Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-12-26
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS.
Specific Gravity Plays Many Franks With
the People of Other Worlds.

Specific Gravity Plays Many Franks With
the People of Other Worlds.
From the Omaha world-Herald.
The first thing which most attracts our atten-
ton about other planets is their very great diff
ference in size, and this circumstance is the
cause Of some Of their most striking physical
peculiarities. Take, for instance, the little
planet Ceres. Our earth is small enough. only
1872 miles in diameter, but Ceres is only 16O
mileo These words may easily pass in at one
ear and out at the other without leaving any
impression behind or. if they cause US to think,
we will wonder how easy it must be to get from
one country to another how delightful to
be able to sail round the world, pay visit to
ones friends at the antipodes and be settled
at home again-all within the short
space of two successive play days. But if we
look at the subject little more closely We
shall find that it involves far more extraordi-
nary consequences than these. We know that
while the earth spins around men. dogs and
horses, balls and stones, hold on, or fall TO the
earth. This force which attracts matter to
matter is called gravity or weight. 1t is
stronger il proportion to the amount of mat
ter. and weaker In proportion to the square
OF the distance of an object from the center of
gravity. Now, the diameter of the earth be-
ing fifty times greater than that of Ceres. il
follows that boy here is fifty times heavier
than he would be on the little planet. II he
weighs 100 pounds here he would weigh only
two pounds there. Boys could play at ring
taw with huge round boulders instead of mar
bles, and play foot ball with balloons Girls
could carry dolls as heavy as their mothers,
and strong bull would be an easy
load to bear. But things stranger
still would happen We know that
If body be once set in motion it will continue
moving forever, if not stopped by some external
Th,,c 10.
would go to the moon and further, were it not
for the attraction of the earth, which very soon
pulls him down again. But on the little planet
Ceres this force is SO small that a boy might
leap to an enormous height before the attrac-
ton would check his ascent. Jumping over a
housetop would be as easy as playing leapfrog,,
while good jumper would think nothing OF
clearing, with a short run, the tower Of the new
city hall. Staircases might be abolished, for
even q stout old lady could easily jump in at a
window. The range of -projectiles
hurl his rattle into Council Bluffs. and, in the
event of a war with Chile, an ensign at Fort
omaha, with krupp gun, could defend San
Francisco against the invader. Nor have we
yet exhausted the wonders Of Ceres.
We can imagine how uncomfortable IL must
be for fat man Of 800 pounds weight to walk.
run or exert himself But transport him to
our queer little friend Ceres and he is at once
at ease. In a moment he becomes fifty times
u6nter tnan ne was-as light In fact as a kit
ten; and he may proceed, if he pleases, to as
tonish the acrobatic natives of the planet by
gymnastic exploits far SURPRISING even their
own. Muscular exertion there goes fifty times
as far as it does here; and the exploits men are
capable OF achieving there must surpass the
widest flights OF fancy and the most exagper-
ated visions Of fairy land Stronger than the
vanquished Titans Of old, letters Of iron would
be to them as threads of gossamer Like the
genius of the Arabian Nights, they could spring
from the earth to the clouds at a bound or
clear half dozen miles at q single leap. Tho
seven-league boots would be no longer q fable
A boy could start on q run around the world
and be back again before his mother had fin
ished singing out his name; q race horse could
gallop 5000 miles an hour, while the sea would
boil and foam with the gambols OF its mighty
inmates and the gigantic carcass Of o leyiathan
extend for mile along the deep.
II we reverse the circumstances and 60 to
planet larger than our own instead of smaller,
the case will, Of course, be exactly the oppo-
site. II we we're transferred to the sun we
would feel as much out Of our element as the
Inhabitants Of Ceres would feel here ON earth:
and, in fact, it will be readily seen that il the
sun is peopled with being3 constituted like
ourselves, its population must. owing to in
creased weight, consist Of dwarfs two or three
inches in height. Among them Tom Thumb
would DO towering giant in comparison II
Is very singular that tho larger the world the
smaller the denizens must be, that the inhab-
itants OF the modest planet, earth, should be
men, those OF the huge sun, dwarfs, and those
Of the tiny asteroid, Ceres, giants