Re: OT: The Geography Of A Discworld and the surrounding universe.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Wright" <faceloran@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 12:37 PM
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.
>
> Sort of....
>
> You have a flat disk in space with a tiny sun orbiting it. (Optional: put
> the disk on the back of a turtle, with or without interposed elephants.)
> If you add the astrochelonian, you'd have all the gravity you'd need for
> the little ball of flaming gas to stay in orbit. At a guess, the sun
> would be between 1/100 and 1/6 the mass of the world, depending on
> distance.
>
> Joe, however, was talking about magnetism to keep the sun at the right
> distance from the disk. As he has it, the sun would have to be balanced
> very well on the central magnetic band in order to keep it from slamming
> into the edges of the world. I'd just use gravity; it's simpler and
> works. If necessary, you could have a great mass of something dense, like
> osmium or me, at the hub (the astrochelonian's shell).
>
> Have you thought of direction names, Joe? Did you get this idea from the
> Discworld novels?
>
I was probably inspired subconciously by the Discworld novels.

I've decided to do without A'tuin, and the elephants.  The reason I was
using magnetism is that I want to keep as plain a disc as possible, with not
much decoration.

Now, directionals.  I'm going with 5 directions

East, West, North, South, and Hubwards.  Along with all related directions.
East, west, north and south are bad translations, as they essentially refer
to the sun and the moon, not the magnetic poles.  Hubwards istowards the
hub,  the strongest magnetic area. (Polarity S, I think)