engineering

The Ruum

The Ruum is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Ruum rather than just read about it. In short: "The Ruum" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American writer Arthur Porges. Plot summary An indestructible robot—a "Type H-9 Ruum"—is accidentally left behind on earth during the age of the dinosaurs by visiting aliens, and not recovered because their ship is destroyed in a battle.

Key takeaways

The Ruum belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Ruum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Ruum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Ruum" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American writer Arthur Porges.

Plot summary An indestructible robot—a "Type H-9 Ruum"—is accidentally left behind on earth during the age of the dinosaurs by visiting aliens, and not recovered because their ship is destroyed in a battle. The ruum's work is to collect every species of animal within a 30-mile radius weighing 160 pounds plus or minus 15, and to preserve them in a state of suspended animation for later retrieval. Millions of years later Jim Irwin, a uranium prospector in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, encounters the ruum's specimens, animals which include modern and prehistoric mammals and a small Stegosaurus. He notices the animals are all of a uniform size and are not dead, despite some being millions of years old. Rather, they are paralyzed, and apparently fully conscious, in a living death. The still-functioning ruum appears, extending gripping hooks and a probe that drips green liquid. Irwin realizes the alien device intends to paralyze him. Shooting it with a rifle does not damage it, and Irwin flees as it pursues him at a steady five miles per hour. It is noted that Irwin weighs 149 pounds. Fit and military-trained, Irwin attempts to evade and destroy the ruum. First he hides above his trail and drops a boulder on it, but this fails to damage it. Then he climbs a sheer cliff, thinking the ruum cannot climb; but the ruum extends a climbing claw to the top of the cliff and begins to pull itself up. He tries to dislodge the claw with a stick, and is given a nasty electric shock. He finally dislodges the claw by shooting it, but the ruum is unharmed by the fall and responds by extending three claws at a time — more than Irwin can shoot. Having had no time for food or sleep, Irwin eventually circles back to his camp and sets a trap with dynamite. Taking advantage of the ruum's distraction by a grizzly bear, which it kills, he detonates the dynamite with a shot from his pistol. Dazed by the explosion, exhausted and defenseless, he sees the ruum still unharmed and approaching. But, to his surprise, it lifts him up, then puts him down and leaves. His colleague Walt Leonard arrives by seaplane and rescues him. Safely in the plane, they make plans to bring a helicopter and collect some of the ruum's specimens in its absence to sell to scientists. Leonard comments on Irwin's haggard appearance, guessing that he must have lost ten pounds during the chase.

Sequel A sequel to "The Ruum," titled "A Specimen for the Queen," appeared in the May 1960 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Following the events of the original story, it is mentioned in passing that the ruum succeeds in paralyzing a human (implied to be an ironic self-insert of Porges himself). Subsequently, a spacecraft belonging to a race of militant ant-people arrives on Earth. Mistaking the ruum for an item of human technology, they take it aboard, intending to present it to their Queen as an amusing novelty. Back on their homeworld, the giant Queen is engaged in laying thousands of eggs that will hatch into soldier ants, the vanguard of an army that will conquer the galaxy. However, once the ant spaceship is on course for its home planet, the ruum paralyzes the captain in the control room and kills any other ants who attempt to approach. With no one at the controls, the ship crashes into the planet at high velocity and is vaporized. The indestructible ruum survives, although the impact has affected its programming, increasing the weight of specimens it is intended to paralyze. Unfortunately for the ants, their Queen's weight now falls comfortably within this range, and the Ruum soon detects her and sets off in her direction.

Reprints "The Ruum" was selected by David Drake for his 1988 anthology Things Hunting Men, where he commented that this was one of Porges' seventy-some "meticulously crafted stories" where "sometimes the problem the protagonist faces really is insoluble." But, here, Jim Irwin never gives up. Many other reprints are listed at the ISFDB.

References

External links The Ruum at sphstigers.org

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Ruum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Ruum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Ruum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Ruum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Ruum

In research: The Ruum appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Ruum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Ruum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 short stories, Prehistoric life in popular culture, Robots in literature, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Ruum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “The Ruum” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Ruum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Ruum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Ruum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Ruum in simple terms?

"The Ruum" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American writer Arthur Porges. Plot summary An indestructible robot—a "Type H-9 Ruum"—is accidentally left behind on earth during the age of the dinosaurs by visiting aliens, and not recovered because their ship is destroyed in a battle.

Why does The Ruum matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Ruum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Ruum.