Lee Edgar - Andromeda 01 by The Andromeda Burn

Author:The Andromeda Burn [Burn, The Andromeda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-03T21:13:10+00:00

‘Tell me about water,’ said Mike as they ate.

‘Simple,’ said Cassi as she bit off a piece of bread. ‘What do you already know about it?’

Mike grinned. ‘It’s wet.’

‘Ha, ha. What else?’

‘You can drink it sometimes.’

‘What happens when you heat it?’

He frowned. ‘It gets hot and eventually turns to steam and floats away.’

‘Yes, but why?’

‘Is this some kind of a science lesson?’

‘Bear with me. Why does it float away?’

‘Because it becomes lighter.’

‘Correct. The appliance of heat energy excites the electrons in the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen to move faster, in a higher orbit so to speak, and the molecules consequently become lighter. The warmer, lighter molecules float on top of the cooler, heavier ones.’

Mike grinned. ‘If you say so.’

Cassi winked. ‘I do.’

‘I haven’t asked you yet.’

She looked puzzled.

Mike laughed. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

Cassi glanced quickly at her father who was trying desperately to stifle laughter himself. ‘What’s up with you two?’

‘The words you used are the traditional way to reply when someone asks you to marry them.’

Cassi stared for a long time at the man who had tried to help her and who had now risked his own life in what must have seemed a vain attempt to help others. ‘What about Maggie?’

Mike looked thunderstruck. ‘Maggie?’

‘Is your memory so short?’

‘No….but….’

Jim came to his rescue. ‘Cassi. How does the boiling point of water relate to time travel?’

His daughter sighed. ‘It doesn’t.’

‘Then what have you been yapping on about for the last ten minutes?’

‘Do you want to know or don’t you?’

Jim ignored her outburst. ‘I do.’

Cassi suddenly grinned. ‘I haven’t asked you yet.’

The atmosphere dissipated as fast as it had congealed as they ate a little more.

Cassi continued to expound her theory after a while. ‘When water gets cold, the opposite occurs. Denied external energy influx, the electrons slow down and become closer, as if huddling together for warmth. The heavier molecules sink to the bottom and the lighter ones float on top, as before.’

Both men were listening with interest. ‘And…?’

‘At precisely the point of freezing, a reversal occurs. As the water turns to ice, it becomes lighter and floats to the surface. If it didn’t, all marine life would die in winter.’

‘How do you know this?’ said Mike. ‘You’ve never seen it happen.’

She grinned sheepishly. ‘Iris told me.’

‘Did she also tell you how this all relates to time travel?’

‘Not to time travel, just to time dilation. The speed of light is constant, Einstein was at least correct in that hypothesis. He was also right when he said that the speed of other things is relative. Hence his Theory of Relativity.’

‘Energy equals the mass times the speed of light squared?’

‘Sometimes.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘The speed of light is constant, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Regardless of the circumstances.’

‘Right.’

‘But we’ve just learned from the example of water that energy in a particle can internally change due to external influences.’

‘Right,’ he said, more slowly.

‘But the mass of the water doesn’t change. Only the weight per volume. It is the density which changes. The same with time. Time is related, not to the actual mass loss but to the co-efficient of the energy release.

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