First Lessons on Natural Philosophy, for Children Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...driven into them. What is done after this? Water is poured upon these wedges, and the pores or capillary tubes in them fill with water. What follows? The wedges begin to swell, and as they pour water upon them, they swell larger and larger, till they burst the rock. It is in this way that grindstones are broken off. Js capillary attraction useful in any oiher ways than those you have mentioned? It causes the moisture, that is low down in the ground, to rise up through the loose earth, to the roots of plants and trees. Of what other use is it to them 1 It causes the sap to ascend in trees, and to form beautiful leaves, and flowers, and fruit. Of what use is capillary attraction to our bodies? It assists in the circulation of the blood in our bodies. When sugar, or salt, is dissolved in a liquid, what becomes of it? It is divided into such very small particles that we can not see them. How do you knaiv that the sugar is in the water, if you can not see it? Because the water is sweet after the sugar is put in, and it was not sweet before. Does the water rise higher in the tumbler after the sugar is dissolved tlian it did before? It does not. What does this prove? That there are exceedingly small spaces between the particles of water; and the particles of sugar fill up these spaces, so that the water does not rise to make room for the sugar. What will happen when these spaces are full, if you put in more sugar? The sugar will sink, and the water will rise in the tumbler. When water has dissolved as much sugar as it can, what do we say of it? We say the water is saturated with sugar. If you should fill a tumbler full of marbles, could you pour sand in it without taking out the marbles? I could. Where would the sand go? Into the spaces between the marbles. What i...