Word: sunlights
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Eratosthenes had all the information he needed. The shadow cast by the vertical pillar at Alexandria would have the same relation to a full circle that the distance from Alexandria to Syene (where sunlight was vertical) would have to the circumference of the earth. The answer: 250,000 stadia (21,913 nautical miles), which is remarkably accurate. The latest measurement of the earth's circumference around the poles: 21,580 nautical miles...
...albedo (brightness) of the earth depends on the amount of sunlight that it reflects, and this figure cannot be determined accurately by looking up from the surface. Even rockets shot above the atmosphere get too limited a view, and the dry southwestern part of the U.S., where most rockets have been fired, is certainly not typical...
...best way to estimate the earth's overall albedo is to measure the brightness of "earthlight" on sunless parts of the moon, allowing for the earth's size and distance, and how much of its disk is in sunlight. Figured this way, the earth's albedo is about .40, which means that it reflects four-tenths of the sunlight that falls on it. It is dimmer than cloud-covered Venus (.64) but much brighter than the naked, rocky moon (.073). The brightness varies a good deal with the season, probably because of changes in the amount...
...handsome new central court, one of the most ingenious exhibition rooms ever devised. To keep the light at ideal brilliance, the 76-ft.-by-54-ft. skylight ceiling has a photoelectric device which automatically adjusts louvers if the sun is too bright, turns on cold cathode light tubes as sunlight fades...
...picnic instead. He drinks buttermilk while she drinks vino, shyly confesses that she is the first girl he ever took out. And suddenly, with a luminous sweetness rarely seen on the screen, they are in love, and love transforms them. His sore soul heals like a wound in sunlight, and her shut face bursts open like a merry parasol...