One small word for (a) man
Published on Oct 2, 2006 at 1:29 pm.
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Filed under NASA, moon.
It’s a very small word. It is the smallest word in the English language. It is a short word. It is formed by just a quick breath. It is only one sound, and when written it is only one letter. It is the word a. It is an article. It is a basic word.
July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first being from the planet Earth to set foot on another world. He carefully climbed down the ladder of the flimsy lander that had carried him and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the Moon. He reported on the soil conditions (no one at that time knew if the surface would be compacted or loose, or if he’d be able to stand on it or sink into the dust). He then made the final step from the last rung of the ladder. It really wasn’t so much a step as it was a hop. The final rung was still a ways up. But, as he made this little hop, he uttered famous words. Everyone with a television on Earth was watching the grainy, too high contrast, and overall poor images sent back by the television camera on the lunar lander, and everyone listened as he said those words. What everyone heard was, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
There was cheering, clapping, crying, and all sorts of emotions boiling forth. A couple hours later, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed back aboard the lander and prepared to leave the Moon behind. It was much later that someone told Armstrong that he had flubbed his line. He couldn’t believe it. After the lander has settled on the lunar surface, he had thought of what to say on such a huge occasion. He knew that whatever he said would be famous, and so he wanted something that would fit with the momentous nature of the feat. So, he thought and thought. What he came up with was, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” But, no one heard the “a”. Armstrong insisted that he said it. But, listening to the tapes of the transmission, you don’t hear it. He began to doubt himself even. Did he say it, or not? He certainly meant to say it. As Armstrong himself says, without the “a” these momentous words don’t make gramatical sense. Surely he said it right! But no one heard the “a”, not even Armstrong when he listened to the tapes.  And, audio tapes don’t lie. Or do they?
Now, Peter Shann Ford, of Control Bionics, thinks that he’s found the missing word. He has analyzed the audio recording of Armstrongs famous words. He is convinced that he has found indication that he did say something very quickly between the words “for” and “man”. That would be the missing “a”. But is this for real?
The word “a” can be spoken in more than one way. Everyone knows that the British, Americans, and Australians all speak English, but they all sound differently. We all pronounce our words differently. Even within the United States, different states pronounce words differently. Even within the same region, you find people who pronounce words differently. The word “a” is one of those words that has no uniform pronunciation. Worse, sometimes the same individual will pronounce it differently at different times! What a mess English is!Â
The problem is that “a” can be pronounces as a long “A” sound, but it can also be pronounced sort of like an “uh”, just a quick exhalation. In the latter case, it is often pronounced very quickly, and it might be hard to catch if spoken quickly. The audio quality of the signals from the Moon was nowhere near the standards of today. There was static. A little bit of static at just the wrong moment might completely swamp the word!
So, how does Armstrong pronounce this word. I went back and listened to several other Apollo 11 transmissions. He almost always pronounced the word as a very quick “uh” — just the sort of thing that might be swamped in static. According to Ford, Armstrong’s “a” was spoken too quickly to be easily heard, but can be detected using the sound editing software Goldwave.
So, perhaps Armstrong really did get his line right after all, just like he’s said all these years. Take a listen to the recording yourself. What do you think?
Armstrong’s famous words (wav file)
-Astroprof
(Image and audio courtesy of NASA)
