leaving about a foot of bark and several inches of the wood. The interior is 100 feet in circumference and 30 feet in diameter, and it has a seating capacity of about 200. It was cut off from the tree about twelve feet above the base, and required the labor of four men for nine days to chop it down. In the center of the tree, and extending through its whole length, was a rotten core about two feet in diameter, partially filled with a soggy, decayed vegetation that had fallen into it from the top. In the center of this cavity was found the trunk of a little tree of the same species, having perfect bark on it, and showing regular growth. It was of uniform diameter, an inch and a half all the way; and when the tree fell and split open, this curious stem was traced for nearly 100 feet. The rings in this monarch of the forest show its age to have been 4,840 years.

Where Did the Term Yankees Originate?

This is a word said to be a corruption of Yengees, the Indian pronunciation of English, or of the French “Anglais,” when referring to the English Colonists. It was first applied to the New Englanders by the British soldiers as a term of reproach, later by the English to Americans generally, and still later to the people of the North by the Southerners.

How Far Does the Air Extend?

It is, perhaps, generally known that enveloping the earth is a layer of air fifty or more miles in thickness. Just how thick this layer is we do not know, but we do know that it extends many miles from the earth. You may assure yourselves of this in a very simple manner by watching the shooting stars that may be seen on any clear night. These are nothing but masses of rocks that give off light only when they have been made red-hot by friction with the air in their rapid flight. The fact that we often see these stars while they are still many miles from the earth proves to us that the air through which they are passing extends to that height.

What Makes Us Feel Hungry?

Hunger is a peculiar craving which we are accustomed to say comes from the stomach. It is the business of the stomach to change such food as we take into it in such a way that the rest of the organs of the body which we have for the purpose can make blood out of it. When you feel the sensation of hunger, it means that the blood-producing system is calling on the stomach to furnish more blood-making material. The stomach prepares the food for blood production by mixing with it certain juices which the stomach is able to supply. As soon as the stomach is then called upon to supply more blood-making material, it goes to work on what is in the stomach and begins mixing things. If, however, there is nothing in the stomach, the craving which we call hunger is produced. It is, therefore, then not altogether the stomach which makes us hungry, but the parts of our body which actually turn the food into blood after the stomach has prepared it.

To prove this it is only necessary to say that the sensation of hunger will stop if food which is easily absorbed and, therefore, does not need the preparation which the stomach generally gives, is introduced into the system through other parts of the body, as, for instance, by injecting it into the large intestine, which is a part of the body, the food passes through after it leaves the stomach ordinarily.

What Makes Us Thirsty?

Thirst is a sensation of dryness and heat which is generally communicated to us through the tongue and throat. The sensation of thirst can be artificially produced by passing a current of air over the membranes which cover the tongue and throat, but thirst is naturally due to a shortage of water in the body. The human body requires a great deal of water to keep it in condition, and when the supply becomes low a warning is given to us by making the membranes of the tongue and throat dry.

In connection with thirst, however, as in the case of hunger, where the warning is given by the stomach, thirst will be appeased by the introduction of water, either into the blood, the stomach or the large intestine, without having touched either the tongue or throat, which proves that it is not our tongue or throat that is thirsty, but the body itself.

What Is Pain and Why Does It Hurt?

Pain is the result of an injury to some part of our bodies, or a disturbed condition--a change from the normal condition. Pain is caused by nerves in the body. The network of nerves coming in big nerves from the back bone or spinal chord branches out in all directions, and near the surface of the skin they spread out like the tiny twigs of a tree, covering every point of the body. Some parts of our bodies are more sensitive than others. That is because the nerves are then nearer the surface or else there are more nerves in that part. The heel is perhaps the least sensitive part of the body, as the nerves do not lie so near the surface there.

Pain is not a thing which you can make a picture of or describe in words. Pain is a sensation of the brain caused by a disturbance of conditions in some part of the body. If you cut your finger, you cut certain veins or arteries and also the tiny nerves in the finger. The nerves immediately let the brain know that they are injured, and the brain sets to work to have the damage repaired. But there is a congestion right where the cut is. The veins being cut, the blood which would ordinarily flow through them back to the heart, pours out into the cut and the inside of your finger is thus exposed to the oxygen of the air, and the action of the air on the exposed part helps to make the pain. It is not your finger, however, that hurts. It is the shock that your brain gets when you cut your finger that hurts.

A pain in your stomach is a pain caused by something else than a cut. If the stomach could always digest everything or any amount of stuff you put in it, you would not have a stomach pain. But sometimes you put things into your stomach through your mouth, of course, that the stomach cannot handle. Or, it may be a combination of a number of things that cause this unusual condition in your stomach. The stomach makes a special effort to get rid of this troublesome substance and generally succeeds eventually, but while the fight is going on, it pains or hurts you.

Pain is the result of a disturbance of the nerves. It is just the opposite of gladness. We sometimes are so glad we feel good all over. Pain is just the opposite. You can prove that pain is not a real thing but only a sensation. Perhaps you have had toothache. You go to the dentist and he kills the nerve or takes it out. After that you cannot have the toothache in that tooth again, because there is no nerve there to telegraph to the brain, even though the cause of the hurt still exists. You cannot feel pain unless the brain knows about the injury.

What Is the Horizon?

Of course you know what the horizon is. It is easiest to see the horizon at sea when out of sight of land. There, when you look in any direction from the ship to the place where the sea and the sky meet you see a line which, if you follow with your eye as you turn completely around, makes a perfect circle. It looks as though it marked the boundary of the earth. On land it is not easy to see as much of the horizon at one time, because of buildings and trees and hills in the woods and elsewhere, but if the land were perfectly smooth like the sea and there were no trees or buildings or hills in the way, you could see just as perfect a circle on land as on sea. This proves that the horizon is a movable circle. On land it is where the earth and sky appear to meet, and on water it is where sky and water appear to meet.

How Far Away Is the Horizon?

The actual distance of the horizon away from us depends altogether upon the height above the sea level from which we are looking as far as we can. The horizon is always as far away as we can see. At the seashore, where we are practically on a level with the water, we cannot see so far as when we are up on a bluff or hill overlooking the sea. The higher we go up straight from a given point the greater the distance we can see up to a certain point and the farther away the horizon will appear. The height of the person looking, of course, figures in this, because when you are at sea level it is only your feet really that are at sea level (if you are standing up straight) and the distance of the horizon is measured from the eye of the person looking. A boy or girl of ten would be, say, a little over four feet high, and the eyes of such a person would be about four feet above the level of the sea. At that height the horizon would be about two and a half miles away. If the eyes are six feet above sea level the distance of the horizon will be about three miles, so that practically every one sees a different horizon, that is, one that appears at a different distance. A hundred feet above the level of the sea the horizon will be more than thirteen miles away, while at 1000 feet altitude it would be 42 miles away, and if you could go a mile into the air the horizon would appear 96 miles from where you are. The higher you go the farther away the circle which apparently marks the joining of the earth and sky appears.