But I must say a few words as to the attitude of this question with regard to the entire solar system. This system consists of the sun presiding at the centre, and of the planets and their satellites in revolution around their respective primaries, and each also animated by a rotation on its axis. I shall in so far depart from the actual configuration of the system as to transform it into an ideal system, whereof the masses, the dimensions, and the velocities shall all be preserved; but that the several planes of revolution shall be all flattened into one plane, instead of being inclined at small angles as they are at present; nor will it be unreasonable for us at the same time to bring into parallelism all the axes of rotation, and to arrange that their common directions shall be perpendicular to the plane of their common orbits. For the purpose of our present research this ideal system may pass for the real system.

In its original state, whatever that state may have been, a magnificent endowment was conferred upon the system. Perhaps I may, without derogation from the dignity of my subject, speak of the endowment as partly personal and partly entailed. The system had of course different powers with regard to the disposal of the two portions; the personal estate could be squandered. It consisted entirely of what we call energy; and considering how frequently we use the expression conservation of energy, it may seem strange to say now that this portion of the endowment has been found capable of alienation, nay, further, that our system has been squandering it persistently from the first moment until now. Although the doctrine of the conservation of energy is, we have every reason to believe, a fundamental law affecting the whole universe, yet it would be wholly inaccurate to say that any particular system such as our solar system shall invariably preserve precisely the same quantity of energy without alteration. The circumstance that heat is a form of energy indeed negatives this supposition. For our system possesses energy of all the different kinds: there is energy due to the motions both of rotation and of revolution; there is energy due to the fact that the mutually attracting bodies of our system are separated by distances of enormous magnitude; and there is also energy in the form of heat; and the laws of heat permit that this form of energy shall be radiated off into space, and thus disappear entirely, in so far as our system is concerned. On the other hand, there may no doubt be some small amount of energy accruing to our system from the other systems in space, which like ours are radiating forth energy. Any gain from this source, however, is necessarily so very small in comparison to the loss to which we have referred, that it is quite impossible that the one should balance the other. Though it is undoubtedly true that the total quantity of energy in the universe is constant, yet the share of that energy belonging to any particular system such as ours declines steadily from age to age.

I may indeed remark, that the question as to what becomes of all the radiant energy which the millions of suns in the universe are daily discharging offers a problem apparently not easy to solve; but we need not discuss the matter at present, we are only going to trace out the vicissitudes of our own system; and whatever other changes that system may exhibit, the fact is certain that the total quantity of energy it contains is declining.

Of the two endowments of energy and of moment of momentum originally conferred on our system the moment of momentum is the entailed estate. No matter how the bodies may move, no matter how their actions may interfere with one another, no matter how this body is pulled one way and the other body that way, the conservation of moment of momentum is not imperilled, nor, no matter what losses of heat may be experienced by radiation, could the store of moment of momentum be affected. The only conceivable way in which the quantity of moment of momentum in the solar system could be tampered with is by the interference of some external attracting body. We know, however, that the stars are all situated at such enormous distances, that the influences they can exert in the perturbation of the solar system are absolutely insensible; they are beyond the reach of the most delicate astronomical measurements. Hence we see how the endowment of the system with moment of momentum has conferred upon that system a something which is absolutely inalienable, even to the smallest portion.

Before going any further it would be necessary for me to explain more fully than I have hitherto done the true nature of the method of estimating moment of momentum. The moment of momentum consists of two parts: there is first that due to the revolution of the bodies around the sun; there is secondly the rotation of these bodies on their axes. Let us first think simply of a single planet revolving in a circular orbit around the sun. The momentum of that planet at any moment may be regarded as the product of its mass and its velocity; then the moment of momentum of the planet in the case mentioned is found by multiplying the momentum by the radius of the path pursued. In a more general case, where the planet does not revolve in a circle, but pursued an elliptic path, the moment of momentum is to be found by multiplying the planet's velocity and its mass into the perpendicular from the sun on the direction in which the planet is moving.

These rules provide the methods for estimating all the moments of momentum, so far as the revolutions in our system are concerned. For the rotations somewhat more elaborate processes are required. Let us think of a sphere rotating round a fixed axis. Every particle of that sphere will of course describe a circle around the axis, and all these circles will lie in parallel planes. We may for our present purpose regard each atom of the body as a little planet revolving in a circular orbit, and therefore the moment of momentum of the entire sphere will be found by simply adding together the moments of momentum of all the different atoms of which the sphere is composed. To perform this addition the use of an elaborate mathematical method is required. I do not propose to enter into the matter any further, except to say that the total moment of momentum is the product of two factors—one the angular velocity with which the sphere is turning round, while the other involves the sphere's mass and dimensions.

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