Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!columbia!topaz!hester From: hester@uci-icse Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Asimov and scientific revenge (from BTTF time travel discussion) Message-ID: <3391@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Thu, 22-Aug-85 16:39:32 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.3391 Posted: Thu Aug 22 16:39:32 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 01:29:51 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 19 From: Jim HesterThe title of Asimov's short story dealing with two men, a gravity nullifier, and a billiard ball as a murder weapon was "The Billiard Ball", and was printed in two collections of Asimov's short stories: "The Best of Isaac Asimov" and the more famous "Asimov's Mysteries". Minor correction: The 'slow guy' was the scientist (a theoritician), and came up with the mathematics for describing gravity. The 'quick one' was just a good field engineer who had become rich implementing the slow guy's ideas. He was no scientist. In fact, he had no understanding of the machine he built. It never occurred to him to wonder about the ultra-violet light that the null-G field emitted (caused by air wandering into the field, coming out at lightspeed, and burning in the surrounding air), explaining it to the crowd simply as a side-effect of the field. The slow theoretician managed to quickly deduce the cause of the light and used it to give the flashy engineer what he had coming, using the engineer's own non-understood machine as the weapon.