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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
34
And
now
how
large
do
you
think
they
turn
out
to
be?
so
very,
very
tiny
that
about
fifty
thousand
waves
are
contained
in
a
single
inch
of
space!
I
have
drawn
on
the
board
the
length
of
an
inch,
and
now
I
will
measure
the
same
space
in
the
air
between
my
finger
and
thumb.
Within
this
space
at
this
moment
there
are
fifty
thousand
tiny
waves
moving
up
and
down.
I
promised
you
we
would
find
in
science
things
as
wonderful
as
in
fairy
tales.
Are
not
these
tiny
invisible
messengers
coming
incessantly
from
the
sun
as
wonderful
as
any
fairies?
and
still
more
so
when,
as
we
shall
see
presently,
they
are
doing
nearly
all
the
work
of
our
world.
We
must
next
try
to
realize
how
fast
these
waves
travel.
You
will
remember
that
an
express
train
would
take
171
years
to
reach
us
from
the
sun;
and
even
a
cannon-ball
would
take
from
ten
to
thirteen
years
to
come
that
distance.
Well,
these
tiny
waves
take
only
seven
minutes
and
a
half
to
come
the
whole
91
millions
of
miles.
The
waves
which
are
hitting
your
eye
at
this
moment
are
caused
by
a
movement
which
began
at
the
sun
only
7
1/2
minutes
ago.
And
remember,
this
movement
is
going
on
incessantly,
and
these
waves
are
always
following
one
after
the
other
so
rapidly
that
they
keep
up
a
perpetual
cannonade
upon
the
pupil
of
your
eye.
So
fast
do
they
come
that
about
608
billion
waves
enter
your
eye
in
one
single
second.*
I
do
not
ask
you
to
remember
these
figures;
I
only
ask
you
to
try
and
picture
to
yourselves
these
infinitely
tiny
and
active
invisible
messengers
from
the
sun,
and
to
acknowledge
that
light
is
a
fairy
thing.
(*Light
travels
at
the
rate
of
190,000
miles,
or
12,165,120,000
inches
in
a
second.
Taking
the
average
number
of
wave-lengths
in
an
inch
at
50,000,
then
12,165,120,000
X
50,000
=
608,256,000,000,000.)
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