Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/169

Rh greatly increased. The same fact had struck him on attempting to hit the fly. For example, even when he tried to raise his hand very slowly, it would be shot violently upward, while when he moved it normally it would travel with lightning speed. So, in his swimming movements, although he meant his strokes to be very slow and deliberate, yet his arms fairly flew through the air.

Our hero was very much puzzled at first for an explanation of this singular phenomenon; but at last it struck him that the reason his motions were so much more violent than on the earth was that, while his muscular force remained unchanged, this force produced greater effects, since his limbs now possessed no weight.

When he moved his limbs on the earth a great portion of his muscular force was consumed in overcoming the attraction of gravitation, while here no force whatever was wasted in this way; hence the same exertion would produce very much more rapid movements.

"I understand it now," said William, after considering the matter a little. "We learned at school that a force sufficient to give a weight of one pound an acceleration of one foot per second