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When Mr.Thompson had finished, the president of the university went on. "I have formed a hypothesis that I am confident will explain all the puzzling questions that here confront us. Therewas a shower of no meteors last night, a fact that my astronomical colleague will confirm, and this object arrived in the place it now is, in the form it now has,from the limitless distances of outer space.
湯普森先生講完之后，大學校長繼續說:“我已經形成了一個假說，我相信它將能解釋我們這里所面對的所有難題。昨天晚上下了一場流星雨，我的天文學同事將會證實這個事實。這個物體來自遙遠的太空，以它現有的形式到達了它現在所在的地方。
"Why does it neither fall nor fly away again? We all know that there are two opposite but unequal forces that act upon every body at the earth's surface. One of these is the centrifugal force that results from the spinning of the earth upon its axis, a force that tends to hurl objects away. The other and stronger force is that of gravity, tending to pull objects towards the earth’s center.
“為什么這件物體既不往下掉也不再飛走呢？我們都知道有兩種相反但強度不一樣的作用力作用在地球表面每一個物體上。其中之一為離心力，它來自地球的自轉，這個力會將物體拋擲出去。另一個更強的作用力為地球引力，它會將物體拉向地球中心。
"This particular object, moving freely at tremendous velocity through space, entered into the gravitational field of the earth and was pulled from its course. As it hurtled through the atmosphere that envelops us, it became increasingly hot from friction, with the result that its molecular activity was distorted in such a way as to set up within the structure of the cube itself a force that neutralizes the force of gravity.
“這一物體以極大的速度在空間自由運動，進入了地球的重力場并被拉離了原先的軌道。當它高速穿越環繞我們的大氣層時，它的溫度由于摩擦而不斷升髙，結果它的分子運動被扭曲，從而在該立方體內部結構中形成一種足以抵消地球引力的力量。
