and at each reflection an electromagnetic wave is emitted and it is the perception of these waves which makes the body appear to us incandescent.
The motion of the electrons is almost tangible in a Crookes tube. There a veritable bombardment takes place of electrons issuing from the cathode. These cathode rays violently strike the anticathode and are there in part reflected, thus giving birth to an electromagnetic agitation which many physicists identify with the Röntgen rays.
In closing, it remains for us to examine the relations of the new mechanics to astronomy.
If the notion of constant mass of a body vanishes, what will become of Newton’s law? It will hold good only for bodies at rest. Moreover it will be necessary to take into account the fact that attraction is not instantaneous. It may therefore well be asked whether the new mechanics will not result in complicating astronomy without obtaining an approximation superior to that given by the classic celestial mechanics. Lorentz has taken up the question. Starting from Newton’s law, which he assumes to be true for two electrified bodies at rest, he calculates the electrodynamic action of the currents engendered by these bodies in motion. He thus obtains a new law of attraction containing the velocities of the two bodies as parameters.
Before examining how this law explains astronomic phenomena, we remark again that the acceleration of the heavenly bodies has as consequence an electromagnetic radiation, therefore a dissipation of energy making itself felt in return by a deadening of their velocity. Therefore, in the long run, the planets will end by falling into the sun. But this prospect can hardly frighten us, since the catastrophe can not happen for some millions of milliards of centuries.
Returning now to the law of attraction, we easily see
