Why does the earth always move round the sun, and not fly off into cold space? The sun's gravitation gives the answer. The earth always tries to move away in a straight line, but the sun always pulls it back. So it continues on its journey round and round the sun.
The sun is one of the stars in the galaxy, in which there are about 100,000 million stars. It is not in the middle of the galaxy, but rather 3 near one edge.
There are millions of galaxies in the universe and so there are thousands of millions of millions of suns. Many astronomers believe that some of these suns have planets as our sun does.
Gravitation is the force which holds all the atoms of a star together. It holds the sun together and it holds the atoms of the earth together. It holds us on the earth.
Einstein produced a new law of gravitation. Its main results are the same as the results of Newton's law; but in very small and fine matters Einstein's law gives different results. One of these is that gravitation bends light a little; but according to Newton's law gravitation has very little effect on light. Einstein showed this fact by means of mathematics and not by experiment. And astronomers later proved by experiments that Einstein was right.
Notes
1. according to
2. in fact ,
3. but rather
USES OF ELECTRICITY
Electricity is the power that has made possible the engineering progress of today. Wherever we look around us, we can find this power serving us in some way.
When we use a switch and have our room instantly flooded with light, we seldom think of what is happening to make it possible. Probably the most important use of electricity in the modern home is producing light.
Do you know that the first ever man-made electric light illuminated the laboratory of the St. Petersburg physicist Vasily Petrov in 1802? He had discovered the electric arc, a form of the gas discharge. But in Petrov's experiments the arc flame lasted for only a short time.
In 1876 Pavet Yablochkov invented an arc that burned like a candle for a long time and it was called "Yabloch-kov's candle". The source of light invented by Yablochkov won world-wide recognition. But while he and several other inventors were improving the arc light, some engineers were working along entirely different lines. They sought to develop an incandescent lamp.1 It was a young Russian engineer, Alexander Lodygin, who made the first successful incandescent lamp. The famous American inventor Thomas Edison improved the lamp having used a carbon filament. But it was again Lodygin who made another important improvement in the incandescent lamp, having invented a lamp with a tungsten filament, the lamp we use today.
Another electric light we use today is the light of the luminescent lampa "cold" daylight lamp.2 Artificial daylight lamps are much cheaper than incandescent lamps and last much longer. This is the lighting of the future.
The uses of electricity in the home do not end with lighting. There are more and more electric devices helping us in our home work.
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But we should not forget that electricity is the most important source of energy in industry as well. A worker in- a modern manufacturing plant uses on the average in the machines which he operates over 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy a year. This means that he uses enough electrical energy to supply seven or eight modern homes during a year.
Automation which is one of the main factors of technical progress today is impossible without electricity.
Our life can't be imagined without telephone, telegraph and radio communications. But it is also electricity that gives them life. In recent years electricity has made a great contribution to radio communication between the spaceships and also between the astronauts and the earth.
Little could be done in modern research laboratory without the aid of electricity. Nearly all of the measuring devices used in developing nuclear power for the use of mankind are electrically operated.
Notes
1. incandescent lamp '
2. "cold" daylight lamp
SOLAR ENERGY
Our sun, although it is not the largest star in our universe, is a gigantic body. If we make a non-stop flight around it in an aeroplane at a speed of about 300 km per hour, it will require 565 days to go around it at the equator. The diameter of the sun is 1,391,000 km, that is, 19 times that of the Earth. The sun has a surface temperature of about 6,000C.
Modern research into the atom indicated that under certain conditions matter itself may be transformed into energy. It is now thought that the source of the sun's energy results from nuclear fissions and is practically unlimited.
The earth's surface receives energy from the sun in enormous quantities. But only half of the energy that strikes our atmosphere ever reaches the earth's surface, while the rest is reflected and absorbedly the air.
What an done with this vast amount of power? Let us briefly review how man utilises the sun's energy.
Man has used and is still using solar energy through photosynthesis as one of his sources of heat and power Another way to use solar energy is in the solar machines, still another is he use of solar neat for cooking and house heating. The future will undoubtedly bring us a lot of new applications of solar energy.
COMMENTARY
non-stop flight
it is now thought '
ATOMIC ENERGY.
We live in the world, of atoms which make up everything around, us, All things surrounding us on the earth, the moon, the sun, and. all other stars are made of atoms. You cannot see them even with a powerful microscope, for every atom is too small. But scientists have not only explained the structure of the atom, "but have also found ways of splitting atomic nucleus. Tremendous energy is released when the atomic nucleus is split This energy is millions of times greater than that produced by ordinary chemical reactions. The amount of energy which may be released when the nucleus of one atom is split is very small, but man has learned to split the nuclei of billions of atoms and release great amounts of energy.
Atomic nuclei are bound to each other differently. Some of them are more tightly bound together than others. Some kinds of atomic nuclei can split more readily than others. And some of them explode suddenly by themselves.Such atoms are called radioactive.When radioactive atoms are split in nature some of the energy which was bound in their nuclei is released in the form of heat and radiation This energy is known as atomic energy.
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The discoveries of physicists in the field of atomic, energy have a very great effect on science and the life of mankind
PEACEFUL ATOM
Achievements in studying structure have opened up new, practically unlimited possibilities to humanity for further mastering nature's forces. The discovery of atomic energy provides as profound effect for the benefit of civilization as the discovery of fire and electricity.
After having recovered from the shock of unimaginable horror of the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima people asked scientists how soon they would be able to apply the immense power of fusioned nucleus to peaceful purposes. Many problems to be solved the one of braking the released neutrons efficiently so that the chain could be. The classical solution of this question is conducting the heat generated by the fission process out of the reactor, making it boil water and forcing the resulting steam to drive turbines which, in their turn drive electric generators It is a way which well although it is still rather expensive.
It is to be noted that the first power station fed by atomic fuels which was also the worlds first atomic power station working in Obninsk near Moscow, in 1954. Its capacity was 5 000 kilowatts. Thirty7 years later in the Soviet Union there were already 13 atomic power station with the total capacity of over 21 million kilowatts, At the same time with large atomic station smaller mobile electricity producing units have been created based on the discovery of radioactive sources - isotopes, Mobile nuclear installations may be carried by rail and then by transporters to the out-of-the-way regions even in areas having no roads. Such a station according to estimates can operate without being recharged for two years. Today scientists are looking for new more efficient nuclear processes of producing energy. But it was only lately that physicists understood that the process of producing tremendous energy by start, our Sun, was the very process they were looking for - Now we that this thermonuclear process is called fusion and it place at fantastically high temperatures It can be done only by imitating on the Earth the process that makes the Sun shine. There are many difficult problems to overcome before thermonuclear power station based on this process can a reality, but the of fuel supply is the of the of the are practically an inexhaustible source of deuterium which plays the decisive part in the fusion process and its extraction from sea water is neither complicated nor expensive, In short, peaceful of atomic energy are vast - but we must stop using it on of annihilation.
THE TELEGRAPH
Text:
More than one hundred years we are using the telegraph. By means of it we can easily send a friendly message or some business information to a person in the next town or even clear across the continent in a few seconds. Most of the news printed in our newspapers is sent by telegraph; we can read of happenings in distant places almost as soon as those happenings have taken place. Our weather reports are sent by wire. In this way farmers and sailors and anyone interested in the kind of weather may learn when a severe storm or a cold wave is approaching.
At first people would not believe that messages could possibly come ova" a wire. They waited until the mails brought the same news before they would believe it. Even then they had queer ideas about the telegraph. "How large a bundle can be sent over the wires?" one man inquired. A woman who saw a telegraph pole planted in her yard complained, "Now I suppose I can't punish my children any more without the whole world knowing about it." She did not know that it was necessary to have operators to send or receive messages.
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At first very few messages were sent. After a while people became convinced that the telegraph could be depended upon; so the wires were gradually extended until today there is a regular network of telegraph wires over the country.
Should you like to know something of the man who invented this wonderful instrument? His name was Samuel Morse. He had studied both painting and sculpture and expected to earn his living as an artist. But as there was little or no demand for this kind of work he had plenty of time for other things.
He and his brother spent many of their evenings planning an improved force pump for fire engines; but the pump was not a success. Morse then began tramping from town to town, painting portraits for a living for himself and his three children.
All the time, however, he was thinking of other inventions. One evening he was talking with a group of men about some recent experiments with electricity.
"Do these experiments mean," one man asked, "that an electric current passes through any length of wire in less than a second?"
"Yes," replied another man, "it passes almost instantly over any length of wire."
"If electricity can be sent ten miles without stopping, I can make it go around the globe," said Morse. "I believe that messages could be sent by electricity."
That very night Morse began working on his invention. For twelve years he planned and worked on it. During all these years he had to earn money for the support of his three motherless children; so he had to give much time to his painting, too. But he did not give up.
There was no such thing as telegraph wire in those days. The ladies wore a kind of high bonnet, called a "skyscraper," the front of which was stiffened with wire. Morse found that this wire made excellent telegraph wire; so he bought up all the bonnet wire on the market.
He also had to invent an alphabet to use in sending telegrams. It consisted of dots, dashes. and spaces. For instance, a dot, represents the letter "e"; a dash, the letter "t"
Finding the right kind of wire for his telegraph and inventing an alphabet for it were not the hardest part of Morse's work. Many times when he thought that his invention was about completed, something about it did not work out right. He found it difficult, too, to persuade people to lend him money to carry on his work. Often he had to live for days upon crackers and tea because he could not afford other food.
But at last, after having all these trials and discouragements. Morse was successful. Sitting at the instrument that he had himself placed for trial. Morse sent the following message which a friend had chosen: "What hath God wrought!" Forty miles away the message was instantly received; the telegraph was successful! Morse had given the world a wonderful gift.
MODERN ELECTRONICS
I. Many scientists believe at present that mankind has entered the era of a new technological revolution which was brought about by the advent of cybernetics, whose ideas and methods found their way into virtually all branches of science and engineering, all the way from biology and medicine to economy and industrial management.
2 Electronics is one of the main sciences, which forms the technological basis for using these new methods* Electronics studies the problems connected with the application of instruments and devices, the action of which is based on the utilisation of various phenomena that result from the, movement of electrons through vacuum, gases and solid bodies
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3 Electronics surrounds us everywhere Television, tape-recording, radio-receiving - electronics is at the heart of them all. Extremely complicated electronic systems control the work of huge plants, enterprises and power stations. Electronic computers are widely used in scientific research and industrial designing. Huge radio-telescopes equipped with sensitive instruments and powerful amplifiers enable man to gain, an insight into a remotest comers of apace, discover new phenomena of nature.
4. It was in 1957 that the first man-made satellite was launched in our country, and now man has already set his foot on the Moon, sends probes to distant planets and orbits the earth in space-ships. Radio-electronics systems ensure reliable communication with space probes at distances amounting to scores of millions of kilometres. Hundreds of electronic devices perform various tasks on board every satellite and spaceship. It may be said that in near future electronics will surely make great stride ( ) and help the humanity gain new victories in science and engineering.
COSMONAUTICS
The word cosmonautics comes from the Greek word "cosmos" meaning "universe" and "nautike""navigation" ("seafaring"). But cosmonautics means not only flights into space. It includes various branches of science and technology. Without them space flights would be impossible.
Tsiolkovsky was a pioneer of the science cosmonautics. In his works he studied many problems which served as basis for the development of cosmic flight theory. The 4th of October 1957 is the birthday of space era. It was the day when powerful rockets launched the first sputnik into orbit around the earth. It orbited our planet like a tiny moon. Since then a great number of sputniks flew into space. They sent back important information about the universe. On the 12th of April 1961 the first manned flight took place. The first.cosmonaut Y. Gagarin was a Soviet citizen.
Following this, a great number of artificial satellites as well as =other space vehicles travelled into space. They carried instruments to collect interesting information about the universe. In space cosmonauts carry out various observations and experiments to solve the many space travel problems. Their discoveries help increase our knowledge of the Moon, Venus and other terrestrial planets as well as the planets-giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and others. These discoveries include many interesting facts about meteors, the atmosphere, the earth's magnetic arid electrical fields, the conditions of life in space and many others.
The time will come when scientists from the Moon and orbital stations will send robots (automatic instruments) to replace men in distant and dangerous travels to far-off planets and stars.
since then
solve the problems
following this
terrestrial planets
space vehicles
carry out
RADIO-ELECTRONICS TODAY
Much of our successes in the field of space research is due to radio and electronics. This is why on May 7, Radio Day, we honour the memory of A. Popov, the great Russian scientist who was the first in the world to invent radio as a means of wireless communication. Today, radio or more widely electronics, a very young and a very promising science, has become a powerful tool of progress.
It will give us a deeper knowledge of the properties of outer space. Radio has already helped man to learn more about the sun's atmosphere, the atmosphere of many planets, it enabled our cosmonauts to locate their position in space, and there is radio communication not only between the spaceships and their home bases, but also between the spaceships themselves.
1 Radio is not the only carrier of information in space. There are infra-red and ultra-violet radiation, X- and gamma-rays, elementary particles and fields, etc. The time is not so far off when these and other carriers will be used for space communication a great advance comparable with Alexander Popov's achievement in putting radio waves at the service of mankind, when he built the first radio receiver.
There are many more uses for electronics besides communications. A good deal of progress made in space would not have been possible without electronic computers making thousands upon thousands of operations a second. They solve logical problems, supply
information on many aspects of science and technology, translate from one language into another, automatically control industrial processes, etc. In medicine electronic devices help to diagnose the disease and find the best treatment.
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COMMENTARY
is due to radio ()
a good deal of progress made in ,
thousands upon thousands
ASTRONOMY AND RADIO
The science of radio astronomy has become the most efficient of all methods of probing the universe. It was the intense development of radio and radar techniques that stimulated the development of radio astronomy and gave astronomy a new and enormously powerful tool for the exploration of space.
The huge parabolic dishes of giant radio telescopes listening to the voices of distant stars majestically dominate the landscape for many kilometres around.
Radio telescope is an instrument so penetrating that it can receive radio waves from distances of thousands of millions of light years away. With ordinary telescopes it is possible to work only when the sky is not covered with clouds, whereas clouds are no obstacle to radio telescopes.
Radio telescopes are supplied with a precise control system. It takes 15-20 minutes to make a full rotation of the huge reflector.
With the help of a young scienceradio astronomy the astronomers have made great achievements which were undreamt of1 only a few decades ago.
Radio telescope can measure the temperature of planets, can probe the structure of the planets and provides the astronomers with the data which could not have been received without this wonderful device. In order to achieve better results, highly sensitive reception devices were made for radio telescopes.
Soviet astronomers use radio waves to study celestial bodies on behalf of science,2 peace and progress, for the benefit of mankind. Astronomers hope that radio waves will continue helping them to reveal the mysteries of the universe.
Notes:
Which were undreamt of
On behalf of science
THE FUTURE OF CYBERNETICS
The new science dealing with the problems of maximum control and governing of processes, known as cybernetics, occupies a leading place among the sciences of the future. The objective of this new science of controlling complicated natural processes and phenomena of society and industry is to increase the efficiency of human labour.
The field of research which has been attracting man's resources and effort for many centuries is our environment of living nature. However, progress in biology and medicine has been comparatively slow for developments in living organisms are extremely complicated.-
Advances in instruments construction, the theory of information, mathematical logics, electronics and cybernetics open up great prospects of accelerating the pace of research in biology and medicine.
The part played by cybernetics in increasing the efficiency of those engaged in planning, finance, supply and other spheres of economic activity will also grow. This field of human endeavour is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly expanding and well planned socialist economy, in particular. We are facing the task of continuous planning and ensuring a well balanced development of all the branches of the national economy.
At present there are thousands of electronic computers in operation throughout the world.
The existence of hundreds of computing centres equipped with learning and rapid acting machines, and connected by automatic communication lines with industry, supply centres, transport and organs of finance will fundamentally change national economic management. Controlled by cybernetics, industrial enterprises will operate at their most efficient peak. This, in its turn, will effect tremendous economy of time and resources.
The comparatively simple methods of automation used for some technologies will become more and more complicated. As production techniques become more efficient, they can be more effectively controlled, with the aim of raising the quality and the quantity of manufactured goods and improving working conditions.
Despite the numerous results of research into cybernetics, opening up breath-taking prospects for science, industry and economics generally, it is still hard to predict the achievements this wonderful science may make in the near future, since the pace of technical progress is exceptionally great and continually increasing.
The advance in the technical progress is the outcome, primarily of the talent, inventiveness and the effort of man this great re-maker and master of nature.
COMMENTARY
this field of human endeavor
in its turn
breath-taking
OUR SOLAR FAMILY
Our solar family consists of the sun, nine known planets and their satellites, asteroids, comets and meteors.
The most important body in this great family is the sun. There are few- kinds of energy on the earth that are not the gift of the sun.
The sun's mass is 750 times that of all the planets put together. Like all the other bodies in the universe, it is composed of the same sort of materials, we find on the earth. Of all the elements or building blocks of nature which we have discovered, some 68 have been found on the sun, and none have been found in the sun which are not now known on earth.
Our sun has a surface temperature of about 6,000C. A star as hot as the sun must radiate an enormous amount of heat. Every square metre of the sun's surface radiates energy equal to 84,000 horse power. Yet, the total amount the earth receives is only a very small fraction of it. Here is a possible source of energy for the future. The age of the earth is about two billions of years. The sun must have been in existence long before the earth was formed. During all that time the sun has been radiating heat continuously, and still continues to do so. To produce this great amount of heat would require the hourly burning over its entire surface of a layer of high-grade anthracite coal sixteen feet thick. If the heat of the sun were produced by burning coal, it would require an inexhaustible supply to furnish such intense heat over this great period of time.
Mars aroused more metres than any of the other planets. When nearest the earth, as it was in September 1956, it is an object of great beauty.
There are many ways in which this planet is similar to the earth. It rotates on an axis in about the same time as does the earth. It has seasons similar to the seasons on the earth, except that they are nearly twice as long.
Small bodies located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are called asteroids.
Of these bodies, called "planetoids" or miniature planets, the largest is Ceres 780 kilometres in diameter. Their origin is, as. yet, not fully known. It is thought that they represent small masses of matter that were not able to combine into larger ones during the genesis, of the solar family.
COMMENTARY
the sun must have been in existence , ,
are of greatest interest to man
twice as long
LIFE IN SPACE
Ever since human science has enabled us to, we have searched for signs of life in our solar system and beyond.
This is one version of a classic science fiction story. It illustrates several aspects of the question that has haunted our civilisation since we began to understand our universe in terms of since, rather than religion: Is there intelligent life in the universe? If so, will we ever find it?
The universe is vast, so vast we can't really imagine it. There are billions of suns out there, surrounded by billions of planets. There may even be other universes, with ever more stars and planets.
Ever since human science has enabled us to, we have searched for signs of life in our solar system and beyond.
We send out messages in various different formats. Using signs and symbols, sounds and ever radio waves, we send messages that say, more or less, "Here we are! Drop by and see us. We can think! And we're friendly".
Why do scientists do this? Do they really believe they will find something? Actually, most scientific theory suggests that the universe should be full of life. The atoms on Earth are constructed in the same way as atoms in a galaxy on the other side of the universe. They obey the same physical laws.
Most astronomers believe that our sun is a very average kind of star, and that stars similar to it occur billions of times in the universe.
Theory suggests that life has evolved again and again throughout the history of the universe. But there is no proof.
One estimate is that intelligent life has probably appeared in one out of every three million solar systems.
We know that one day, out sun will use up all of the fuel in its core. Its great mass will start to shrink.
Without our sun, life on Earth will die. But that's still five to tern billions years away. There should be no other limitation on how long life can exist.
THE MORNING STAR (VENUS)
Venus is our closest neighbour1 among other planets of the solar system. It is also one of our most interesting cosmic neighbours. There is hardly a person2 who hasn't observed the brilliance of Venus at daybreak or at sunset. Since time immemorial3 this planet has been known as the Morning Star.
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun, and is separated from it by approximately 108 million kilometres (two-thirds the distance from the Earth to the Sun). This is why4 we always observe Venus in the sky close to the Sun and can watch it in the evening at sunset or in the morning before sunrise against the clear background of the dawn.
