We would sadly be messed up by the square cube law.

可悲的是，我们将被平方立方定律搞砸了。

This was a reference to a piece of mathematics known as the inverse square law, which Halley was convinced lay at the heart of the explanation, though he wasn't sure exactly how.

这里提到的是一个数学问题，名叫平方反比律。哈雷坚信，这是解释问题的关键，虽然他对其中的奥妙没有把握。