"Isaac Asimov - Feeling of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

\pard\li230\sl15\slmult0 "Why under the two?" asked Congressman Brant at once.\par
\pard\li230\sl10\slmult0 "Because" Aub looked helplessly at his superior for\par
\pard\li20\sl40\slmult0 support. "It's difficult to explain."\par
\pard\li230 Shuman said, "If you will accept his work for the moment,\par
\pard\li25\sl55\slmult0 we can leave the details for the mathematicians."\par
\pard\li225 Brant subsided.\par
\pard\li215\sl10\slmult0 Aub said, "Three plus two makes five, you see, so the\par
\pard\li25\sl30\slmult0 twenty-one becomes a fifty-one. Now you let that go for a\par
\pard\li20 while and start fresh. You multiply seven and two, that's\par
\pard\li20\sl15\slmult0 fourteen, and one and two, that's two. Put them down like\par
\pard\li15\sl15\slmult0 this and it adds up to thirty-four. Now if you put the\par
thirty-four under the fifty-one this way and add them, you\par
\pard\li5\sl35\slmult0 get three hundred and ninety-one and that's the answer."\par
\pard\li210 There was an instant's silence and then General Weider\par
\pard\li10\sl5\slmult0 said, "I don't believe it. He goes through this rigmarole and\par
\pard\li10\sl20\slmult0 makes up numbers and multiplies and adds them this way and\par
\pard\li10\sl15\slmult0 that, but I don't believe it. It's too complicated to be anything\par
\pard\li15\sl15\slmult0 but horn-swoggling."\par
\pard\li215\sl20\slmult0 "Oh no, sir," said Aub in a sweat. "It only \i seems\i0 compli-\par
\pard\li15\sl15\slmult0 cated because you're not used to it. Actually, the rules are\par
\pard\li10\sl15\slmult0 quite simple and will work for any numbers."\par
\pard\li215\sl15\slmult0 "Any numbers, eh?" said the general. "Come then." He\par
\pard\li5\sl15\slmult0 took out his own computer (a severely styled Gl model)\par
\pard\li10\sl20\slmult0 and struck it at random. Make a five seven three eight on\par
\pard\li5\sl15\slmult0 the paper. That's five thousand seven hundred and thirty-\par
\pard eight."\fs24\par
\pard\li205\fs18 "Yes, sir," said Aub, taking a new sheet of paper.\par
\pard\li205\sl10\slmult0 "Now," (more punching of his computer), "seven two three\par
\pard\sl25\slmult0 nine. Seven thousand two hundred and thirty-nine."\par
\pard\li210\sl15\slmult0 "Yes, sir."\par
\pard\li210\sl5\slmult0 "And now multiply those two."\par
\pard\li225\sl20\slmult0 "It will take some time," quavered Aub.\par
\pard\li245\sl10\slmult0 "Take the time," said the general.\par
\pard\li225\sl20\slmult0 "Go ahead, Aub," said Shuman crisply.\par
\pard\li225\sl10\slmult0 Aub set to work, bending low. He took another sheet\par
\pard\li35\sl25\slmult0 of paper and another. The general took out his watch finally\par
\pard\li30\sl10\slmult0 and stared at it. "Are you through with your magic-making,\par
\pard\li35\sl5\slmult0 Technician?"\par
\pard\li250\sl25\slmult0 "I'm almost done, sir.Here it is, sir. Forty-one million,\par
\pard\li35\sl20\slmult0 five hundred and thirty-seven thousand, three hundred and\par
\pard\li45 eighty-two." He showed the scrawled figures of the result.\par
\pard\li260\sl20\slmult0 General Weider smiled bitterly. He pushed the multiplica-\par
\pard\li45\sl20\slmult0 tion contact on his computer and let the numbers whirl to\par
\pard\li65\sl60\slmult0 a halt. And then he stared and said in a surprised squeak,\par
\pard\li65 "Great Galaxy, the fella's right."\par
\pard\li265\sl220\slmult0 The President of the Terrestrial Federation had grown\par
\pard\li65\sl15\slmult0 haggard in office and, in private, he allowed a look of\par
settled melancholy to appear on his sensitive features. The\par
\pard\li75\sl15\slmult0 Denebian war, after its early start of vast movement and\par
\pard\li75\sl35\slmult0 great popularity, had trickled down into a sordid matter of\par