Re: Interesting concultural ideas

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> I'm not sure of the exact definition of a "ringworld", but assuming that
> they work on the "ratating wheel" principle, the centrifugal force will
> mimic gravity very well (if it's reasonably big).
A classic Ringworld is a short cylinder about 300 million kilometers in
diameter and about 1 million km long, with a G-type star at the center.
It is spinning at about 1200 km/sec, which gives centrifugal gravity of
close to 1g on the inside, where people live.  Very tall mountains
at either rim keep the air inside, and provide recycling of materials
from the ocean bottoms through pipes in the outside.  The sun is
always at the zenith, but an inner ring of thin plates connected by
cables provides an intermittent shadowing that mimics the day/night
cycle.  Since the Ringworld is not in orbit, it needs attitude jets
mounted on the mountains and fueled by the solar wind.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan