Bric-a-brac from "Bouvard and Pecuchet": Astronomy

   Pecuchet went on:
   "The swiftness of light is eighty thousand leagues a second; one ray of the Milky Way takes six centuries to reach us; so that a star at the moment we observe it may have disappeared. Several are intermittent;  others never come back; and they change positions. Every one of them is in motion; every one of them is passing on."
   "However, the sun is motionless."
   "It was believed to be so formerly. But to-day men of science declare that it rushes towards the constellation of Hercules!"


*



[From Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the 18th Century
by Jonathan Shectman]

Comments

Anonymous said…
Christopher Hutchens is the British Norman Mailer sans the ability for compelling fiction.For every ten cocktails consumed, Hutchens has written one essay. The latter currently total in the thousands.
In 2006, he reviewed "Bouvard & Pecuchet" >>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22hitchens.html?pagewanted=all
November 23, 2011 at 4:56 AM
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