People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — Measuring the Infinitesimal. [ARTICLE]

Measuring the Infinitesimal.

The capacity of human comprehension is not a little tasked at the conclusion arrived at by scientists, who, it now appears, have succeeded in measuring the thickness of the envelope of soapy water inclosing the air of the bubble when it has become so thin as to produce rainbow tints. Thus, when showing the shade of violet, it was one-fourth the thickness of the length of an ordinary violet wave of light—l-00,000 of an inch—a thickness, that is, equal to 1-240,000 of an inch. As the bubble continued to expand a black patch was found to be only onefortieth of that of the violet section, or just about 1-10,000,000 of of inch.