Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-02-18
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS


the People of Other Worlds.
The first thing which most attracts
ont attention about other planets is
their very great difference in size. end
siiis circumstance is the cause of some
" u.eh most striking physical pecul-
iarlties Take, for instance. the little
planet Ceres. Our earth is small enoupb
only 7.sl2 miles in diameter, but Ceres
Is only $50 miles. These words NAV
easily pass in at one ear and out at the
o'ner without leaving any impression
oehlho; or, II they cause us to think,
we VIII wonder how easy it must be
" set from one country to another, how
oellghtfuI to be able to sail round the
world, pay visit to ones friends at
the antipodes, and be settled at home
agaln-all within the short space of
Two successive playiays. But if we look
at the subject little more closely we
snail lind that it involves far more ex-
traordlnary 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 in proportion to the amount
OF matter, and weaker in proportion to
the square of the distance of an object
from the center of gravity. Now, the
diameter of the earth being fifty times
greater than that of Ceres, it follows
that boy here is fifty times heavier
than he would be on the little planet
II he weights one hundred pounds here
he would weigh only two pounds there.
Boys could play at ring-taw with huge
round powders instead of marbles,
and play football with balloons Girls
could carry dolls as heavy as their
mothers, and strong bull would
De 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 forward, if not
stopped by some external force. Thus,
when boy leaps into the air he would
go to the moon and farther were it not
far the attraction of the earth, which
very soon pulls him dewn again. But
on the little planet Ceres this force is
SO small that boy might leap to an
enormous height before the attraction
would check his ascent. Jumping over
a housetop would be as easy as playing
leap-frog, while good jumper would
think nothing of clearing, with short
run, the tower of the city hall Stair
ways might be abolished, for even a
stout old lady might easily jump in at
third-story window. The range of
projectiles would be increased in pro-
portion. Baby could hurl his rattle
many miles, and, in the event of war
with Chilli, 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
it must be for fat man of three hun
dred pounds weight to walk, run or ex-
ert himself. But transport him to our
queer little friend Ceres, and he is at
once at ease. In a moment he becomes
fifty times lighter than he was-as
light, in fact. as a kitten-and he may
proceed. if he pleases. to astonish the
acrobatic natives of the planet by gym
nastic exploits far surprising even
their own. Muscular exertion there
goes fifty times as far as it does here;
and the exploits men are capab BILE of
achieving there must surpass the wild
est flights of fancy and the most eXag-
gerated visions of fairyland. Stronger
than the vanquished Titans of old. fet-
tiers 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 bound,
or clear half a dozen miles at a single
leap. The seven-league boots would be
no longer a fable. A boy could start
on a run around the world and be back
again before his mother had fin
ished singing out his name, a race
horse could gallop five thousand miles
an hour, while the sea would boil and
foam with the gambols of it's mighty
inmates, and the gigantic carcass of n
leviathan extend for a mile along the
deep.
If we reverse the circumstances and
go TO a planet larger than our own in
stead of smaller, the case will, of
course, be exactly opposite. If we
were 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 read
iiy seen that if the sun is peopled with
beings constituted like ourselves its
population must, owing to increased
weight, consists of dwarfs two or three
inches in height. Among them Tom
Thumb would be towering giant IN
comparison. 1t is very singular that the
larger the world the smaller the deni-
Gems must be, that the inhabitants of
the modest planet, earth, should be
men; those of the huge sun dwarfs,
and those of the tiny asteroid, Ceres,
giants-Omaha World Herald.