Laotzu and Stanley Kubrick were trying out a high-performance aircraft, a plane so exquisite that it could fly even in the absence of air. The two friends took off from a base near their hotel, with Kubrick at the controls, and went into low orbit around the moon.
They were skimming low over the lunar surface, barely clearing the higher ridges, and Laotzu was awestruck by the terrain. He asked Kubrick how fast they were going, and with a glance at the cockpit gauge Stanley answered "56 miles a minute." To give an idea of that speed, in much of the earth's atmosphere (the clear layer above the clouds) the speed of sound is close to 10 ten miles a minute—so they were traveling between 5 and 6 times a typical speed for sound back on earth.
Laotzu produced his calculator and squared 56 twice. The result was 107. Since each quartic speed unit was worth 1015 ocs of weight, he told Stanley that the moon's weight in her own surface gravity is 1022 ocs.
After a while Laotzu began to get restless and think about returning to the hotel. He asked Stanley when they would be getting back and the noted auteur observed that they had traveled halfway around the moon. He pointed out that slightly over 3 radians remained to complete their circuit and that radiantime in low orbit on the moon is 19.2 minutes.
To pass the time he again produced his calculator and entered their speed of 56 miles a minute. But this time instead of raising 56 to the fourth power he cubed it and multiplied by the moon's 19.2 minute arctime. The result was 3.4 × 106 units (cubic miles per square minute) each of which was worth a quadrillion talents of mass. So the sage informed Kubrick that the moon's mass was 3.4×1021 talents.
*
Copyright © 2002 Leonard Cottrell. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
*