TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



367 



How to Reduce One's Weight. 



BY CHARLES XKVERS HOLMES, NEWTON, 

 MASSACHUSETTS. 

 There are two ways by which the 

 weight of even the most ponderous 

 person upon Earth might be reduced 

 without dieting and without delay. 

 Such a ponderous person, any fat or 

 stout individual, might under certain 



conditions lose as much weight as he 

 or she chose, indeed all of his or her 

 weight. And he or she might weigh 

 exactly whatever amount desired — 150 

 pounds or 25 pounds — without having 

 to get rid of even an ounce of flesh. All 

 that would be necessary is a journey. 

 long or short, according to how much 

 weight a person wished to lose. There 

 are two ways by which this reduction 

 might be accomplished, but — alas ! — 

 both of these means are at present not 

 available. Nevertheless ,they may be- 

 come available in the future, so perhaps 

 it will be worth while to describe them. 

 Briefly, in order to reduce one's 

 weight all that one needs to do is to 

 rise to a sufficient distance above our 

 Earth or to descend a sufficient dis- 

 tance beneath its surface. One begins 



to lose weight just as soon as he leaves 

 the terrestrial surface, going up or go- 

 ing down. Of course it is easy to un- 

 derstand that the farther away we get 

 from our Earth the weaker becomes 

 the attraction of gravity between us 

 and our Planet, therefore, since our 

 weight is simply a record of the 

 amount of that gravity, we should 

 weigh less and less according to our 

 distance from the World. At a height 

 of 4000 miles above the terrestrial sur- 

 face we should weigh only J4th of what 

 we do on the surface. y\nd were we 

 able to descend 3000 miles below the 

 terrestrial surface, we should then 

 weigh only a quarter of what we do 

 on the surface, because the distance to 

 our Earth's center being about 4000 

 miles, there would remain but a quar- 

 ter of the distance to that center to at- 

 tract us. That is, instead of being 

 pulled towards the terrestrial center by 

 the gravitational attraction of 4000 

 miles of our World's bulk, we should, 

 after descending 3000 miles, be pulled 

 downward by only 1000 miles, or 14th 

 of 4000 miles. And if we were able to 

 descend to the very center of our Earth, 

 we should lose all of our weight, since 

 at that point there would be nothing 

 further to pull us downward, every 

 atom of the 4000 miles now lying be- 

 hind and above us. In other words, 

 we should be in a condition of gravita- 

 tional equilibrum at our Earth's center. 

 Thus, it is evident that one's weight 

 or the pull of terrestrial gravity upon 

 one's body would become less and less 

 were we to leave our World behind us 

 or to descend to our World's center. 

 In either case, our weight would cease 

 entirely at the Earth's center and prac- 

 tically after we had reached a vast dis- 

 tance from that center. 



There are some so ignorant that they 

 do not so much as know they are igno- 

 rant — that blissful state of ignorance 

 where to be wise would be rank folly. 

 It is so very easy to be ignorant that 

 it would seem hardly worth while to 

 study and work, toil and scheme, in 

 order to be reckoned wise. The igno- 

 rant man who thinks he knows is 

 usually better satisfied with himself 

 than he who is wise enough to know 

 that he doesn't know much. — Erasmus 

 Wilson. 



