rce in the universe, then it naturally follows that the two
bodies, between which the attractive force is greater, will be closer
together than the two bodies between which the attractive force is less.

Thus the two bodies, whose product of their masses is represented by
300, will, according to the Law of Gravitation, be closer together than
the two bodies, the product of whose masses is represented by only 200.
Unless this is so, we should have a violation of the Law of Gravitation,
and it would at once cease to be a law.

Let us therefore apply the centripetal force, or Gravitation Attraction,
to the solar system, and see how it works out. The law strictly defined
is given in Art. 18, from which we learn that the attractive force
between two bodies is as the product of their masses. Now what are the
masses of some of the bodies in the solar system?

We find that the sun, with its diameter of 865,000 miles, is about
324,000 times greater in mass than our earth, so that it would take
about 324,000 bodies of the size and density of our earth to equal a
body of the size and density of the sun. It has been calculated,
however, by Von Asten, from observations made on comets by the planet
Mercury, that the mass of Mercury is about 1/24 of the mass of the
Earth. Therefore the mass of the sun must exceed the mass of Mercury
324,000 x 24 = 7,776,000; the exact relation according to Von Asten is
7,636,440. Again, the planet Jupiter, with its diameter of 85,000 miles
and its density of 1.38, is only 1/1048 part of the mass of the sun, so
that it would take about 1048 Jupiters to equal the mass of the sun,
therefore Jupiter must weigh about 7400 times the mass of Mercury.

If the mass of Mercury, therefore, be represented by 1, the mass of the
Earth would be represented by 24, the mass of Jupiter by 7400, and the
mass of the sun by 7,636,400. So that the attractive forces between the
planets as regards their masses only will be represented numerically as
follows--

Sun and Mercury 7,636,400 x 1 = 7,636,400.

Sun and Earth 7,636,400 x 24 = 190,008,000.

Sun and Jupiter 7,636,400 x 7,400 = 56,435,360,000.

Thus we see that the attractive force between the sun and the earth
exceeds 24 times the attractive force between the sun and Mercury, while
the attractive force of gravity between the sun and Jupiter is 7400
times greater than the attractive force between the sun and Mercury,
r