The correct answer is option 1 "physical laws regarding fuel and weight". In Tom Godwin's science-fiction story “The Cold Equations", the story takes place in an Emergency Dispatch Ship (EDS), where the pilot discovers a eighteen-year-old girl, which entered as a stowaway. The rule was eject any stowaway to maintain the fuel and weight of the ship, but after learning the innocence of the young girl, he decided to take a different approach.
Question 2
The correct answer is "false". The main conflict of “The Cold Equations", is that Marilyn has to die, and the pilot Barton has to be the executioner.
Question 3
The correct answer is Barton "wants to know why she has taken such a risk". Barton did not want to jettison Marilyn, and wants to understand why he have to do it.
Q1- "physical laws regarding fuel and weight", since the rule for the trip was that<em> "h amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination". </em>X stands for the girl's weight in the ESL, which was a stowaway, and she couldn't stay in it or the destination wouldn't be reached.
Q2- False, the conflict is a choice between the life of Marylin and the fact that Barton has to be the one to jettison her out of it.
Q3 - "wants to know why she has taken such a risk" , since he is not from Earth an doesn't understand why humans always believe in possibilities that aren't a match to the physical laws that he was used to. For him, it was very strange to see how the girl could still be hopeful that she could stay in the ESL even after the explanation on why this wasn't possible.
