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across his chest.
Bigman closed the door and remained standing just outside for a moment, a little nervous. He should
dis-cuss this with Lucky first, he knew he should, and yetthe temptation...
87
He told himself: I'm not going to do anything. I'lljust check something. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and why
bother Lucky? But if it checks out, then I'llreally have something to tell him.
The door opened at once when he rang, and therewas Norrich, blind eyes fixed in the direction of the
doorway, seated before a desk on which a checkerboarddesign carried odd figures.
He said, "Yes?"
"This is Bigman," said the little Martian.
"Bigman! Come in. Sit down. Is Councilman Starrwith you?"
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The door closed again, and Bigman looked about in the brightly lit room. His mouth tightened. "He's
busy. But as for me, I'm filled up on Agrav today. Dr. Pannertook me all over, only I don't understand a
thing of ithardly."
Norrich smiled. "You're not exactly in a minority,but if you ignore the mathematics, some of it isn't too
hard to understand."
"No? Mind explaining it then?" Bigman sat down ina large chair and bent to look under Norrich's work-
bench. Mutt lay there with his head between his fore-paws and one eye brightly fixed on Bigman.
(Keep him talking, thought Bigman. Keep him talk-ing till I find a hole, or make one.)
"Look here," Norrich said. He held up one of theround counters he had been holding. "Gravity is a form
of energy. An object- such as this piece I'm holdingwhich is under the influence of a gravitational field but
is not allowed to move is said to have potential energy.If I were to release the piece, that potential energy
would be converted to motion or kinetic energy, as it
88
is called. Since it continues under the influence of thegravitational field as it falls, it falls faster and faster
andfaster." He dropped the counter at this point, and itfell.
"Until, splash," said Bigman. The counter hit thefloor and rolled.
Norrich bent as though to retrieve it and then said,"Would you get it for me, Bigman? I'm not sure where
it rolled."
Bigman suppressed his disappointment. He pickedit up and returned it.
Norrich said, "Now until recently that was the onlything that could be done with potential energy: it could
be converted into kinetic energy. Of course the kineticenergy could be used further. For instance, the
fallingwater of Niagara Falls could be used to form electricity,but that's a different thing. In space, gravity
results inmotion and that ends it.
"Consider the Jovian system of moons. We're atJupiter Nine, way out. Fifteen million miles out. With
respect to Jupiter, we've got a tremendous quantity ofpotential energy. If we try to travel to Jupiter One,
thesatellite Io, which is only 285,000 miles from Jupiter,we are in a way, falling all those millions of miles.
Wepick up tremendous speeds which we must continuallycounteract by pushing in the opposite direction
with ahyperatomic motor. It takes enormous energy. Then,if we miss our mark by a bit, we're in constant
dangerof continuing to fall, in which case there's only oneplace to go, and that's Jupiter and Jupiter is
instantdeath.Then, even if we land safely on lo, there's the problem of getting back to Jupiter Nine, which
means
89
lifting ourselves all those millions of miles against Jupi-ter's gravity. The amount of energy required to ma-
neuver among Jupiter's moons is just prohibitive."
"And Agrav?" asked Bigman.
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"Ah! Now that's a different thing. Once you use anAgrav converter, potential energy can be converted
into forms of energyother than kinetic energy. In the Agravcorridor, for instance, the force of gravity in
one direc-tion is used to charge the gravitational field in the otherdirection as you fall. People falling in one
direction provide the energy for people falling in the other. Bybleeding off the energy that way, you
yourself, whilefalling, need never speed up. You can fall at any veloc-ity less than the natural falling
velocity. You see?"
Bigman wasn't quite sure he did but he said, "Go on."
"In space it's different. There's no second gravita-tional field to shift the energy to. Instead, it is con-,
verted to hyperatomic field energy and stored so. Bydoing this, a space ship can drop from Jupiter Nine
to Io at any speed less than the natural falling speed with-out having to use any energy to decelerate.
Virtually noenergy is expended except in the final adjustment to Io'sorbital speed. And safety is complete,
since the ship isalways under perfect control. Jupiter's gravity could be completely blanketed, if
necessary.
"Going back to Jupiter Nine still requires energy. There is no getting around that. But now you can use
the energy you had previously stored in the hyper-atomic field condenser to get you back. The energy of
Jupiter's own gravitational field is used to kick youback."
Bigman said, "It sounds good." He squirmed in his
90
seat. He wasn't getting anywhere. Suddenly he said,"What's that you're fooling with on your desk?"
"Chess," said Norrich. "Do you play?"
"A little," Bigman confessed. "Lucky taught me, butit's no fun playing with him. He always wins." Then he
asked, offhand, "How canyou play chess?"
"You mean because I'm blind?"
"Uh "
"It's all right. I'm not sensitive about being blind. ... It's easy enough to explain. This board is magnetized
and the pieces are made of a light magnetic alloy sothat they stick where they're put and don't go tum-
bling if I move my arm about carelessly. Here, try it,Bigman."
Bigman reached for one of the pieces. It came up asthough stuck in syrup for a quarter of an inch or so,
then was free.
"And you see," said Norrich, "they're not ordinarychess pieces."
"More like checkers," grunted Bigman.
"Again so I don't knock them over. They're not com-pletely flat, though. They've got raised designs
whichI can identify easily enough by touch and which resem-ble the ordinary pieces closely enough so
that other people can learn them in a moment and play with me.See for yourself."
Bigman had no trouble. The circle of raised pointswas obviously the queen, while the little cross in the
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
across his chest.
Bigman closed the door and remained standing just outside for a moment, a little nervous. He should
dis-cuss this with Lucky first, he knew he should, and yetthe temptation...
87
He told himself: I'm not going to do anything. I'lljust check something. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and why
bother Lucky? But if it checks out, then I'llreally have something to tell him.
The door opened at once when he rang, and therewas Norrich, blind eyes fixed in the direction of the
doorway, seated before a desk on which a checkerboarddesign carried odd figures.
He said, "Yes?"
"This is Bigman," said the little Martian.
"Bigman! Come in. Sit down. Is Councilman Starrwith you?"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
The door closed again, and Bigman looked about in the brightly lit room. His mouth tightened. "He's
busy. But as for me, I'm filled up on Agrav today. Dr. Pannertook me all over, only I don't understand a
thing of ithardly."
Norrich smiled. "You're not exactly in a minority,but if you ignore the mathematics, some of it isn't too
hard to understand."
"No? Mind explaining it then?" Bigman sat down ina large chair and bent to look under Norrich's work-
bench. Mutt lay there with his head between his fore-paws and one eye brightly fixed on Bigman.
(Keep him talking, thought Bigman. Keep him talk-ing till I find a hole, or make one.)
"Look here," Norrich said. He held up one of theround counters he had been holding. "Gravity is a form
of energy. An object- such as this piece I'm holdingwhich is under the influence of a gravitational field but
is not allowed to move is said to have potential energy.If I were to release the piece, that potential energy
would be converted to motion or kinetic energy, as it
88
is called. Since it continues under the influence of thegravitational field as it falls, it falls faster and faster
andfaster." He dropped the counter at this point, and itfell.
"Until, splash," said Bigman. The counter hit thefloor and rolled.
Norrich bent as though to retrieve it and then said,"Would you get it for me, Bigman? I'm not sure where
it rolled."
Bigman suppressed his disappointment. He pickedit up and returned it.
Norrich said, "Now until recently that was the onlything that could be done with potential energy: it could
be converted into kinetic energy. Of course the kineticenergy could be used further. For instance, the
fallingwater of Niagara Falls could be used to form electricity,but that's a different thing. In space, gravity
results inmotion and that ends it.
"Consider the Jovian system of moons. We're atJupiter Nine, way out. Fifteen million miles out. With
respect to Jupiter, we've got a tremendous quantity ofpotential energy. If we try to travel to Jupiter One,
thesatellite Io, which is only 285,000 miles from Jupiter,we are in a way, falling all those millions of miles.
Wepick up tremendous speeds which we must continuallycounteract by pushing in the opposite direction
with ahyperatomic motor. It takes enormous energy. Then,if we miss our mark by a bit, we're in constant
dangerof continuing to fall, in which case there's only oneplace to go, and that's Jupiter and Jupiter is
instantdeath.Then, even if we land safely on lo, there's the problem of getting back to Jupiter Nine, which
means
89
lifting ourselves all those millions of miles against Jupi-ter's gravity. The amount of energy required to ma-
neuver among Jupiter's moons is just prohibitive."
"And Agrav?" asked Bigman.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Ah! Now that's a different thing. Once you use anAgrav converter, potential energy can be converted
into forms of energyother than kinetic energy. In the Agravcorridor, for instance, the force of gravity in
one direc-tion is used to charge the gravitational field in the otherdirection as you fall. People falling in one
direction provide the energy for people falling in the other. Bybleeding off the energy that way, you
yourself, whilefalling, need never speed up. You can fall at any veloc-ity less than the natural falling
velocity. You see?"
Bigman wasn't quite sure he did but he said, "Go on."
"In space it's different. There's no second gravita-tional field to shift the energy to. Instead, it is con-,
verted to hyperatomic field energy and stored so. Bydoing this, a space ship can drop from Jupiter Nine
to Io at any speed less than the natural falling speed with-out having to use any energy to decelerate.
Virtually noenergy is expended except in the final adjustment to Io'sorbital speed. And safety is complete,
since the ship isalways under perfect control. Jupiter's gravity could be completely blanketed, if
necessary.
"Going back to Jupiter Nine still requires energy. There is no getting around that. But now you can use
the energy you had previously stored in the hyper-atomic field condenser to get you back. The energy of
Jupiter's own gravitational field is used to kick youback."
Bigman said, "It sounds good." He squirmed in his
90
seat. He wasn't getting anywhere. Suddenly he said,"What's that you're fooling with on your desk?"
"Chess," said Norrich. "Do you play?"
"A little," Bigman confessed. "Lucky taught me, butit's no fun playing with him. He always wins." Then he
asked, offhand, "How canyou play chess?"
"You mean because I'm blind?"
"Uh "
"It's all right. I'm not sensitive about being blind. ... It's easy enough to explain. This board is magnetized
and the pieces are made of a light magnetic alloy sothat they stick where they're put and don't go tum-
bling if I move my arm about carelessly. Here, try it,Bigman."
Bigman reached for one of the pieces. It came up asthough stuck in syrup for a quarter of an inch or so,
then was free.
"And you see," said Norrich, "they're not ordinarychess pieces."
"More like checkers," grunted Bigman.
"Again so I don't knock them over. They're not com-pletely flat, though. They've got raised designs
whichI can identify easily enough by touch and which resem-ble the ordinary pieces closely enough so
that other people can learn them in a moment and play with me.See for yourself."
Bigman had no trouble. The circle of raised pointswas obviously the queen, while the little cross in the
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]