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EMERSION

Volume 8 · 261 words · 1842 Edition

in Physics, the rising of any solid above the surface of a fluid specifically heavier than itself, into which it had been violently immersed or thrust down.

It is one of the known laws of hydrostatics, that a lighter solid being forced down into a heavier fluid, immediately endeavours to emerge, and that with a force or momentum equal to the excess of weight of a quantity of the fluid above that of an equal bulk of the solid. Thus, if a solid be immersed in a fluid of double its specific gravity, it will emerge again till half its bulk or body be above the surface of the fluid.

in Astronomy, is when the sun, moon, or other planet, begins to re-appear after having been eclipsed, or hid by the interposition of the moon, earth, or other body.

The difference of longitude is sometimes found by observing the immersions and emersions of the first of Jupiter's satellites. The immersions are observed from the time of Jupiter's being in conjunction with the sun to his opposition, and the emersions from the opposition to the conjunction; two intervals which are usually six months each, and divide the year between them. But when Jupiter is in conjunction with the sun, and fifteen days before and afterwards, there is nothing to be observed, the planet, with his satellites, being then lost in the light of the sun.

EMERSON is also used when a star, before hid by the sun, as being too near him, begins to re-appear and to get out of his rays.