Abstract
VI. WE have now to consider some of the results of these Movements of the Earth—first round its own axis, its rotation; then round the sun, its revolution—which we have been considering, results to which of course a general interest attaches, and which there will be no difficulty in showing are of very great importance to us, Occasion was taken to point out that the different appearance presented by the sun and the stars wras simply due to the fact that the sun was very near to us whilst the stars were very distant, the one, a sun which happens to be near to us, the others, also suns, but happening to be very far removed from us. Now suppose we have a globe in which we have an electric light, to represent the sun, and a little globe to represent the earth, then it will be obvious that that part of the earth which is turned towards the lamp will be bathed in light, while that half which is turned from it will be in darkness, being, so to speak, only under the light of the distant stars. This shows us the reason for that great difference which we call day and night, and we can quite understand how it is that we get the apparent rise of the sun which occurs when the part of the globe on which we live is carried from the darkness into the light, and sunset which of course occurs when the globe is being carried by its rotation from the light into the darkness. This phenomenon of day and night is thus one of the most obvious results of the rotatory movement of the earth, and one which might have been dismissed in two words had we so chosen, but we will dwell upon it for a few moments, because this fundamental difference between day and night furnishes us with a reason why we should discard that sidereal time to which up to the present reference has alone been made.
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LOCKYER, J. The Movements of the Earth 1 . Nature 30, 480–483 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030480a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030480a0