9.8 m/s^2
Georgie wasn’t terribly bright. Sometimes that got him down. Once he had been so low that he almost threw himself out of the twenty-fourth story window of the Manor Manor hotel. Fortunately the young master had been there. The young master had said, “you don’t want to do that Georgie.”
When Georgie had insisted that he did, the young master had asked him if he knew just how fast he would fall if he jumped out the twenty- fourth story window. “Yes,” Georgie had replied, “nine point eight metres per second.” He was surprised to hear himself say it. He hadn’t known he’d known.
“No,” the young master corrected him, “you would fall at nine point eight metres per second PER SECOND. That’s much much faster than nine point eight metres per second.”
Georgie had been so awed by this that he forgot all about jumping out of that window.
In the intervening years Georgie had wondered many times if you could just keep making things faster by adding “per second” to the end. “Just how fast”, he would wonder to himself as he scrubbed the toilet bowl, “would nine point eight metres per second per second PER SECOND be.” Georgie tried to solve this riddle by himself, but he was not terribly bright. Sadly, by the time he had found a good way of phrasing the question, the young master had long since become an adult and moved to America.
One day Georgie found himself back on the twenty-fourth story of the Manor Manor hotel and couldn’t help but remember when the young master had kept him from jumping. As he was scrubbing the toilet that day the “per second” question troubled him more than it ever had before. Before he knew it he was repeating “per second per second per second per second” over and over again under his breath and he was scrubbing so hard that the bristles began to fall out of the brush.
It was time, he decided to settle the question once and for all. Leaving the brush lying haphazardly in the toilet, Georgie marched into the library and for the first time in his life addressed the old master without being spoken to first. “Sir,” he said, “I have something very important to ask you.”
Surprised, the old master looked up from his book and removed his pipe from his teeth. “Yes Georgie,” he asked kindly but with some slight impatience in his voice, “what is it?”
“How much faster, sir,” Georgie began tremblingly, amazed at his own gall and filled with trepidation and excitement at the idea that he would soon have the answer, “is nine point eight metres per second per second per second than nine point eight metres per second per second?”
The old master narrowed his eyes slightly and then gave a very tiny shake of his head. “Those are accelerations Georgie, not velocities,” he said as he placed the pipe back in his teeth and returned to his book, “for all you know the speed is zero.”
Cowed, Georgie retreated from the room.
“For all you know Georgie,” he said to himself as he opened the twenty-fourth story window, “the speed is zero.”
-Frank Duff (frankduff.com)
Tags: 9.8 m/s^2, Frank Duff, Gravity, kuro5hin
K. says:
It is an excellent story.
I’m glad that the author gave me the permission to post it.
December 2nd, 2005 at 01:19 am
Neha says:
It is an excellent story K.
December 2nd, 2005 at 11:00 am
Isaiah says:
the initial speed will very well be zero but as per the general theory of relativity speed of gravity is equal to speed of light.
December 2nd, 2005 at 10:26 pm
Isaiah says:
the accelaration due to gravity also varies depending upon your position on Earth.
December 2nd, 2005 at 10:28 pm
Isaiah says:
all in all a great work.
December 2nd, 2005 at 10:29 pm
K. says:
comment spammer!
December 2nd, 2005 at 10:36 pm
Deepak says:
he should have jumped off the 25th floor in the first place
December 3rd, 2006 at 03:30 pm