----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Clark" <peter-clark@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 7:10 AM
Subject: Re: OT: The Geography Of A Discworld and the surrounding universe.
> Discworld? Do you mean a giant disk in space in orbit around a
star? I can't
> comment on the climate until I have a clearer image of what it is. Right
now,
> I'm imagining a giant round disk, with one side perpetually facing the
star,
> the other perpetually facing away. Please correct me.
No, I mean a giant disk in space with a small ball of flaming gas orbiting
it. I'm trying to avoid saying how it came into being, I'm just describing
how it is.
> > Next - Gravity:
> >
> > Gravity is caused not by the disc, but by the Gravitational Centre of
the
> > Universe. This decides what is up and what is down, and the Disc should
> > orbit it . The Sun is not held in place by gravity as much as the
Disc's
> > magnetic field. In winter, the Sun's magnetic field grows stronger, and
is
> > pushed away...
> Uh...you said that you were using real-world physics? Unless there
has been
> some serious changes in the understanding of gravity in the last couple of
> years, this is way off...
> Right now I am too confused to comment; if this were another
universe, with
> different physics rules, then sure, anything goes. But *here*, any object
> exerts a gravitational pull; it's simply that the pull is weak unless you
> start dealing with massive objects. You would need one heck of a magnetic
> field to keep a stupendously large ball of flaming hydrogen and helium in
> place; I can't even begin to imagine the energy required to produce such a
> magnetic field by artificial means.
Not artificial...natural. And yes, it is a strong field. It gets weaker
towards the edges. The world has Gravity, but it's just that the orbit
would be extremely low.