Project Gutenberg 2008-03-27 Public domain in the USA. 172 Sevcik, Al A Matter of Magnitude Produced from Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960. Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "A Matter of Magnitude" by Al Sevcik is a science fiction short story written in the late 1950s. The narrative revolves around the massive spaceship named Senator Joseph L. Holloway, affectionately known as Big Joe, which is commanded by the awe-struck six-star Admiral Heselton. The story explores themes of technological hubris and the unexpected outcomes of intergalactic interactions, delivering a commentary on perception and scale. The storyline unfolds as Admiral Heselton and his crew aboard Big Joe receive a mysterious transmission from an alien ship that remains undetectable by their radar and optical equipment. In a tense exchange, the admiral realizes that the aliens can see Big Joe clearly, while his own crew is entirely unaware of their presence. As the aliens express annoyance at the sight of the heavily armed battleship, Heselton faces an embarrassing truth: their powerful vessel is dwarfed by an alien craft that is much smaller, measuring only an inch and a half in length. Ultimately, this encounter forces the crew to retreat, highlighting the irony of their situation and the limitations of their technological superiority. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 76.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Space ships -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 38751 2025-06-10T10:25:01.471935 text/html 34708 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 13703 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 82831 2025-06-10T10:25:05.594901 application/epub+zip 81594 2025-06-10T10:25:03.271932 application/epub+zip 81594 2025-06-10T10:25:02.113943 application/epub+zip 176303 2025-06-10T10:25:07.281933 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 169619 2025-06-10T10:25:04.919923 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 144527 2022-09-11T12:44:22.724618 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 32629 2025-06-10T10:25:01.207952 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 32499 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 12642 2021-01-03T10:47:36 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 18865 2025-06-10T10:25:07.425395 application/rdf+xml 13930 2025-06-10T10:25:02.684941 image/jpeg 3761 2025-06-10T10:25:02.395936 image/jpeg 82597 2025-06-10T10:25:01.477944 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog