Re: Interesting concultural ideas

Fabian wrote:

> > On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, D Tse wrote:
> > > Anyone else's people live on a ringworld or (yikes!) a Dyson sphere?
>
> Anyone who wants realistic science will be in for a shock. I have been
> nformed by many people wiser than myself than the gravity of the inside of
> a ringworld or a Dyson sphere will be zero. There is a certain
> mathematical proof that the internal gravity of any hollow sphere at any
> point on the inside will be zero.
The proof is quite simple and the theorem is called Gaus's law. It is the
same reason as why a hollow conductor (known as a Faraday Cage)will not have
an electric field inside, i.e. why you are safe within a metal vehicle, such
as a car or boat, during a lightning storm.

Maarten van Beek