The Project Gutenberg EBook of Houlihan's Equation, by Walt Sheldon

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Title: Houlihan's Equation

Author: Walt Sheldon

Release Date: June 19, 2009 [EBook #29168]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Every writer must seek his own Flowery Kingdom in imagination's
wide demesne, and if that search can begin and end on Earth his
problem has been greatly simplified. In post-war Japan Walt Sheldon
has found not only serenity, but complete freedom to write
undisturbed about the things he treasures most. A one-time Air Force
officer, he has turned to fantasy in his lighter moments, to bring
us such brightly sparkling little gems as this._

houlihan's
equation

_by ... Walt Sheldon_

The tiny spaceship had been built for a journey to a star. But its
small, mischievous pilots had a rendezvous with destiny--on Earth.

I must admit that at first I wasn't sure I was hearing those noises. It
was in a park near the nuclear propulsion center--a cool, green spot,
with the leaves all telling each other to hush, be quiet, and the soft
breeze stirring them up again. I had known precisely such a secluded
little green sanctuary just over the hill from Mr. Riordan's farm when I
was a boy.

Now it was a place I came to when I had a problem to thrash out. That
morning I had been trying to work out an equation to give the
coefficient of discharge for the matter in combustion. You may call it
gas, if you wish, for we treated it like gas at the center for
convenience--as it came from the rocket tubes in our engine.

Without this coefficient to give us control, we would have lacked a
workable equation when we set about putting the first moon rocket around
those extraordinary engines of ours, which were still in the undeveloped
blueprint stage.

I see I shall have to explain this, although I had hoped to get right
along with my story. When you start from scratch, matter discharged
from any orifice has a velocity directly proportion