168. A ray of light is a continued stream of these particles, flowing from any visible body in straight lines. That they move in straight, and not in crooked lines, unless they be refracted, is evident from bodies not being visible if we endeavour to look at them through the bore of a bended pipe; and from their ceasing to be seen by the interposition of other bodies, as the fixed Stars by the interposition of the Moon and Planets, and the Sun wholly or in part by the interposition of the Moon, Mercury, or Venus. And that these rays do not interfere, or jostle one another out of their ways, in flowing from different bodies all around, is plain from the following Experiment. Make a little hole in a thin plate of metal, and set the plate upright on a table, facing a row of lighted candles standing by one another; then place a sheet of paper or pasteboard at a little distance from the other side of the plate, and the rays of all the candles, flowing through the hole, will form as many specks of light on the paper as there are candles before the plate, each speck as distinct and large, as if there were only one candle to cast one speck; which shews that the rays are no hinderance to each other in their motions, although they all cross in the hole.
Fig. XI.
In what proportion light and heat decrease at any given
distance from the Sun.
[PLATE II].
169. Light, and therefore heat so far as it depends on the Sun’s rays (§ [85], towards the end) decreases in proportion to the squares of the distances of the Planets from the Sun. This is easily demonstrated by a Figure which, together with it’s description, I have taken from Dr. Smith’s Optics[[37]]. Let the light which flows from a point A, and passes through a square hole B, be received upon a plane C, parallel to the plane of the hole; or, if you please, let the figure C be the shadow of the plane B; and when the distance C is double of B, the length and breadth of the shadow C will be each double of the length and breadth of the plane B; and treble when AD is treble of AB; and so on: which may be easily examined by the light of a candle placed at A. Therefore the surface of the shadow C, at the distance AC double of AB, is divisible into four squares, and at a treble distance, into nine squares, severally equal to the square B, as represented in the Figure. The light then which falls upon the plane B, being suffered to pass to double that distance, will be uniformly spread over four times the space, and consequently will be four times thinner in every part of that space, and at a treble distance it will be nine times thinner, and at a quadruple distance sixteen times thinner, than it was at first; and so on, according to the increase of the square surfaces B, C, D, E, built upon the distances AB, AC, AD, AE. Consequently, the quantities of this rarefied light received upon a surface of any given size and shape whatever, removed successively to these several distances, will be but one quarter, one ninth, one sixteenth of the whole quantity received by it at the first distance AB. Or in general words, the densities and quantities of light, received upon any given plane, are diminished in the same proportion as the squares of the distances of that plane, from the luminous body, are increased: and on the contrary, are increased in the same proportion as these squares are diminished.
Why the Planets appear dimmer when viewed thro’ telescopes than by the bare eye.
170. The more a telescope magnifies the disks of the Moon and Planets, they appear so much dimmer than to the bare eye; because the telescope cannot magnify the quantity of light, as it does the surface; and, by spreading the same quantity of light over a surface so much larger than the naked eye beheld, just so much dimmer must it appear when viewed by a telescope than by the bare eye.
Fig. VIII.
Refraction of the rays of light.
171. When a ray of light passes out of one medium[[38]] into another, it is refracted, or turned out of it’s first course, more or less, as it falls more or less obliquely on the refracting surface which divides the two mediums. This may be proved by several experiments; of which we shall only give three for example’s sake. 1. In a bason FGH put a piece of money as DB, and then retire from it as to A, till the edge of the bason at E just hides the money from your sight: then, keeping your head steady, let another person fill the bason gently with water. As he fills it, you will see more and more of the piece DB; which will be all in view when the bason is full, and appear as if lifted up to C. For, the ray AEB, which was straight whilst the bason was empty, is now bent at the surface of the water in E, and turned out of it’s rectilineal course into the direction ED. Or, in other words, the ray DEK, that proceeded in a straight line from the edge D whilst the bason was empty, and went above the eye at A, is now bent at E; and instead of going on in the rectilineal direction DEK, goes in the angled direction DEA, and by entering the eye at A renders the object DB visible. Or, 2dly, place the bason where the Sun shines obliquely, and observe where the shadow of the rim E falls on the bottom, as at B: then fill it with water, and the shadow will fall at D; which proves, that the rays of light, falling obliquely on the surface of the water, are refracted, or bent downwards into it.
172. The less obliquely the rays of light fall upon the surface of any medium, the less they are refracted; and if they fall perpendicularly thereon, they are not refracted at all. For, in the last experiment, the higher the Sun rises, the less will be the difference between the places where the edge of the shadow falls, in the empty and full bason. And, 3dly, if a stick be laid over the bason, and the Sun’s rays be reflected perpendicularly into it from a looking-glass, the shadow of the stick will fall upon the same place of the bottom, whether the bason be full or empty.
173. The denser that any medium is, the more is light refracted in passing through it.
The Atmosphere.
The Air’s compression and rarity at different heights.