Bode
JOHANN ELERT, a German astronomer, born in Hamburg, Jan. 19, BODLE 1747; became astronomer of the academy in Berlin, in 1772, and, in 1786, director of the observatory there. He published numerous astronomical works, including "Sternkunde" (3d ed., 1808), and "Ura- nographia" (2d ed., 1818), and founded nographia" (2d (2d ed., 1818), and founded the "Astronomische Jahrbücher." He died Nov. 23, 1826. The arithmetical rela- tion subsisting between the distances of the planets from the sun, called after him Bode's law, may be thus stated:
Write, in the first instance, a row of fours, and under these place a geometrical series beginning with 3, and increasing by the ratio of 2, putting the 3 under the second 4; and by addition we have the series 4, 7, 10, etc., which gives nearly the relative distances of the planets from the sun. 4 ets from the sun. 4 4 4 6 12 24 4 48 4 4 4 96 192 384 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388 4 3 Thus, if 10 be taken as the distance of 7 10 16 the earth from the sun, 4 will give that of Mercury, 7 that of Venus, and so forth. The actual relative distances are as follows, making 10 the distance of the earth:
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Asteroids Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune 3.9 7.2 10 15.2 37.4 52.9 95.4 192 300 Close as is the correspondence between 7.2 10 sical reason has been given to account for it, although there is little room for doubt that such exists. Bode's law is, therefore, in the present state of science, empirical. Kepler was the first to perdoubt that such exists. Bode's law is, that a planet might be found between Mars and Jupiter, to fill up the gap that existed at the time in the series. The dis- Mars and Jupiter, to fill up the gap that correctness of this prediction. existed at the time in the series. The disrent in Scotland, of the value of two pennies Scotch, or the sixth part of an English penny. BODLEIAN, or