| Neutron Tide | |
| Author: | Arthur C. Clarke |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Published In: | Galaxy Science Fiction |
| Pub Date: | May, 1970 |
"Neutron Tide" is a short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1970 in Galaxy Science Fiction.[1] It is among his shortest pieces of writing, consisting solely of a 2-page, detailed description of a futuristic scenario in order to use a pun as a punch-line, a play on the title of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the United States' national anthem. The story was reprinted later in the 1978 Starlord summer special.
Clarke describes a space battleship flying too close to the gravitational field of a neutron star, and it subsequently being torn to bits by the high tidal forces. A military commander revealing this in a meeting says the only identifiable piece of debris was from an engineer's toolkit, a star-mangled spanner.