Chapter 7 Chapter 6 Questions and Answers

On December 4th, when all the chronometers pointed to five o'clock in the morning on the earth, the three travelers woke up, having traveled fifty-four hours.In terms of time, they had already spent half of the time they should have been in the projectile plus five hours and forty minutes; but in terms of distance, they had completed seven-tenths of the time.This strange phenomenon should be attributed to the normal decreasing velocity of the projectile. When looking at the Earth from the porthole at the bottom, they could only see a black spot drowned in the sunlight.Neither its "crescent" nor the gray disk can be seen.The earth will not enter the "new moon" phase until midnight the next day when the moon is full.The celestial body of night above them gradually approached the course of the projectile, and only at the appointed moment could the two come together.Looking around, the dark dome is covered with bright stars, and they seem to be moving slowly.However, due to the great distance, their size remains unchanged, whether it is the sun or the stars, they are exactly the same as those seen on the earth.The volume of the moon is very large, but the telescopes of the three travelers are too small to make effective observations on the surface of the moon, so they cannot understand its topography and geological distribution.

Therefore, they can only pass the time with endless conversation.What they talked about most was the moon.Each spoke of their own special knowledge.Barbicane and Nicholl are always serious scientists, Michel Ardan is always whimsical.The projectile, its position, its direction, what accidents might have happened, and what measures should be taken to land on the moon, were inexhaustible material for their speculations.Precisely because Michel asked a question about projectiles at breakfast, Barbicane had a rather strange conversation, which deserves our account here. In Michelle's opinion, under the impetus of its terrible muzzle velocity, if the shell stops suddenly, what consequences will it have?

"But," replied Barbicane, "I don't see how a projectile can stop." "It's a hypothesis," Michelle replied. "An impossible hypothesis," retorted the practical Barbicane. "Unless the power to propel it is suddenly lost. Even then, its speed can only decrease slowly, and it is impossible to stop suddenly." "Let's say it hits an object in space." "What object?" "For example, the fireball we encountered." "Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile will be crushed with us." "Not only that," answered Barbicane, "we will be burned alive."

"Burn to death!" cried Michelle. "Ouch! I'd love to bump it, just to 'show me'." "Of course you can," answered Barbicane. "We now know that heat is nothing but the transformation of motion. When we heat water, we increase the temperature of the water, which means that the water molecules increase the speed of motion." "Aha!" said Michel, "that's your ingenious theory again!" "And it's the correct theory, my dear friend, because it explains all the phenomena of heat. Heat is nothing but the motion of molecules, that is, the vibrations of the particles of a body. The train stopped when we pulled the damper. Where does the motion that pushes the train go? It's converted to heat, so the buffers heat up. Why do we put oil on the axles? Just so the axles don't heat up, because heat is the product of lost motion conversion. Do you understand? "

"Understood!" Michel replied, "very well! So: let's say I've been running for a long time, and I'm covered in sweat, beading, why do I have to stop? It's simple. , because my exercise has turned into heat!" Barbicane couldn't help laughing when he heard Michel's answer.He then goes on to elaborate on his theory: "Therefore," said he, "if our projectile collides with a bolide, it will heat up like a bullet bounced off a metal plate. This is because its motion has been converted into heat. On this principle, I can affirm that if our shell had struck the large meteor, its velocity would have been converted into heat, and it would have been reduced to a puff of smoke in an instant."

"Excuse me," asked Nicholl, "if the earth suddenly stopped working, what would happen?" "Instantly it will rise in temperature," answered Barbicane, "so that it will immediately be vaporized." " "That's great," said Michelle, "that makes things easy, and that's how the whole world ends." "What if the earth hit the sun?" asked Nicholl. "According to calculations," replied Barbicane, "the impact of the earth upon the sun produces as much heat as coal could produce in sixteen hundred earth volumes."

"With regard to this increase in the temperature of the sun," continued Michel Ardan, "the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune will never complain, because they are freezing to death on their planets." "It follows, my friends," continued Barbicane, "that all motion which stops suddenly produces heat. According to this theory, we may say that the temperature of the sun is caused by the constant fall of many Bolides on the surface. Someone even calculated..." "Don't believe him," said Michel to himself, "he'll tell you a series of figures. "Someone even figured it out," went on Barbicane calmly, "Each bolide that falls on the sun produces as much heat as coal four thousand times its volume. "

"What's the temperature in the sun?" Michelle asked. "The temperature equivalent to burning coal twenty-seven kilometers thick on the surface of the sun." "What's its temperature?" "Its temperature is capable of boiling twenty-nine thousand million cubic meters of water in one hour." "But it didn't burn us, huh?" Michelle exclaimed. "No," replied Barbicane, "because the earth's atmosphere can absorb four-tenths of the sun's heat: besides, the earth's interception of solar heat is only one-two-billionth of the sun's heat radiation.", "Accordingly In the end, I think, it's always happy," retorted Michele, "that the atmosphere is really a useful invention everywhere; for it not only allows us to breathe, but also protects us from being scorched."

"Yes," said Nicholl, "it's a pity that there is no atmosphere on the Moon.  … "Come on," said Michele, always confident. "If there are people on the moon, they have to breathe. If there are no people, there is always enough oxygen for at least three people to breathe; it doesn't matter if the oxygen is concentrated in the depths of the ravine due to weight! If this is the case, we don't want to go there. Go up the mountain! Isn't this the end!" Michelle stood up after finishing speaking, and went to look at the dazzling moon disk. "Damn 1," he said, "it's probably hot up there."

"Not only that," replied Nicholl, "but the lunar day is very long, three hundred and sixty hours!" "On the contrary," said Barbicane, "the night will be so long, and the temperature will be lowered to that of planetary space due to the radiation of thermal energy." "What a lovely place!" said Michelle. "But that's all right: I wish we were on the moon now! Hey! My dear friends, it would be interesting to be on the moon, we can use the earth as the moon and see all the continents on the earth , we can say: bet, this is America, that's Europe) and can see it slowly disappearing into the light of the sun! By the way, Barbican, the eclipse and 'eclipse of the earth can be seen on the moon '?"

"Yes, can be seen," answered Barbicane, "when the three celestial bodies are in a straight line, and the earth happens to be in the middle. But only an annular eclipse, because, Earth's shadow falls on the sun, and most of it is still visible." "Why is there no total solar eclipse?" asked Nicholl. "Isn't the conical shadow of the earth able to extend beyond the moon?" "If the refraction effect of the earth's atmosphere is not included, there should be a total solar eclipse. On the contrary, if the refraction effect is calculated, there will only be a solar annular eclipse. Therefore, we replace the transverse parallax with small, and replace the apparent radius with P'... ..." "Oh!" said Michel, "half v zero squared again! . . . Algebraist, please speak in common language!" "Well, in popular language," answered Barbicane, "the average distance between the moon and the earth is sixty times the radius of the earth, and the conical shadow of the earth is shortened by refraction to less than forty times. Therefore, During a solar eclipse, the moon just stays out of the true shadow, and sunlight from both the edges and the center of the sun is able to reach the moon." "Since you can see the sun," Michel said in a mocking tone, "what are you talking about about a solar eclipse?" "Precisely because the sun's light has been greatly weakened at this time, because the sun's rays have lost most of their brightness when they pass through the atmosphere." "That's a satisfactory reason," replied Michel. "Besides, we can see it when we are on the moon. Now tell me, Babikon, do you believe that the moon was once a comet?" "Another novel insight!" "Perhaps," replied Michel triumphantly, "I have my own opinions on such matters." "However, this is not Michel's own opinion," Nicholl said. "Very good! You mean I'm plagiarizing the ancients?" "No doubt," Nicholl replied. "According to ancient sources, the Arcadians said that their ancestors lived on the earth before the moon became a satellite of the earth. According to this fact, some scientists also believe that the moon was a comet before. The orbit is so close to the earth that it is attracted by the earth and becomes a satellite of the earth." "Is there a real part to this hypothesis too?" Michele asked. "Not at all," replied Barbicane, "for the evidence is that no trace of the gas that surrounds comets can be found on the Moon." "But," Nicholl went on, "before the moon became a satellite of the earth, perhaps because it was so close to the sun when it passed the perihelion, the gas was absorbed by the sun?" "It is possible, my friend Nicholl, but it is unlikely." "why?" "Because...to be honest, I don't know either." "Oh! We could write hundreds of books about all this stuff we don't know," exclaimed Michele! "Forget it! What time is it?" Three o'clock," replied Nicholl." "Scientists like us chatting together," said Michele, "how time flies! Honestly, I've benefited a lot! I feel like I'm now a 'well of science'! At this point, Michel climbed up the projectile vault, and said he went to "look at the moon more closely." Meanwhile, his companions were also watching space from the portholes below. There is nothing to write about here. After getting down, Michel Ardan approached the side porthole and suddenly yelled. "What is it?" asked Barbicane. The club president approached the window and saw what appeared to be a squashed sack floating a few meters outside the projectile.This body also seems to be as stationary as the cannonball, which means that it too has the same upward motion. "What is this?" Michel Ardan kept repeating. "Could it be that this is a tiny celestial body in space, attracted by our projectile, and will go to the moon with us?" "What amazes me," said Nicholl, "is that this object, which is obviously much lighter than the cannon-ball, should be able to remain absolutely parallel to us!" "Nichor," replied Barbicane, after a moment's consideration. I do not know what this object is, but I do know why it is able to remain parallel to our projectile. " "why?, "Because we are floating in a vacuum, my dear captain. In a vacuum, all objects fall or move at the same speed regardless of their weight, size or shape. In fact, falling and moving are the same thing. The speed of falling is different. It is caused by the resistance of the air. In a sealed vacuum tube, 'whatever is thrown, whether dust or lead, descends at the same rate. Here, too, in space, the same cause, the same effect." "Exactly," said Nicholl, "whatever we throw out of the projectile will go with us all the way to the moon.", "Oh! How foolish we are!" cried Michel. "Why this quality adjective?" asked Barbicane. "Because, we were supposed to fill the projectile with everything we could use. Books, utensils, tools, etc. We could throw everything outside, and it would follow us: alas! Thinking about it. Why don't we go for a walk outside like this bolide? Why don't we jump into space from the porthole? You can feel that you are staying in Eda. It is better than a bird flapping its wings to maintain balance. What a pleasure it is to be free and easy!" "I agree," said Barbicane, "but how to breathe?" "Damn air, and there is a lack of air at the critical moment!" · "Even if there was air, Michel, you are less dense than the projectile, and you will quickly fall behind." "So, is this a vicious circle?" "The worst vicious circle." "Shall we have to be locked up in our compartment?" "It has to be like this." "Ah!" Michelle cried out in a terrible voice. "What's the matter?" said Nicholl "Now I know, at least I can guess what this so-called bolide is! It's not an asteroid! It's not a fragment of a planet!" "Then what is it?" asked Barbicane. "It is only our unfortunate dog! Diana's mate!" It turned out that this disfigured, almost unrecognizable object was really the corpse of a satellite, flat and flat like a deflated bagpipe, rising, rising: