The Gaseous Hypothesis Theory By Kant

PREPARED BY SAYANTANI SINGH (Msc., GEOGRAPHY,B.ED)

NEBULA: It is a primordial mass of cloud of gas and dust.

Angular velocity: the velocity is the angle moved by a rotating body per unit time at a point on the axis of rotation.

Centrifugal force: a force which pulls the mass away from the centre of the earth.

Centripetal force: a force which pulls the mass towards centre of the earth.

Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, presented his Book entitled ‘The General Natural History and Theory of the Heaven or the Essay on the Working and Mechanical Origin of the Entire Universe on the Basis of Newtonian Laws’ in 1755. Kant claimed that his ‘gaseous hypothesis’ of the origin of the earth was based on the sound principles of Newton’s laws of gravitation and rotatory motion.

Postulation/Assumption

Supernaturally created primordial hard matter was scattered in the universe.
Nebula and the other matters were comprised of very cold, solid, and motionless particles.
Particles began to collide against each other under their gravitational attractions.
This mutual attraction and collision between the particles generated random motion in the primordial matter. Collision of the particles also generated friction which generated heat, with the result the temperature of the primordial matter started rising.

EXPLAINATION OF THEORY

According to Kant –

The gravitational attraction and collision between the particles generated random motion in the primordial matter.
Particles will collide against each other’s and generate friction which generates heat.
As a result the temperature of the primordial matter started increasing.
With the increase in temperature, the motion as well as the rate of collision among the particles also increased.
The rise in temperature also changed the state of primordial matter from solid to gaseous particles.
Thus, the original cold and motionless cloud of matter became a vast hot nebula and started rotating around its axis.
With continuous increases in temperature and rate of motion, the nebula started expanding in size.
The heat increased, the size of nebula increased and as the size of nebula increased, the angular velocity increased.
Due to a continuous increase in the size of the nebula and the angular speed became so fast that the centrifugal force exceeded the attritional or centripetal force
The nebula started spinning so rapidly that an irregular ring was separated from the middle part of the nebula and was thrown off due to centrifugal force.
By the repetition of the same process a system of concentric rings was separated from the nebula.
The central mass of the nebula remained as the sun.

Evaluation

Did not mention the origin of the primordial matter: According to Kant there was a primordial matter in the universe, but, he did not explain the source of the origin of the primordial matter.
Kant did not explain the source of energy to cause the random motion of the particles of the primordial matter which were cold and motionless in the initial stage.
The collision among the particles of the primordial matter can never generate rotatory motion in it. It is an erroneous statement of mechanism.

CONCLUSION: it was the first scientific attempt for the explanation of the origin of the earth. Kant’s hypothesis plays a vital role in the assumption of the Nebular hypothesis by Laplace.

@GEOGRAPHIA

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