The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty Read Online Free

the problem. That was when he looked over to see what Wanda was doing. She had finished her project and decided to add two extra moons just to show off.
    “Bernie decided to try the same thing. Maybe he wanted to make up for the points he would lose for the red sun or maybe he was trying to compete with Wanda. Or maybe he never finished reading the manual and really thought he was supposed to have three moons. Who knows?
    “Bernie was running out of time, but he rushed ahead anyway. He decided two of his moons would circle the third moon instead of the planet. He made a large moon and got it into a good orbit. Then he put the two smaller moons in orbit around the big moon. And, in a clear play for extra credit, he made them circle the moon in a vertical orbit instead of the traditional horizontal orbit. Now, that would have given him a passing grade, except for one problem. He needed to verify orbital stability.” Caleb struggled to keep a straight face.
    “He pushed into the future to see how the orbits looked, but found the second moon had crashed into the first and pieces of both had smashed into the planet, definitely a failing grade. He pulled back to the present time and tried a do-over by adjusting the orbits. But every time he did a future check, he found the planet in ruins.”
    “How far in the future do they have to verify a stable orbit?”
    Caleb’s eyes twinkled again as he said, “We usually tell the kids their solar system has to be stable long enough to give any advanced life forms a fighting chance to evolve, invent space travel, and escape to a safer planet.”
    Ezrah laughed, and Caleb laughed with him.
    “It finally dawned on Bernie his fancy moons were a problem. That is when he decided any passing grade was more important than outdoing Wanda. So he grabbed all three moons, mashed them together into one large moon, and put it into orbit. He did a future check, and the orbit was stable.
    “Relief was all over his face until he noticed a two-thousand foot tidal wave racing around the equator.” Caleb could barely tell the story because he was laughing so hard.
    “I assume that was because the moon was so big and heavy.”
    “Yep. Now, most of us would know to make the moon smaller or lighter or move it farther away from the planet so the gravitational forces wouldn’t be so strong. Bernie was so frazzled he didn’t think it through.
    “Instead, he squished the planet. He thought if he squished it, the oceans would be forced away from the equator and closer to the poles. All he accomplished, of course, was to subject his oceans to even greater centrifugal forces, which increased the depth of the oceans and the height of the tidal wave.” Tears of laugher rolled down Caleb’s cheeks.
    “The saddest part came next. I saw Bernie’s face the moment he figured out what to do. He was going to move his moon farther away, which would have solved the problem. But, that’s when I had to tell everyone their time was up. Poor Bernie. So close and yet so far.”
    “That’s funny. I wish I’d seen it.”
    “You can,” exclaimed Caleb. “His universe is one of few I’ve saved over the years.” He brought Ezrah to a viewing window hanging on the wall.
    As Ezrah gazed into the window, he saw a large red sun; around that sun rotated a sad little planet. The planet, instead of being round, looked squished, just as Caleb had described. Its oceans were concentrated around the equator where two massive tidal waves, one on each side of the planet, were dragged around the world by a gigantic moon. It looked like a fat little world trying to swing a Hula-hoop ocean around its middle.
    Ezrah saw every detail of Caleb’s story written on the planet. Even the moon looked like a lump of clay with two smaller lumps squished into it. They both laughed some more.
    “I must admit I feel badly about one thing, though,” Caleb said as his laughter subsided.
    “What’s that?”
    “I told the other teachers