Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-01-28
PRICE ONE CENT
LlFE ON oraRR PLANErs.
spsStne GraVsy Plays Many Rr~ak
Win the Peaple OF Other MorIaa.

spsStne GraVuy Plays Many Pr~eks
with the People OF Other Worlds.
The frst thing which most attracts
our attention about other planets Is their
very great difference in size. aud this
circumstance is the cause of some Of THEFT
most striking physical peculiarities
Take, for instance. the little planet Ceres
! Our earth is small enough. only .9ia
miles in diameter. bus Ceres is only 100
miles. These words may easily pass in
at one ear and out at the other without
leaving any impression behind az. IL
they cause us 10 think. we will wonder
how easy il must be 60 get from one
country TO another, how delightful 10 bo
able 60 sail round the world, pay q visit
TO ones friends az the antipodes, and be
settled at home aGain--all within the
short space OF two successive play days.
But il we look at the subject little
more closely we shall find that il involves
far more extraordinary consequences
than these. We know that while the earth
spins around men, dogs, and horses, balls,
and stones hold on, OF fall 90 tile earth.
This force which attracts matter to mat.
Ter is called gravity OF weight. Ii 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 u gravity. Now. the diane.
ter of the earth being so times greater than
that Of Ceres, it follows that boy here
Is 80 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 ringtaw with
huge round boulders instead OF marbles,
and play football 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 il a
body be once set in motion il will con
tinue moving forever. il not stopped by
some external force. Thus, when boy
leaps into the air. he would 90 to the
moon and further were it not for the at
traction 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 10 an enormous height
before the attraction would check his
ascent. Jumping over housetop would
be as easy as playing leapfrog, while
good jumper would think nothing OF
clearing, with 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.
TIE range Of projeetiles would be in
creased in proportion. Baby could hurl
his rattle into Council Bluffs, and, In the
svent Of . war with Chill, an ensign ~
Fort Omaha, with Krupp gun, could
defend San Francisco against the in
vader. Nor have we yet exhausted tl,e
wonders of Ceres.
We can imagine how uncomfortable il
must be for a fat man Of 800 pounds
weight 10 walk, run, or exert himself
But transport him TO our queer little
friend Ceres, and he Is at once at ease.
la moment he becomes so times
lighter than he was-as light, in fact, ss
kitten; and he may proceed, IL he
plcases, TO astonish the acrobatic natives
Of the planet by gymnastic exploits far
surprising even their own. Muscular
exertion there goes 30 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
exaggerated visions Of fairylund
| Stronger than the vanquishsd Titans Of
old, letters of iron would be TO them a.
| threads OF gossamer Like the genius OF
the Arabian Nights, they could spring
| from the earth to the clouds at bound
or clear half q dozen miles at q single
leap. The seven league boots would be
| no longer fable. A boy could start on
a run around the world and be back
sgain before his mother had finished
singing out his name a race horse could
| gallop 200 miles an hour, while the sea
would boil and foam with the gnmbos
| Of its mighty inmates and the gigantic
carcass OF leviathan extend for mile
along the deep.
II we reverse the circumstances and 20
10 planet larger than our own instead
Of smaller the case will, Of course, be ex
| actly the opposite. II we were trans
| Eerrei 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, il win be readily seen that
il the sun is peopled with beings consti-
tuted like ourselves its population must.
owing to the increased weight. consist OF
dwarfs two or three inches in height.
Among them Tom Thumb would be
towering giant in comparison. Its very
singular that the larger the world the
smaller the denizens 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. s.-Omaha World Herald.