10 minutes past
eleven
`` Five thousand miles already ! '' cried Ardan , `` why we have only just started ! '' `` Let us see about that , '' quietly observed the Captain , looking at his chronometer , and calculating with his pencil . `` It is now 10 minutes past eleven ; we have therefore been 23 minutes on the road . Supposing our initial velocity of 10,000 yards or nearly seven miles a second , to have been kept up , we should by this time be about 9,000 miles from the Earth ; but by allowing for friction and gravity , we can hardly be more than 5,500 miles . Yes , friend Barbican , Petit does not seem to be very wrong in his calculations . '' But Barbican hardly heard the observation .