We must first consider the state in which the supposed molecules exist
in the air, before making progress.
The present science teaches that the diameter of the supposed molecules
of the air is about 1/250000000 of an inch (Tait); that the distance
between the molecules is about 8/100000 of an inch; that the velocity of
the molecules is about 1,512 feet a second at 0 deg.C., in its free path;
that the number of molecules in a cubic inch at 0 deg.C. is
3,505,519,800,000,000,000 or 35 followed by 17 ciphers (35)^{17}; and
that the number of collisions per second that the molecules make is,
according to Boltzmann, for hydrogen, 17,700,000,000, that is to say, a
hydrogen molecule in one second has its course wholly changed over
seventeen billion times. Assuming seventeen billion or million to be
right for the supposed air molecules, we have a very interesting problem
to consider.
The wave theory of sound requires, if we expect to hear sound by means of
a C^{3} fork of 256 vibrations, that the molecules of the air composing
the sound wave must not be interfered with in such a way as to prevent
them from traveling a distance of at least 1/50 to 1/1000000 of an inch
forward and back in the 1/256 of a second. The problem we have to explain
is, how a molecule traveling at the rate of 1,512 feet a second through a
mean path of 8/100000 of an inch, and colliding seventeen billion or
million times a second, can, by the vibration of the C^{3} fork, be made
to vibrate so as to have a pendulous motion for 1/256 of a second and
vibrate through a distance of 1/50 to the 1/1000000 of an inch without
being changed or mar its harmonic motion.
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