Timeline for Instability of Niven's ringworld
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 15, 2011 at 22:31 | comment | added | Bobby |
Interesting how Niven came to know that, as he writes in the preface of "Ringworlds's Children": At the 1970 World Science Fiction Convention there were MIT students in the halls chanting, "The Ringworld is unstable! The Ringworld is unstable!" (Did the best that I was able...hence, attitude jets.)
|
|
| Jan 20, 2011 at 20:19 | comment | added | Mike Scott | @JustJeff If you mess with the shadow squares to balance out instability in the Ringworld, then you'll introduce instability into the shadow squares instead -- you'll have to arrange them so that some arcs experience more light pressure than others. | |
| Jan 20, 2011 at 1:52 | comment | added | JustJeff | @Martinho Fernandes - massive, yes, but the area is huge, and the closer you keep the ring to being exactly centered on the primary, the smaller the forces needed to adjust the position. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 1:37 | comment | added | R. Martinho Fernandes | @JustJeff certainly negligible against something as massive and not highly reflective as the Ringworld. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 1:36 | comment | added | JustJeff | you would think that by messing about with the shadow squares, the light pressure on the ring could be used to some effect. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 1:29 | comment | added | Tangurena | And some of the residents took some of the engines to make ships to escape from the ringworld. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 1:16 | history | answered | DampeS8N | CC BY-SA 2.5 |