warmth we experience on the earth is derived from the sun.[1]
In order to understand the immense significance of this conclusion we must know what is meant by the whole heat or warmth; as unless we know this we cannot define what half or any other proportion of sun-heat really means. Now I feel pretty sure that nine out of ten of the average educated public would answer the following question incorrectly: The mean temperature of the southern half of England is about 48° F. Supposing the earth received only half the sun-heat it now receives, what would then be the probable mean temperature of the South of England? The majority would, I think, answer at once—About 24° F. Nearly as many would perhaps say—48° F. is 16° above the freezing point; therefore half the heat received would bring us down to 8° above the freezing point, or 40° F. Very few, I think, would realise that our share of half the amount of sun-heat received by the earth would probably result in reducing our mean temperature to about 100° F. below the freezing point, and perhaps even lower. This is about the very lowest temperature yet experienced on the earth's surface. To understand
- ↑ Professor J.H. Poynting, in his lecture to the British Association at Cambridge in 1904, says: "The surface of the earth receives, we know, an amount of heat from the inside almost infinitesimal compared with that which it receives from the sun, and on the sun, therefore, we depend for our temperature."
