Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked RecordGreg, Percy
Science
Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record
Greg, Percy
Science fiction
it appears the same from the two extremities of the Earth's orbit, 19
millions of miles apart. Looking from any one window, I could see no
greater space of the heavens than in looking through a similar
aperture on Earth. What was novel and interesting in my stellar
prospect was, not merely that I could see those stars north and south
which are never visible from the same point on Earth, except in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Equator; but that, save on the small
space concealed by the Earth's disc, I could, by moving from window to
window, survey the entire heavens, looking at one minute upon the
stars surrounding the vernal, and at another, by changing my position,
upon those in the neighbourhood of the autumnal equinox. By little
more than a turn of my head I could see in one direction Polaris
(_alpha_ Ursæ Minoris) with the Great Bear, and in another the
Southern Cross, the Ship, and the Centaur.
About 23h. 30m., near the close of the first day, I again inspected
the barycrite. It showed ¹⁄₁₁₀₀ of terrestrial gravity, an incredibly
small change from the ¹⁄₈₀₀ recorded at 19h., since it implied a
progress proportionate only to the square root of the difference. The
observation indicated, if the instrument could be trusted, an advance
of only 18,000 miles. It was impossible that the Astronaut had not by
this time attained a very much greater speed than 4000 miles an hour,
and a greater distance from the Earth than 33 terrestrial radii, or
132,000 miles. Moreover, the barycrite itself had given at 19h. a
distance of 28½ radii, and a speed far greater than that which upon
its showing had since been maintained. Extinguishing the lamp, I found
that the Earth's diameter on the discometer measured 2° 3′ 52″ (?).
This represented a gain of some 90,000 miles; much more approximate
to that which, judging by calculation, I ought to have accomplished
during the last four hours and a half, if my speed approached to that
I had estimated. I inspected the cratometer, which indicated a force
as great as that with which I had started,—a force which should by
this time have given me a speed of at least 22,000 miles an hour. At
last the solution of the problem flashed upon me, suggested by the
very extravagance of the contradictions. Not only did the barycrite
contradict the discometer and the reckoning but it contradicted
itself; since it was impossible that under one continuous impulsation
I should have traversed 28½ radii of the Earth in the first eighteen
hours and no more than 4½ in the next four and a half hours. In truth,
the barycrite was effected by two separate attractions,—that of the
Earth and that of the Sun, as yet operating almost exactly in the same
direction. At first the attraction of the former was so great that that
of the Sun was no more perceived than upon the Earth's surface. But
as I rose, and the Earth's attraction diminished in proportion to the
square of the distance from her centre—which was doubled at 8000 miles,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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