Old science fiction story with an alien creature tapping Planck's constant
About 50 years ago, I read a science fiction story in a "year's best" anthology.
As I remember it, a guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature. He fired a shot, but missed. They somehow get trapped together. At some point, one or the other starts rapping out numbers on the (wall?) between them.
Just as the guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being, the shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
story-identification short-stories
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
About 50 years ago, I read a science fiction story in a "year's best" anthology.
As I remember it, a guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature. He fired a shot, but missed. They somehow get trapped together. At some point, one or the other starts rapping out numbers on the (wall?) between them.
Just as the guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being, the shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
story-identification short-stories
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago
add a comment |
About 50 years ago, I read a science fiction story in a "year's best" anthology.
As I remember it, a guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature. He fired a shot, but missed. They somehow get trapped together. At some point, one or the other starts rapping out numbers on the (wall?) between them.
Just as the guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being, the shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
story-identification short-stories
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
About 50 years ago, I read a science fiction story in a "year's best" anthology.
As I remember it, a guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature. He fired a shot, but missed. They somehow get trapped together. At some point, one or the other starts rapping out numbers on the (wall?) between them.
Just as the guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being, the shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
story-identification short-stories
story-identification short-stories
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
edited 15 hours ago
Jenayah
15.5k478113
15.5k478113
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
asked 15 hours ago
NancyNancy
943
943
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Nancy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago
add a comment |
5
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago
5
5
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Possibly "Moon Duel" (1965) by Fritz Leiber, which appeared in 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1967). The story is available at the Internet Archive.
A guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature.
At the same time I was thinking how if the biped humanoid shape is
a good one for medium-size creatures on any planet, why so the spider
shape is a good one for tiny creatures and apt to turn up anywhere
and be copied in robots too.
The top hole in the sixth bubble showed me the stars, while one half
of its rim shone white with sunlight.
The guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being.
Then the number came to me. With the butt of my Swift I rapped out
five. No answer. No scratching either. I rapped out five again.
Then the answer came, ever so faintly. Five knocked back at me.
Six five five—Planck’s Constant, the invariant quantum of energy. Oh,
it should be to the minus 29th power, of course, but I couldn’t think
how to rap that and, besides, the basic integers were all that
mattered. [...]
We each knew the other had a suit and a gun (and a lonely hole?) and
so we knew we were both intelligent and knew math. So why was our
rapping so precious?
He raised his gun—I think to rap out one, to start off pi.
The shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
But I’ll never be sure, for just then there were two violet bursts,
close together, against the fissure wall, quite close to him.
He started to swing the muzzle of his gun toward me. At least I think
he did. He must know violet was the color of my explosions. I know I
thought someone on my side was shooting. And I must have thought he
was going to shoot me—because a violet dagger leaped from my Swift’s
muzzle and I felt its sharp recoil and then there was a violet globe
where he was standing and moments later some fragment twinged lightly
against my chest—a playful ironic tap.
He was blown apart pretty thoroughly, all his constants scattered,
including—I’m sure—Planck’s.
Found with the Google query "year's best" "planck's constant" "science fiction".
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "186"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Nancy is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fscifi.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f203358%2fold-science-fiction-story-with-an-alien-creature-tapping-plancks-constant%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Possibly "Moon Duel" (1965) by Fritz Leiber, which appeared in 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1967). The story is available at the Internet Archive.
A guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature.
At the same time I was thinking how if the biped humanoid shape is
a good one for medium-size creatures on any planet, why so the spider
shape is a good one for tiny creatures and apt to turn up anywhere
and be copied in robots too.
The top hole in the sixth bubble showed me the stars, while one half
of its rim shone white with sunlight.
The guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being.
Then the number came to me. With the butt of my Swift I rapped out
five. No answer. No scratching either. I rapped out five again.
Then the answer came, ever so faintly. Five knocked back at me.
Six five five—Planck’s Constant, the invariant quantum of energy. Oh,
it should be to the minus 29th power, of course, but I couldn’t think
how to rap that and, besides, the basic integers were all that
mattered. [...]
We each knew the other had a suit and a gun (and a lonely hole?) and
so we knew we were both intelligent and knew math. So why was our
rapping so precious?
He raised his gun—I think to rap out one, to start off pi.
The shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
But I’ll never be sure, for just then there were two violet bursts,
close together, against the fissure wall, quite close to him.
He started to swing the muzzle of his gun toward me. At least I think
he did. He must know violet was the color of my explosions. I know I
thought someone on my side was shooting. And I must have thought he
was going to shoot me—because a violet dagger leaped from my Swift’s
muzzle and I felt its sharp recoil and then there was a violet globe
where he was standing and moments later some fragment twinged lightly
against my chest—a playful ironic tap.
He was blown apart pretty thoroughly, all his constants scattered,
including—I’m sure—Planck’s.
Found with the Google query "year's best" "planck's constant" "science fiction".
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
Possibly "Moon Duel" (1965) by Fritz Leiber, which appeared in 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1967). The story is available at the Internet Archive.
A guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature.
At the same time I was thinking how if the biped humanoid shape is
a good one for medium-size creatures on any planet, why so the spider
shape is a good one for tiny creatures and apt to turn up anywhere
and be copied in robots too.
The top hole in the sixth bubble showed me the stars, while one half
of its rim shone white with sunlight.
The guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being.
Then the number came to me. With the butt of my Swift I rapped out
five. No answer. No scratching either. I rapped out five again.
Then the answer came, ever so faintly. Five knocked back at me.
Six five five—Planck’s Constant, the invariant quantum of energy. Oh,
it should be to the minus 29th power, of course, but I couldn’t think
how to rap that and, besides, the basic integers were all that
mattered. [...]
We each knew the other had a suit and a gun (and a lonely hole?) and
so we knew we were both intelligent and knew math. So why was our
rapping so precious?
He raised his gun—I think to rap out one, to start off pi.
The shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
But I’ll never be sure, for just then there were two violet bursts,
close together, against the fissure wall, quite close to him.
He started to swing the muzzle of his gun toward me. At least I think
he did. He must know violet was the color of my explosions. I know I
thought someone on my side was shooting. And I must have thought he
was going to shoot me—because a violet dagger leaped from my Swift’s
muzzle and I felt its sharp recoil and then there was a violet globe
where he was standing and moments later some fragment twinged lightly
against my chest—a playful ironic tap.
He was blown apart pretty thoroughly, all his constants scattered,
including—I’m sure—Planck’s.
Found with the Google query "year's best" "planck's constant" "science fiction".
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
Possibly "Moon Duel" (1965) by Fritz Leiber, which appeared in 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1967). The story is available at the Internet Archive.
A guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature.
At the same time I was thinking how if the biped humanoid shape is
a good one for medium-size creatures on any planet, why so the spider
shape is a good one for tiny creatures and apt to turn up anywhere
and be copied in robots too.
The top hole in the sixth bubble showed me the stars, while one half
of its rim shone white with sunlight.
The guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being.
Then the number came to me. With the butt of my Swift I rapped out
five. No answer. No scratching either. I rapped out five again.
Then the answer came, ever so faintly. Five knocked back at me.
Six five five—Planck’s Constant, the invariant quantum of energy. Oh,
it should be to the minus 29th power, of course, but I couldn’t think
how to rap that and, besides, the basic integers were all that
mattered. [...]
We each knew the other had a suit and a gun (and a lonely hole?) and
so we knew we were both intelligent and knew math. So why was our
rapping so precious?
He raised his gun—I think to rap out one, to start off pi.
The shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
But I’ll never be sure, for just then there were two violet bursts,
close together, against the fissure wall, quite close to him.
He started to swing the muzzle of his gun toward me. At least I think
he did. He must know violet was the color of my explosions. I know I
thought someone on my side was shooting. And I must have thought he
was going to shoot me—because a violet dagger leaped from my Swift’s
muzzle and I felt its sharp recoil and then there was a violet globe
where he was standing and moments later some fragment twinged lightly
against my chest—a playful ironic tap.
He was blown apart pretty thoroughly, all his constants scattered,
including—I’m sure—Planck’s.
Found with the Google query "year's best" "planck's constant" "science fiction".
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
Possibly "Moon Duel" (1965) by Fritz Leiber, which appeared in 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1967). The story is available at the Internet Archive.
A guy was visiting a small moon and ran into a scary giant spider-like creature.
At the same time I was thinking how if the biped humanoid shape is
a good one for medium-size creatures on any planet, why so the spider
shape is a good one for tiny creatures and apt to turn up anywhere
and be copied in robots too.
The top hole in the sixth bubble showed me the stars, while one half
of its rim shone white with sunlight.
The guy realizes that the creature is tapping out Planck's constant and is an intelligent being.
Then the number came to me. With the butt of my Swift I rapped out
five. No answer. No scratching either. I rapped out five again.
Then the answer came, ever so faintly. Five knocked back at me.
Six five five—Planck’s Constant, the invariant quantum of energy. Oh,
it should be to the minus 29th power, of course, but I couldn’t think
how to rap that and, besides, the basic integers were all that
mattered. [...]
We each knew the other had a suit and a gun (and a lonely hole?) and
so we knew we were both intelligent and knew math. So why was our
rapping so precious?
He raised his gun—I think to rap out one, to start off pi.
The shot he fired, which has circled the tiny moonlet they are on, hits and kills the creature.
But I’ll never be sure, for just then there were two violet bursts,
close together, against the fissure wall, quite close to him.
He started to swing the muzzle of his gun toward me. At least I think
he did. He must know violet was the color of my explosions. I know I
thought someone on my side was shooting. And I must have thought he
was going to shoot me—because a violet dagger leaped from my Swift’s
muzzle and I felt its sharp recoil and then there was a violet globe
where he was standing and moments later some fragment twinged lightly
against my chest—a playful ironic tap.
He was blown apart pretty thoroughly, all his constants scattered,
including—I’m sure—Planck’s.
Found with the Google query "year's best" "planck's constant" "science fiction".
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
answered 15 hours ago
JenayahJenayah
15.5k478113
15.5k478113
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
13
13
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
Not just an intelligent creature - smart enough to know human units for the Planck constant.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
11
11
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
@Adamant And to use base-10 rather than octal, which would be more natural for a spider-like being, assuming it has eight legs ;)
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
3
3
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
Also, he's lucky it didn't know the up-to-date value, which starts 6.626 (or 6.582 if he meant the reduced Planck constant in eV*s)
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
2
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
Actually, what units are those, with that 10^(-29)? Not J*s or eV*s. And Planck's constant is a quantum of action, now that I think about it.
– Adamant
15 hours ago
2
2
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
Microjoule.decaseconds of course
– cryptarch
15 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
Nancy is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Nancy is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Nancy is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Nancy is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fscifi.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f203358%2fold-science-fiction-story-with-an-alien-creature-tapping-plancks-constant%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
5
Huh. That would be one heck of a shot.
– B.fox
13 hours ago
I've felt bad for the spider after reading the question :)
– akinuri
3 hours ago