PRIZE ESSAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1619, 3 October 1916, Page 4

PRIZE ESSAYS.

It will be remembered that Mr J. W. Boynton, S.M ~ some time since delivered a yery interesting lecture on “The Sun” to the upper classes of the local State school. Mr Poyn-

ton ottered prizes for the best essays on the lecture. The two fol- , lowing were awarded first prizes in Standards VI. and V. St. VI. —Fiona Spring, 15 marks: “Mr Boynton’s lecture about the sun on Friday was a very interesting one. The sun is a very interesting ball of burning gases. It is one hundred times the earth in diameter. The sun isi ninety-three million -miles away from the earth. The dis- ■ tanee can be measured several different ways: one way is by the studying of the planet Venus moving across the face of the sun. Venus is two-thirds the distance between us and the sun. Men are stationed in Africa, and Sweden, six thousand miles apart. The men in Sweden see the planet’in a different • position on the face of the sun from the one that' the men in Africa see. It is shown in this diagram. (Dia- ' grams are here shown). Scientists measure the angles formed, and the distance is worked out by scientific methods.- The sun is the source of all the energy and light on the earth. It the sun went out, nothing on the earth could exist, for all manner of light, life and heat come from the sun. Although the sun is so far front us, we get every form of ■ heat from i(, but nothing on earth

Van be heated to ns-great a heat as the •sim* has. The seasons are also , ' caused by the sun, for the earth is always revolving around the sun. .The sun spots alter the weather of : the seasons sometimes. . Some sea- ■ sons are very wet, and others are very dry, when spots are on the face of the sun. The spots on the sun are like the eruption of volcanoes, or great holes in the face of the sun. These spots sometimes ■ cause thunder storms and lightning, for thunder and lightening is caused by electricity, which is only a. form of the sun’s energy. The eclipse of the moon is on the 15th of this month, and the eclipse of the sun is on the 30th. The eclipse of the moon is caused by the earth passing between the moon and the sun and shutting off the light of the sun, as shown in this diagram. (The diagram is'here shown). All the light of the sun is not cut off. The , eclipse of the sun is the passing of

the moon between us and the sun,

/ arid shutting off the light of the sun, / as shown in this diagram. (The diagram is here shown). These eclipses can only take place at a full moon or new moon. The ec-

lipses this month are not total ec- , lipses. A total eclipse shuts all the light of the sun of moon off, and a total eclipse of the sun shuts all the light off, and leaves the earth in total darkness for a few minutes. Eclipses have been studied so many years, by scientists that they can tell at exactly what time they will happen, and at what parts-of the earth they can be seen. The heathen races of people used to think the ,sun was the god of all goodness. They 7 used to worship it on Sundays. That is how we got the name of Sunday. Some uncivilised races ptill Worship the sun.”

First prize, Standard V. —Thelma Harper, 13 marks: “The sun is between 92,000,000 uiul 93,000,000 miles from the earth. It is an en-

ormous mass of burning gas or vapour. The earth is 21,000 miles round, while the sun is about 2,‘4)00,000 miles. Therefore the sun is one hundred limes as big as the

tearth. It would take a train going Vf. at the rate of fifty 'miles an hour , - twenty days to go round the earth, while it would take two hundred and ten years for a train going at the same rate to reach the sun from the earth.- The sun is the .source of all energy, and it also > gives ns light. The wood and coal, i ; when we burn them, are giving back - ’energy got from the sun. The sun - ' is subject to explosions like the ,carth, and always has spots on it. 1 JDhese sun spots are great holes in the surface of the sun. The inner dark gases push the outer light gases out, and so make a big dark hole. The earth could be put into tone of these holes and would hardly jbe noticeable, as they are so big. J ■ The earth’s annual revolution round the sun causes the different seasons'

“ of the year. It takes 4hc earth : / three hundred and si.\(y-/jvc and a quarter days to go round the sun. There are often eclipses of the moon, which are caused by the earth getting between the sun and the moon, so that all the sun’s rays are on the earth and the moon gets no light. An eclipse of. the moon fian happen only at full-moon. Then there are eclipses of the sun, - which can happen only at new 'moon. These are caused by the ' . moon coming between the sun and ■ 'the earth. (Diagrams of both the ielcip.se of the sun and moon are here shown.) Every twelve or thirteen years there are eruptions r In the sun; these eruptions cause an unusually dry. or wet season on the < earth. These eruptions are liable to . interfere with the people’s health. : , Captain Cook came to New Zealand in 1769 to watch the transition of Mercury across the sun’s disc, and he re-discovered New Zealand. .-.".'■ln oiden times many savage tribes i worshipped the sun as their god. In P the Caucasian Mountains there are v*" gas springs which have been set alight by the sun. -Many of the tribes t' 1 '- worshipped the springs as a gift ‘ from their god.”