09-Mar-2004
17-Aug-2005
Title: Today's Lesson
Author: Sol 1056
Rated: G
No pairings, no major cussing.
Warning: significant mathematical and physics concepts ahead.
"Two hours."
"One."
The kid paused, his eyes narrowing. "One an' a half," he said, decisively.
I snorted, assessing the kid carefully. The kid--Duo--was smart, no doubt about that, but I'd met plenty of smart kids--and adults--in my lifetime. What Duo had was pure guts. I smiled then, a tight movement that just bared my teeth, and nodded once.
Duo punched the air with a fist, his grin wide, and shifted in his seat, pulling one of the books across the desk towards him. "Then get outta here, old man, so I can finish this."
On a whim, I shook my head. "I'd rather quiz you. You spent all day yesterday going over these questions."
"Quiz me?" He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "Man, that is so dull. Just lemme write 'em out an' then I can--"
"No," I said, holding up a hand. "Sixteen trees, on average growing forty kumquats each--"
"What's a kumquat?" His tone was baffled, but when I didn't answer, his blue eyes became suspicious. "You can't multiply stuff that doesn't exist."
"It's a type of fruit. Ever heard of oranges?"
Duo rolled his eyes again and nodded.
"Well, you should eat more of them." I snorted as he made a face and ducked his head to the textbook. The Sweepers did their best, but the kid was a bottomless pit. On the other hand, at only five-foot even, there were modifications I could make that I couldn't make with an adult. It wasn't like the kid was going to need the extra legroom. I realized Duo was muttering under his breath, and paid attention, leaning forward to see what had him so irritated.
"This stuff is just... this is so stupid," he moaned. "When am I ever goin' to care about somethin' like how many gallons of water are in a swimmin' pool? When am I ever gonna be near a swimmin' pool, anyway?"
"Do you know what one is?" I leaned back, regarding Duo steadily.
"Hell yeah," he retorted, indignantly. "There was one at the church! Hell," he muttered, glaring at the books. "I don't see how you can swim in a bathtub in the first place."
I ignored the misconception as irrelevant, knowing it would only make him bristle. "You need to know volume, circumference, and other basic calculations if you're going to be able to handle flying outside the simulator. The program won't always be running to make those adjustments and calculations for you."
"Can't be that hard. And it's gotta be less borin' than this crap."
"Can't be that hard," I repeated, chuckling dryly. "You think?"
"Yeah!" He sat up straight in the chair, his legs kicking at the rungs. They weren't long enough to reach the floor, but it didn't stop him from glaring at me. "Go ahead! Gimme something hard!"
"Fine. First, determine the weight of a shuttle, loaded with one Gundam."
Duo was silent for a minute, his eyes closed. Then one brilliant blue eye opened. "What kind of shuttle?"
"Thirteen-X," I replied, picking a shuttle make at random. I'd assigned lists of such information for him to memorize, and the kid had complained for at least a half-hour. Then he'd disappeared, and I'd found him an hour later, perched on Deathsycthe's chest as the head engineer made alterations to the ECM system.
"Nine-point-eight tons," he answered.
So he did at least look at the list. "With one Gundam," I reminded him.
"Seventeen."
"Thirteen-X has a capacity of two mobile suits," I pointed out. "The weight is not discrete, as it varies from front to back--"
"So the weight changes depending on distance," he said, shrugging. "Just divide up the length of the shuttle into smaller sections, determine the weight of each section, to get the... "
I blinked.
" ...What?" Duo frowned, puzzled, but the look quickly became a scowl. "It makes sense to me!"
"Right, right," I said, waving one hand. "Then do it. Numerically integrate the equation and tell me the result."
"Numerically my ass," he muttered, then fell quiet for a second. "Seventeen-point-six," he said.
I blinked again, and resisted the urge to dig in my pocket for a calculator. Then I considered digging in his pockets for the calculator, just to make sure the little thief wasn't doing it all under the table top. I realized he was staring, and sighed.
"Try calculating the change in velocity required to enter the transfer orbit from L2 to Earth," I began.
"What's velocity again?"
"Speed." I gave Duo a sharp glance, but the kid's expression was thoughtful. I sighed, and grabbed one of the sheets of scrap paper, jotting down a long equation. "You need to know the basics before you can understand--let alone compute in your head--equations like this."
He nodded, considering that carefully, then his face split into a wide grin. "What's this do?"
"It's a formula for calculating the velocity at any point of a heliocentric orbit with L2 at perihelion and Earth at aphelion." I wondered which word would trip Duo this time. While the kid's vocabulary was growing, it was often stunted by the fact that he rarely sat still long enough to read anything I gave him with more than a cursory glance. "You don't need to--"
"Yeah, whatever." Duo mimicked my habit of waving one hand, and I stifled a grin. The kid was obnoxious, but his quickness made such forgivable. "One over R. R is rate... so that's the velocity at... what?"
"Aphelion."
He squinted at the sheet. "If you replace R with dEarth... heading there, means slowing down, so negative... " His voice trailed off into mumbles as he stared at the sheet, his brow furrowed. Absently he brought his braid around to the front, stroking it a few times before flipping it over his shoulder. "Change in velocity is negative three-point-two kilometers per second."
I studied him for several seconds, until the kid started squirming. Finally I settled back, trying to appear casual. "What makes you think that?"
"Dunno." He grinned. "Just made sense, that stuff should be moved around until ya find the answer. Did I not get it right?"
"Yeah, you did," I huffed. I couldn't help it. Damn kid. Too precocious.
"Cool!" Duo shot up from the chair, papers flying in all directions. "I'm gonna--"
"Duo!" I sat up, barking the kid's name. He froze at the door, his hand on the plate to slide the ship's door open. I could see the slight rise in his shoulders, and suppressed a grin, knowing the kid was already gathering his strength to protest. "You still have to do the rest of these equations--"
"Only if you give me somethin' hard," he replied, but didn't leave the door. Instead, he leaned one shoulder against the door, his arms crossed, his nose turned up as though he'd won the day and it was only a matter of time before I realized it.
I smirked to myself, and decided to try a different tactic. I knew Duo had been hanging out with the mechanics working on the Gundam. Perhaps it was time to measure the size of the little pitcher's ears. "How can a heat weapon block a beam saber?"
Duo snorted. "The I-field keeps the heat weapon from expandin' an' since it can't contract neither, it would force the blade back, eventually frying the saber if the two are in contact long enough," he recited in a bored voice.
"How do you determine mass ratio?" That might get him; it was several chapters ahead in the textbooks I'd chosen.
"Velocity equals nine-point-eight-one meters divided by sec-to-2 times natural log of mass ratio times specific impulse." He yawned melodramatically. "Specific impulse, measured in seconds, reflects the efficiency of the propellant used."
"What's the mass ratio of Deathscythe?"
"One-point-seven-two." He made a face when I raised my eyebrows. "And before you ask, it will be outrun by a Leo in the stretch, which has a mass ratio of one-point-nine-six."
"What's the acceleration of a Taurus with a thrust of ninety-four-point-eight kilograms?"
He opened his mouth, frowned, and closed his mouth with a snap, giving me an annoyed look. "The book didn't talk about thrust in kilograms. It used some dead guy's name."
"Newton. But when did you ever do anything by the book?" I was amused to see Duo preen for a second. "Just go with it, and answer the question."
"Twelve Gs," he said, and snickered.
"What's an apogee motor?"
"A thruster used with Active Mass Balance AutoControl. Makes the suit go right way up. Is that the best you can do? Can I go now?"
I sighed, and nodded. "Go on. One hour?"
"--an' a half," he interrupted quickly.
"And a half," I agreed, a little wearily. "And then get your ass out of that simulator and scoot it right back here. You're got two hours this afternoon with Mike."
He was already out the door, but popped his head around the corner long enough to grin. "Do we get to blow things up?"
"I don't know," I said, a little grumpily at his cheer. The kid never approached my physics lessons with half the enthusiasm he gave to Mike's daily lectures in chemistry. I could hear his footsteps pounding down the hall, before going silent as the kid kicked off and floated the rest of the way.
"That bad?" One of the men stuck his head in the door. "Saw the kid take out of here like a bat outta hell. What did you do to him this time, G?"
"Nothing. Just trying to figure out where he stores all that information in his scrawny little body."
"Probably the same place he puts all the food," Joe replied with a grin. "Y'know, we're going to need to stop by MT-0999XS and reload."
"Again?" I raised my head sharply, but Joe looked serious. "We can't possibly--"
"We can, and we are," Joe said. "Ted's been fussing about the fact that the food stores keep disappearing, despite the eight locks between the mess hall door and the walk-in freezer."
"And I bet Duo oh-so-helpfully agreed to help him put the locks in place," I muttered, a little sourly. "Ted's not the brightest."
"Speaking of which, explosives class after lunch?"
"Yeah, why?" I stood, sorting the textbooks and papers into a pile. It wasn't the neatest, but it was neater than Duo would ever manage, if left to his own devices.
"Just making sure. Me 'n the guys are gonna head out to MT-0999XS now, then. Figured it'd be better to vacate the premises."
Yeah, I thought. Duo and explosives... I sighed, and joined Joe at the door. "Got room for an extra body on the shuttle?"
"Sure thing, G," he said, and laughed. "I've got a shopping list right here... say," he added, frowning as he looked at it. "Who the hell wrote down six pounds of chocolate and three cases of soda?"
I peered over his shoulder at the list. The additions to the ship's shopping list were in a scrawl across the bottom of the sheet. "I don't know," I told him. "But I'd be willing to bet it's got two short legs and a long braid."
"Thanks, but I don't take losing bets." Joe regarded the list thoughtfully. "So should I mark it off?"
"No," I said, grinning slyly. "Let's buy it, and then lock it up. The kid'll find it soon enough, and we wouldn't want to make it too easy on him." Yeah.
Duo, you always took the hardest route, but I'd keep giving it to you if that's what made you happy.
The End
Much of the information about mecha, weights, and specific physics questions related to Gundam were derived from the Gundam FAQ project, at http://www.animemech.net.
(:./sol/before1)
