Breakfast in Zero Gravity

"We didn’t have our breakfast yet, my friends!" said Michael Ardan. "I don’t think we lost our hunger in zero gravity, do we? So I will make a good breakfast for you. The breakfast made with the lowest weighed food ingredients in the world."

He started to make it without expecting any reply from his companions..

“Take a look at our Water bottle, my friends; it looks like empty, isn’t it?" said Ardan while opening the bottle cap. "But you cannot fool me; I know why u are so light weighted. Here I opened the cap. Now pour that weightless water inside you to my cooking bowl, let me see."

He slanted the bottle in many ways. But the water didn’t come out of it.

"You are spoiling your time Ardan" said Nichole, Ardan's friend who came to help him. “You cannot pour it as easy as you would have at home, because now we are at our space ship, and there is no gravity here. You must stir it out like syrup."

Ardan placed a pat at the bottom of the bottle. He was amazed to see a big sphere of water as big as his palm, coming out of the bottle mouth.

"What happened to the water?" shouted Ardan. “I was not expecting this. Please tell me what happened, my friends?"

“It is just a drop of water, dear Ardan. Water molecules can take any size where there is no weight and Gravity. Water flows and takes the shape of the vessel in which it is contained is because of the Gravity. Because of the fact that there is no gravity here, the force that acts on the water molecules is the internal molecular energy. So there no other way for water to form a spherical shape just as the sphere that was produced as a result of Plato’s Famous Oil Experiment."

"Plato can do anything, but I must boil some water in order to make the soup for you. No molecular energy can stop me from doing that”, Declared the French man.

He stirred the bottle with all his power to pour the water in to the vessel which was floating in air. But he felt everything was working against him. As soon as the big water spheres touched the vessel’s surface, it began to spread towards the outside. And the next moment it began to cover the entire vessel as a thick coat of liquid. Boiling the water in such a situation was impossible.

“This is a simple example which shows how much is the strength of a liquid in sticking to an object and it is a rare sight”, Nichole said very calmly. “Don’t be angry, we are just experiencing the material things getting wet. Gravity is not opposing it and that’s why we are able to see this rare sight.”

“Oh…I am so sorry, I couldn’t help it” replied Ardan. “What ever it is happening here, I want this water now and now in this vessel, not around the vessel. My goodness! Who the hell in this world is going to cook a soup in such a condition”?

“If it is the wet which is stopping you from doing that, it can be solved” Said Barbichen affectionately. “Object coated with wax does not get wet. Coat the vessel with some wax outside and your water will then remain inside”

“Well Done! This is what is science is all about”, said Ardan gleefully accepting the suggestion. Now he switched on the burner to boil the water. Again problem! This time the Gas burner refused. After burning for half a minute, it died. Ardan got surprised. He tried everything to keep the fire but it didn’t last much long.

“Barbichen! Nichole! Is there any way to light it up? With respect to your laws of physics and the rules by the gas company, it must burn” the French man pleaded to his friends.

“There nothing extraordinary about it” described Nichole. “The fire actually burns according to the physics laws. As far as the company rules are concerned, it has no existence in zero gravity. You know, when it burns it produces both carbon dioxide and vapor. Both are not flammable. In normal condition these two keeps away from the flame. Both have temperature and hence the air coming towards the flame will push them away. But in zero gravity both the products remain in the same place where they are produced and it covers the flame and block the fresh air to come near the flame. Thus it consequently helps in weakening the flame. This is the same method used by the fire extinguishers.”

“That means if gravity was not present on earth, there was no need of fire brigadiers; fire will descend automatically. Fire will kill himself by cutting his breath” said the French.

“That is right, now we will look to cook the soup. Light the burner once again. Then we will blow at the flame. Thus we can create an artificial air flow that will help the flame to burn as if it were on earth.”

They were determined. Ardan again lighted the burner and put the vessel on it. Then he kept himself back to see Barbichen and Nichole blowing alternatively at the flame with some fear. He believed that they and their science caused this problem.

“Ha Ha ! You people are doing the job of factory exhaust pipes very well,” commented Ardan. “My dear fellow scholars, I am feeling sorry for you. But there is no other go. If you want to have your breakfast, then you should obey the laws of physics.

Time passed as fast as it can. Quarter an hour passed, half an hour and now one hour is passed. Still no signs of boiling water.

“Be patient, dear friend. Natural weighed water will boil easily. Why? Because the different layers of the water will mix with each other. High weighed cool layer will tend to go downwards pushing the low weighted layers upwards the order. Thus the water gets boiled. Did you ever tried to boil the water from the upside. At that condition, the layers will not mix with each other. Because of the fact that the heated layer remains the same area, it will not get boiled. You know water is not a good conductor. It is foolishness to heat water from different corners in zero gravity. Because the different layers are not mixed with each other, the water will not boil. That’s sure. But if we want, we can do that by consistently mixing the water”.

Nichole warned Ardan not to heat the water till it gets boiled. Because when it boils, it will generate vapor. In zero gravity both water and vapor have same weight. So the water will easily mix with vapor to create foam.

Ardan opened the bag with seeds and got really angry. Seeds spread out to all the space and bounced off the walls. Suddenly one seed went into Nichols nose. Suddenly Ardan cried out to his friend to give him some help to bring out that seed out of his nose. For that Ardan urged his friends to hit Nichole on his chest and back like we do boxing on earth. Friends punched hard on Ardan seeing the chance. Suddenly the seed came out of his nose. Nichole breathed a sigh of relief. Seeds were flying on the air. Ardan and friends began to catch them with the nets which they bought with them to catch the flies of moon. Thanks to Ardan for keeping that net.

It was clear that cooking is very hard in these conditions. Even the experienced will lay their tools down. Ardan suffered a lot to cook meat here at zero gravity and it flew up (don’t know whether we can say ‘up’ and ‘down’ here because there is no up and down here) from the cooking pan before it was cooked. Meat flew up because of the force from the vapor that generated from the cooking oil that was coated to meat. Ardan kept it down using a fork.

Now having food at that condition too was a big task. Out heroes were flying in the air and their heads knocked the wall time and time again. There was no use of chairs and tables there. To drink the soup Ardan and friends had to do a lot of things again. Ardan and friends were not able to pour the soup into glass and hence Ardan placed another pat at the bottom of the bowl. Ardan first was a bit worried about what he saw after that. Soup began to fly on space in the shape of huge bubble. But soon he regained his presence and acrobatically caught the soup back into the bowl. This time they used a wax paper to make a straw and using that they consumed the soup.

Translated by: Jaishine. V
Author: Yakov Perelman