Chapter 6 Chapter 5 The Coldness of Space

This discovery was like a bolt from the blue.Who would have expected such a miscalculation to occur?Barbicane did not want to believe it.Nicholl rechecked his numbers.The numbers are exactly right.As for the formula, no one could doubt its correctness. He checked it again, and the initial velocity that the projectile must have to reach the place where there is no gravity is still 16,576 meters. The three friends looked at each other without saying a word.There was no question of breakfast at all.Barbicane clenched his teeth, frowned, and looked out with convulsive fists.Nicholl crossed his arms and checked his numbers carefully.Michelle.Adam was talking to himself: Look at these scientists!They can do nothing else!I would have given twenty piastres to jump down and smash the Cambridge Observatory with all the deceitful figures in it!

Nicholl suddenly remembered something, and he immediately told Barbicane. oops!It's seven o'clock in the morning now, he said.In other words, we have been walking for thirty-two hours.We have traveled half the distance, and as far as I know, we have not begun to fall! Barbicane made no answer.But, glancing at the captain, he picked up the compass and measured the angle of the earth.Then, through the porthole at the bottom, he made a very correct observation, for the projectile appeared to be perfectly still.He raised his head, wiped the sweat off his face, and wrote a few numbers on a piece of paper.Nicholl knew that the chairman planned to use the diameter of the earth to calculate the distance between the porthole and the earth.He looked at him impatiently.

right!It took him a while to say loudly, yes, we haven't fallen yet!We have been more than fifty thousand leagues from the earth!If the projectile had a muzzle velocity of only 11,000 meters, it would stop halfway, and we are now past that point!We keep going up! Obviously, Nicholl replied, we must draw a conclusion: propelled by 400,000 pounds of high explosives, our muzzle velocity must exceed the originally required 11,000 meters.My basis is that it took only thirteen minutes for us to encounter a second satellite orbiting more than two thousand leagues from the earth. This explanation is probably correct, Barbicane added, because the projectile suddenly loses a great deal of weight when it is expelled from the compartment.

Completely correct!Nicholl said. oh!Righteous captain, cried Barbicane, we are saved! All right, Michelle.Ah Dang said quietly, since we are saved, we should have breakfast.In fact, Nicholl was not mistaken.Fortunately, the initial velocity of the projectile exceeded the speed required by the Cambridge Observatory, but the data of the Cambridge Observatory were still wrong. The three travelers, after a false alarm, were now seated at the table, and began to eat their breakfast cheerfully.Not only do they have a good appetite, but they are also very good at talking.They are more confident than they were before the algebraic events.

Why can't we succeed?Michelle.Adam said over and over why we couldn't get to our destination.We are already on our way.There will be no stumbling blocks in the way.Freer is our course than that of a ship wrestling with the sea, or of a balloon wrestling with the wind!Since ships can sail at will and balloons can rise at will, why can't our projectiles reach their intended destination? Surely it can be reached, said Barbicane. Even if it is for the honor of the American people, Michelle.Ardan went on to say that only the American people in the world can accomplish such an undertaking, only they can produce a Barbicane Chairman!Why!Now that I think about it, since we don't have to worry anymore, we're probably going to be bored again, aren't we?

Barbicane and Nicholl made a gesture of disapproval. I have foreseen this situation, my friends, Michelle.Adam continued.You just gossip.But I have chess, checkers, cards, and dominoes for you to use!Only one billiard table was missing! What?asked Barbicane, did you even bring these trifles? Of course, replied Michel, this was not just to amuse us, but to enrich the life of the Lunar Café, an intention that is always admirable, isn't it? My friend Barbicane said that if there were men on the Moon, they would have been thousands of years earlier than man on Earth, since no one can doubt that this celestial body is older than ours.Since the Lunarians were thousands of years before us, if their brains were organized like humans, perhaps they would have invented what we have already invented and even centuries later.They have nothing to learn from us, but we have everything to learn from them.

What words!Michelle replied, do you think they also have people like Phidias An artist like the Colossi of Zeus and the Colossi of Athena in the Parthenon.), Michelangelo, or Raphael? Exactly so. Are there poets like Homer, Virgil, Milton, Lamartine, Hugo? of course. Are there philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant?Are there scientists like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, Newton? I can swear on it. Well, my friend Barbicane, if they are as capable as we are, or even more capable than we are, why don't the Lunarians try to connect with Earth?Why don't they send a moonman's projectile to our earth?

Who told you they didn't do that?Barbicane answered gravely. And in fact, Nicholl added, it is more convenient than ours, for two reasons, first, the moon's gravitational force is five times smaller than that of the earth, so it is easier to launch projectiles; second, they only need to send projectiles to eight thousand farads Instead of 80,000 leagues, one-tenth the launch force would be required. So, Michelle went on, and I'll say it again: why didn't they do it? I repeat, Barbicane retorted, who told you they didn't do that? When did you do it? Thousands of years ago, when there were no humans on earth.

What about shells?Where are the shells?I just have to look at the shells! My friend, answered Barbicane, that five-sixths of our globe is covered by oceans, so we have reason to suppose that, if the Lunarians had actually fired a projectile, it might have sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.Or they were buried in the cracks in the earth, because the earth's crust was not officially finalized at that time. My old Barbicane, replied Michel, you are good at reciprocating, and I admire your wit.However, I have a hypothesis in my favor, that is: although the humans on the moon are older and smarter than us, maybe they haven't invented gunpowder yet!

At this time, Diana also joined their conversation, and it barked.It is asking for its breakfast. oops!Michelle.Ardan said, let's just talk and forget about our Diana and our satellites! Immediately he brought the bitch a bowl of delicious food, which she devoured. You see, Barbicane, said Michel, we should turn this projectile into Noah's ark, and take a pair of every animal we keep to the moon! That should be done, answered Barbicane, but there is not enough room. All right!Michelle said a little squeeze would do the trick! In fact, Nicholl said, whether cows, cows, or bulls, all of these ruminants are useful to us on the lunar continent.Unfortunately, we cannot turn this carriage into a barn or a livestock shed.

However, Michelle.Adam said, we can bring at least one donkey, as long as a small donkey is enough, this kind of courageous and patient animal, even old Silenus .) enjoyed riding it too; I love this poor donkey too!They are the animals least favored by nature.Not only are they beaten when they are alive, but they are also beaten after death! What does it mean?asked Barbicane. oops!Michelle said, because the drums are made of donkey skins! Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at such absurdities. But the cry of their merry friend made them pause.The latter was bending over to look at the satellite's kennel, he raised his head and said: Very good!Satellites will never get sick again. ah!Nicholl snorted. Yes, said Michel again, it was dead.He then said in a pitiful tone of embarrassment: This will be troublesome!My poor Diana, I'm worried that you won't be able to carry on your family on the moon continent! In fact, the unfortunate satellite's injuries did not heal.It's dead, really dead.Michelle.Adam looked at his friends, not knowing what to do. Now there is a problem, said Barbicane, that we cannot keep the dog's body for another forty-eight hours. No doubt, replied Nicholl, but our portholes are hinged, and we can lower the shutters.We can open a porthole and throw its carcass into space. The club president thought for a while, then said: Yes, it can be done, but with extreme care. Why.Michelle asked. For two reasons, as you will soon see, Barbicane replied: the first has to do with the air inside the projectile, which must be lost as little as possible. Can't we make air? Only part of it can be made.We can only make oxygen, my good Michel, and by the way, we must keep an eye on our apparatus at all times and not let the supply of oxygen exceed the limit, for too much oxygen can cause serious psychological confusion.However, although we can produce oxygen, we cannot produce nitrogen, which is a medium. Although our lungs cannot absorb it, we cannot lose it.Nitrogen escapes quickly if the porthole is opened. well!Just a moment to throw the poor satellite out, said Michelle. OK, but it has to be fast. So, what about the second reason?Michelle asked. The second reason is that the cold outside should not be allowed to penetrate the projectile, otherwise we would freeze to death. but there is sun outside The sun can heat our projectile, which absorbs sunlight, but the sun cannot heat the vacuum in which we are now flying.Where there is no air, there is only diffused light without warmth, while where the sun does not shine, it is dark and cold.If one day the sun goes out, the earth will be so cold under the starlight. Don't worry about that, Nicholl said. Who knows?Michelle.Adam said.Besides, even if the sun does not go out, maybe the earth will leave the sun! aha!Michel, said Barbicane, had many new insights! In 1861, Michel said, didn't we already know that the earth passed through the tail of a comet?We may assume that the gravitational pull of the comet is greater than that of the sun, and that the earth would become its satellite, and be carried so far away that the rays of the sun would no longer have any influence on the surface of the earth. In fact, it is possible, replied Barbicane, but even if it should happen, the displacement of the earth is probably not so terrible as you think. Why? Because, on our planet, cold and heat are always in balance.Someone once calculated that if the earth was swept away by the comet in 1861, at the place farthest from the sun, it would bear exactly one-sixteenth of the heat of the moon, even if the largest lens is used to capture this kind of sun. The light is concentrated in a focal point and cannot produce perceivable heat. How about it?Michelle said. Please wait a moment, answered Barbicane.They also calculated that at perihelion, that is, at the point closest to the sun, the earth is subjected to a heat force equal to twenty-eight thousand times that of summer.However, at this temperature, the matter on the earth will turn into a glass-like solution, and the water will turn into steam, so that extremely thick clouds and fog will be formed in the outer layer of the earth, which will reduce the excessively high temperature of the earth.So the coldness of the aphelion and the heat of the perihelion will cancel each other out, and maybe the average temperature of the earth is still tolerable. However, what is the estimated temperature of planetary space?Nicholl asked. It used to be thought that the temperature was very low, answered Barbicane.According to calculations, some people estimate that it will be several million degrees below zero.Later, a fellow of Michelle, a famous scientist of the French Academy of Sciences, Fourier (Note: 1768︱1830, French mathematician and physicist, proposed Fourier series and applied it to heat conduction theory and Vibration theory.) overturned this data, and re-made a more correct estimate.According to him, the temperature in the space never drops below minus sixty degrees. Hey!Michelle grunted. Comparable to the Arctic temperatures measured at Melville Island or at Fort Lelyans, Barbicane went on, that is to say about minus fifty-six degrees Celsius. Spend. Finally, it needs to be proved, Nicholl said, whether Fourier's estimation is wrong.Another French scientist, M. Pouille, estimates the temperature of space at one hundred and sixty degrees above zero, if I am not mistaken.We'll be able to confirm that right away. Not yet, answered Barbicane, because the sun's rays fall directly on our thermometers, and otherwise the temperature would be very high.But after arriving at the moon, we can calmly carry out this experiment in the fifteen-day dark night when the moon alternates, because our satellite also operates in a vacuum. But what do you mean by vacuum?Michelle asked, is it an absolute vacuum? A vacuum with absolutely no air. In an absolute vacuum, is there nothing that replaces air? have.Aether, answered Barbicane. ah!What is ether? The ether, my friend, is an immeasurable concentration of atoms, which, according to the books on molecular physics, are not only small in size, but also very far apart from each other, as the bodies of space are separated from each other.Yet their distance is less than three millionths of a millimeter.It is these atoms that produce light and heat through their 430 trillion vibrations per second, but their amplitude is only 40000-60000th of a millimeter. When you open your mouth, there are always trillions and trillions!Michelle.Adam yelled, but who has measured and calculated its amplitude!All these figures, my friend Barbicane, are made up by those scientists, and they are nothing more than sensationalism, which means nothing at all. You have to use numbers to explain it. Its not mandatory.It is best to use the comparative method.One trillion can't explain anything.But a comparison makes everything clear.For example, you should tell me: Uranus is 76 times larger than Earth, Saturn is 900 times larger, Jupiter is 1,300 times larger, and the sun is 1.3 million times larger. .So I love comparisons, even the old comparison of "The Double Liege," who will tell you foolishly: the sun is like a big pumpkin two feet in diameter, Jupiter is an orange, Saturn is a small apple, Neptune is a black cherry, Uranus is a big cherry, Earth is a pea, Venus is a small pea, Mars is the head of a pin, Mercury is a mustard seed, and as for Diva, Ceres, Vesta, Wisdom Shen Xing, those are just a few ordinary grains of sand.In this way, at least people can know what's going on! Michelle.After Adam had vented for a while about the scientists and the strings of astronomical figures they relentlessly listed, the three of them held a funeral for the satellite.In fact, just throw it into the sky, the same way sailors throw the dead body into the sea. However, just as the chairman of the club said: the action must be fast, and the air should not be lost as much as possible, because the air is very fluid, and it is easy to flow into the vacuum of the space very quickly.About thirty centimeters from the starboard porthole, and when all the bolts were unscrewed, Michele, full of sorrow, was ready to send his dog into the space.As soon as the hinged porthole opens a thin crack under the pressure of the powerful lever (the only such lever capable of overcoming the pressure of the air inside against the wall), the satellite is thrown outside, with very little air escaping into space, and this work It was so well done that Barbicane never had to worry about getting rid of the rubbish in the projectile anymore.