He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. —And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The Original Signers of the Declaration of Independence
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
The Moon
THROUGH ALL HUMAN HISTORY, the moon has drawn the gaze upward. It was there in ancient myths; it was the light for a million romantic evenings—and it was our first stepping stone to the darkness beyond it. The gravity well of earth is crushingly powerful. Without the moon as a launching stage, regular space flight may never be possible. While it sails above, we can dream of lunar bases and leaving the earth behind.
The first landing on the moon was on July 20, 1969, one date everyone should know. It is the only object in space that we have visited, after all. The Apollo 11 spacecraft reached the moon and fired braking rockets to take up orbit around it. Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin descended to the surface in a landing module named Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module. After announcing to the watching earth that �
�the Eagle has landed,” Armstrong stepped out onto the surface of the moon.
There have been many momentous events in our history, from Caesar crossing the Rubicon to the first use of an atomic bomb, but having a human being set foot on another, stranger soil may be the most extraordinary.
Armstrong’s first words were, “This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Famously, he had intended to say “a man.” Without the “a,” he seemed to repeat himself.
The two men spent twenty-one hours on the surface and brought back forty-six pounds of moon rock. The moon has no atmosphere—and therefore no protection from meteorites. Its surface has been battered and melted by these strikes over billions of years, resulting in a soil called a “regolith”—made of dust, rock and tiny beads of glass that are slippery underfoot.
The Apollo 11 landing was the first of six successful landing missions during the twentieth century. In sequence, they are: Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17, ending in December 1972. Apollo 13 suffered technical problems and had to return to earth without landing on the moon. There will be others. An unmanned probe named Lunar Prospector found ice in 1998 at both moon poles—one of the most important requirements of a future colony!
THE PHASES OF THE MOON—AS SEEN FROM EARTH
The phases of the moon are such a part of our world that they should be common knowledge.
This is a new moon. The moon is between the earth and the sun and shows no light. This position creates the strong vernal tides on earth.
A waxing (growing) crescent. This use of the word “waxing” is now almost completely restricted to describing the phases of the moon. As the moon moves on its cycle, we see the sunlight reflecting on its surface. The crescent will grow as it moves around the earth.
First quarter moon. A quarter of the way around the earth, one clear half of the moon is visible.
Waxing gibbous. The word “gibbous” is another one that tends to be used only in descriptions of the moon. It means convex, or bending outward. This is a good time to take pictures of the moon. Surprisingly sharp images can be made by the simple action of putting a camera up against the lens of a telescope on a tripod.
Full moon—also a time of strong tides, as both the sun and moon pull at the earth’s oceans.
Waning moon—beginning the path back to the new moon.
Last quarter, with a perfect half of the moon again visible.
Waning crescent.
MOON FACTS
Distance from earth: because of an elliptical orbit, this varies, but on average is 240,000 miles (386,000 km).
Gravity: about 1/6 of earth.
Day length: 27.3 earth days.
Time to orbit earth in relation to a fixed star (sidereal month): 27.3 earth days.
Time in relation to the sun (new moon to new moon/synodic month): 29.5 days.
Because it takes 27.3 days to orbit earth and turn on its own axis, we always see the same face. (See Questions About the World—Part Two.) However, there is no dark side in the sense of lacking light. Like earth, there is a night and day side, but both receive light during the cycle. The “dark side” of the moon just doesn’t exist!
The moon has no atmosphere, which means no wind, so Neil Armstrong’s original footprint will still be there exactly as it was in 1969—unless Buzz Aldrin or one of the others scuffed it over.
Daytime temperatures can reach up to 273 °F (134 °C). That is almost three times as hot as the Sahara Desert on earth. Nighttime temperatures can be as low as –243 ° F (–152 °C). Needless to say, human beings cannot survive such an extreme range without a great deal of protection.
The American flag planted by the Apollo 11 astronauts had to be made out of metal. Without an atmosphere, a cloth flag would have hung straight down.
The moon is silent. Without air or some other medium, sound waves cannot travel.
We owe many of the beautifully named parts of the moon to Galileo. It was he who thought he saw oceans on the moon in 1609, giving us Mare Tranquillitas (Sea of Tranquillity), Mare Nectaris (Sea of Nectar), Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers), Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity), and many more. Sadly, they are dry depressions and not the great oceans of his imagination.
SOME KEY FEATURES
1.Tycho Crater.
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2.Mare Nectaris (Sea of Nectar).
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3.Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility).
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4.Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises).
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5.Landing point of Apollo 11, on south-west edge of Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquillity).
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6.Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity).
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7.Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers).
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8.Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold).
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9.Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).
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10.Copernicus Crater.
LUNAR AND SOLAR ECLIPSES
Every month, at full moon, the earth goes between the sun and the moon. However, the exact line-up required for a lunar eclipse is not so common. Usually, the moon’s tilted orbit takes it out of alignment. At most, there are only two or three full eclipses of the moon each year. You might expect to see around forty in a lifetime.
If you were standing on the moon at the time of a lunar eclipse, you would see the earth slowly blotting out the sun. In a lunar eclipse, the earth’s shadow falls across the moon, though red sunlight scattered from the earth’s atmosphere sometimes means a red moon can still be seen. Given the relative sizes, the earth’s cone of shadow completely covers the moon and the eclipse can be seen from anywhere on the earth’s surface.
A solar eclipse is a far rarer event. In these, the full eclipse can only be seen along a narrow track, never more than about 200 miles wide. Obviously, these can only take place at the time of a new moon, when the shadow of the moon falls onto earth.
There are two kinds of solar eclipse, “annular” and “total.” Annular eclipses are about twice as common and far less impressive. They occur when the moon is too far from earth to block the sun completely. The sky will not darken as completely and a bright ring will still be visible around the moon. Annular means “ring-shaped.”
A total solar eclipse is well worth traveling to see. It is one of the marvels of the natural world. First, a tiny bite appears in the ring of the sun, which deepens until the sun becomes a crescent and the day darkens toward an eerie twilight. The corona of the sun can then be seen around the black disk. The temperature drops and birds often return to trees to roost. Then the light begins to reappear and the world as we know it returns.
Skipping Stones
THIS IS QUITE A TRICKY skill, but it is possible to bounce a stone on water five or six times without too much trouble. During World War II, Englishman Barnes Wallis used the same principle when designing the bouncing bomb for raids on the Ruhr Valley in Germany. You will need several things in your favor to skip like the Dambusters.
First of all you need to pick your stone, as flat as possible without being too thin. It needs some weight to carry, but if it weighs much more than an apple, you won’t get the range. Most beaches will have a variety of stones to choose from, but if you find the perfect “skipper” in the park, hang on to it.
Skipping on the sea is harder because of the waves. If you try it on a lake, watch out for swimmers, who object to having stones thrown at them.
The skill is in the grip and the angle. Curl your forefinger around the stone, resting it on your middle finger. Secure it with your thumb.
The action of throwing the stone is all important—too steep and the stone will just plonk into the water. Bend your knees to keep the angle of descent around 25° and try to get the flat side to hit the water when you release, to help it bounce on the surface.
The power you use to throw the stone can be increased once you get the hang of the technique.
More than one bounce an
d you are “skipping,” though you will have a way to go to beat the current world record of thirty-eight.
Pinhole Projector
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You will need
Long cardboard tube.
Oak tag or heavy paper.
White tissue paper.
Adhesive tape.
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THE SUN IS A BRIGHT shining star that gives life to our planet. It is also very dangerous to look at directly and can damage your eyes. How then do we study the eclipses and transit of planets across its surface? With a pinhole projector, one of the best tools to view solar events as they take place.
As the name implies, a pinhole projector projects an image (upside down) of the sun so you can watch an eclipse without actually looking at it.
To build the projector, use glue or adhesive tape to attach the oak tag at one end of the tube, as shown in the diagram. Make a small hole in the card over the tube. Attach a thin sheet of tissue paper to the other end with glue.
To make it work, simply lift the card end towards the sun and an image will be projected onto the tissue paper “screen” at the other end. Remember, only look at the projected image.
You can also build a projector with a magnified image, which is far more impressive and can be focused. You will need a telescope or binoculars and two pieces of oak tag.
First cut a hole in one of the pieces of oak tag so that it fits over the end of your telescope or one side of your binoculars to shield the image from unwanted light. Now aim the telescope (or binoculars) at the sun and hold the other piece of oak tag a couple of feet from the eyepiece. An image of the sun should appear, which you can sharpen by changing the focus or moving the card. Never, ever look through a telescope while focusing or aiming it at the sun.
The Dangerous Book for Boys Page 19
