actly equals the repulsion created by
the motion; more accurately, the speed created by the repulsion.
The result of the two forces working together at exact balance is
a circle. An ellipse is a circle bent a little, and the ellipse
in which the earth actually moves comes from varying attraction
and repulsion. Kepler's second law covers that.
"If the orbital speed of the earth were a mile less per hour, or
even a foot less, then the earth would wind up around the sun as
a dog gets wound up with his chain around a tree. If this speed
were a mile more per hour, then the earth would wind out, each
year getting farther and farther away, until finally it would be
lost. When the speed is exactly proportional to the pull--that
is, when it is as 1.6 is to 2,--the result is a circular orbit,
the eccentricity of which is caused by certain fluctuations in
the attraction and repulsion.
"Suppose a planet were to be placed so that it would have a time
of two years. Its distance from the sun would be 1.6 that of the
earth. Why? Because to get the time doubled we would have to
take the square root of 4; and to get the distance the cube root
of the same number, 4. If you wish to be very exact the cube
root is 1.5889, but 1.6 is near enough for all ordinary work.
"If you wanted to find out the distance of a planet revolving in
six months you would divide the earth's distance by 1.6.
"In proportion you get any time or distance you may desire with
absolute accuracy. The distance of any planet from the sun gives
its time, or its time gives its distance--when that of any of
the others is known. This law applies throughout the universe;
in everything and everywhere. It is not a law of orbital
revolution alone, but a law of all motion.
"Our moon has a time of 29 days and a speed of about 50,000 miles
per day. If the speed were greater it would leave us, if less it
would wind up, falling to the earth in the form of a spiral.
"At what distance would it have to be to have a time of fourteen
days? Divide 240,000 miles by 1.6. A seven-day moon, would be
1.6 that distance. And the exact distance for a one-day moon,
for a moon that would always be in the same place in the heavens,
moving as the earth revolved on its axis, would be about 24,998
miles.
"This gives us the line of 24-hour axial rotation, the true
surface of the earth, and the sheer-line of prakritic matter.
Beyond that line is the ether; within that line
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