"You ought to be," Lopez answered reasonably. "It's been five hours or more since you had breakfast. We're on the same time schedule here as Hayworth Hall, zone plus eight, Terra. Why aren't you hungry?"
"Uh, I don't know, sir. I'm just not."
Lopez grinned and suddenly looked as young as his charges. "I was just pulling your leg, kiddo. The chief engineer will have some spin on us in no time, as soon as we break loose from the Bolivar. Then you can sit down on your soft, round fanny and console your tender stomach in peace. You'll have an appetite. In the meantime, take it easy."
Two more squads filtered in. While they waited Matt said to Lopez, "How fast will the ship spin, sir?"
"We'll build up to one gravity at the outer skin. Takes about two hours to do it, but we'll eat as soon as we're heavy enough for you groundhogs to swallow your soup without choking."
"But how fast is that, sir?"
"Can you do simple arithmetic?"
"Why, yes, sir."
"Then do it. The Randolph is two hundred feet through and we spin on her main axis. The square of the rim speed divided by her radius-what's the rpm?"
Matt got a faraway look on his face. Lopez said, "Come, now, Mr. Dodson- pretend you're heading for the surface and about to crash. What's the answer?"