Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/93

Rh "Why, I always thought that mass and weight were the same thing."

"Not a bit of it," said the doctor. "Mass is the amount of matter a body contains. I weigh a hundred and fifty pounds. Put me at the center of the earth, and I would weigh nothing at all; and yet my body would still contain the same amount of matter. My mass would remain unchanged, though my weight would disappear. Consequently, if Miss Flora were at the center of the earth, she would have no trouble in throwing a ball; in fact, she could throw it much farther than she can here. And if she brought her fist down with all her strength on a glass vase, delicate as her fist is, it would shatter that vase into a thousand pieces."

"What a pity it is," said Mr. Curtis, "that your passengers will not be able to stop at the center of the earth. There would be so many curious experiences for them to undergo."

"Their experiences," said Dr. Giles, smiling, "would not be one whit more interesting if they stopped at the center of the earth than they will be as it is. You would be astonished if you knew what curious phenomena are in store for the first