Re: [GZG] Re: Model Planets and figs

On 19 Aug 2005 at 18:52, Doug Evans wrote:
> David Brewer wrote on 08/19/2005 06:37:50 PM:
> > Doug Evans wrote:
> > >
> > > Remember, the Ringworld was the diameter of an orbit,
> > not a planet.
> >
> > Whereas Masaq' Orbital from Iain M Banks's unfortunate pre-9/11
> > novel "Look to Windward" was smaller, and orbited a sun as a planet
> > did.
> 
> Not familiar with that; in a sense, the Ringworld orbited 'as a planet
> did', but I'm not sure how you mean it in Masaq. Is it a flat piece
> facing the sun, in orbit? If so, how does it simulate gravity?

Orbitals are mini-rings that orbit stars as a unit. They're angled so 
that the ring itself produces a night/day cycle. See Banks' essay "A 
Few Notes on the Culture" 
<url:http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm> for details. 
They provide a much better mass:area ratio than planets without being 
as mind boggling huge as rings.

The physics as presented is okay, although the engineering is left as 
an exercise for future generations (much like with rings).

One neat feature for DS2/SG2 players is that the "gravity" is 
centrifiugal and hance anti-grav devices don't work (see 'Consider 
Phlebas' for a messy example). So you have very high tech armies with 
no grav vehicles.

	Steve
-- 
"Reality must take precedence over public relations.  
 Nature cannot be fooled."		     - Richard Feynman

Steve Pugh	<steve@pugh.net>      <http://steve.pugh.net/>

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