I established myself in a fairly remote country house and entertained my imagination with various means of transport. Here is how I betook myself to heaven. I attached to myself a number of bottles of dew, and the heat of the sun, which attracted it, drew me so high that I finally emerged above the highest clouds. But the sun's attraction of the dew drew me upwards so rapidly that instead of approaching the Moon, as I intended, I seemed to be farther from it than when I started. I broke open some of the bottles and felt my weight overcome the attraction and bring me back towards the earth.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker describes using dew bottles and solar heat to attempt flight to the Moon, but gravity and attraction altered the path.
- In plain terms
- I used bottles of dew and sun heat to fly to the Moon, but gravity pulled me down.
- What can you take from it?
- Early flight experiments relied on natural forces like heat and gravity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What early ideas did you have about flight?
- How do failures inform experiments?
Another view
The method relies on misunderstood physics of attraction.
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