The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1892-06-16
LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS,
Specific Gravity Plays Many Franks With
the People of Other Worlds.


the People of Other Worlds.
The first thing which most attracts
our attention about other planets is
their very great difference in size, and
this circumstance is the cause of some
of their most striking physical peculiar
tiles. Take. for instance, the little
planet Ceres. Our earth is small enough,
only 1912 miles in diameter, but Ceres
is only 100 miles. These words may
easily pass in at one ear and out of the
other without leaving any impressi on
behind; or, if they cause us to think, we
will wonder how easy it must be to get
from one country to another, how de-
lightful to be able to sail round the
world, pay visit to ones friends at the
antipodes, and be settled at home again
all within short space of two sue
cessive playdays. But if we look at the
subject little more closely we shall
find that it involves far more eXtraor-
dinary 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
CdliCu gravity VI "CISAU IL u oGIOhsCA
in proper ton 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. If he weighs
100 pounds here he would weigh
only two pounds there. Boys
could play at ring-taw with huge round
| powders instead of marbles, and play
foot ball with balloons. Girls could
carry dolls as heavy as their mothers,
and a strong bull would be an easy
load to bear. But things stranger still
would happen. We know that if a body
be once set in motion it will continue
moving forward, if not stopped by some
external force. Thus, when a boy
leaps into the air, he 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 boy might leap to an enor-
nous height efore the attraction would
check his ascent. Jumping over a
housctop would be as easy as playing
leap-frog, while a good jumper would
think nothing of clearing, with a short
run, the tower of the new city hall.
Staircases might be abolished, for even
stout old lady could easily jump in at
third-story window. The range OF
projectiles would be increased in pro-
portion. Baby could hurl his rattle
into Council Bluffs, and, in the event OF
a war with Chile, an ensign at Fort
Omaha, with Krupp gun, could de,
fend San Francisco against the invader.
Nor have we yet exhausted the won.
ders of Ceres.
We can imagine how uncomfortable
it must be for a fat man of 500 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
lighter than he was as light, in fact
as kitten-and he may proceed, if he
pleases, to astonish the acrobatic ma
tives of the planet by gymnastic ex
ploits far surprising even their own
Muscular exertion there goes fifty
times as far as it does here; and the ex
ploits men are capable of achieving
there must surpass the widest flights
of fancy and the most exaggerated Wis
ions of fairyland. Stronger than th'
vanquished Titans of old, fetters o
iron would be to them as threads o
gossamer. Like the genius of th
Arabian Nights" they could sprini
from the earth to the clouds at a bou1'
or clear half dozen miles at singl
leap. The seven-league boots woul
be no longer a fable. A boy coul
start on run around the world and b
back again before his mother had fin
ished singing out his name; a race hors
could gallop 5000 miles an hour, Will
the sea would boil and foam with tn
gambols of its mighty inmates and tn
gigantic carcass of a leviathan exten
for a mile along the deep.
If we reverse the circumstances an
go to planet larger than our own il
stead of smaller. the case will, of cours'
be exactly opposite. If we were tran
ferred to the sun we would feel as muc
out of our element as the inha bitant
of Ceres would feel here on earth; ant
in fact, it will be readily seen that
the sun is peopled with beings const
tuted like ourselves its population mus
owing to increased weight consist
dwarfs two or three inches in heigh
Among them Tom Thumb would be
towering giant in comparison. 1t
very singular that the larger the wor
the smaller the denizens must be; tn
the inhabitants of the modest plane
earth, should be men; those of the hui
!. sun, dwarfs, and those of the tiny aste
old, Ceres, giants.-0maha Worl
Herald.