Skip to main content

larry niven - How close was the Puppeteer's homeworld to the Ringworld?


Specifically, I'm curious about 2 key points in time.




  1. When the Ringworld was first explored by Louis Wu (Ie, the book Ringworld)

  2. During the Fringe War (Ringworld's Children)


And if you want a bonus question: Was the Puppeteer's exodus detectable during the Fringe war?



Answer



How close to the Ringworld was the Fleet of Worlds?


At the time of the first expedition (2851), the Fleet of Worlds was a little more than two light-years from the Ringworld. This is given on chapter 7 ("Stepping Discs"):



They were in hyperdrive for a week, covering a little more than two light years. When they dropped back into Einsteinian space they were within the system of the ringed G2 star; and the foreboding was still with Louis Wu.




The Fringe War takes place forty-one years later, by 2892. The Fleet of Worlds had been accelerating steadily for more than 200 years at the time of the first expedition. According to chapter 8 ("Ringworld") of the first novel it was already at near-lightspeed at that time:



The puppeteer worlds had been moving at nearly lightspeed along galactic north.



Having travelled at near-lightspeed for forty-one years, the Fleet should be somewhere between about 39 to 43 light-years away from the Ringworld when the Fringe War takes place.


Would the Fleet be detectable by the participants in the Fringe War?


I think not. The Fleet has no sun, and the artificial suns that are used in its place are not very bright because they're very close to their worlds. We first see the Fleet on chapter 5 ("Rosette"), and we're given the following description:



Five dim stars, in a regular pentagon. They were a fifth of a light year distant and quite invisible to the naked eye. At present scope magnification they would have to be full sized planets. In the scope screen one was faintly less blue, faintly dimmer than the others.




At a fifth of a light-year, the Fleet cannot be seen with the naked eye, and Louis Wu's scope can only resolve them to what looks like five dim stars. The participants in the Fringe War would be receiving the light sent when the Fleet was approximately twenty light-years away. That is one hundred times farther away, which should make the Fleet pretty much undetectable.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more