[TML] "Dies the Fire"

[Richard Aiken]

On Dec 9, 2007 8:02 PM, Stuart Frew <stuart at frew.net.nz> wrote:
>
> > So . . . a fantasy world that really IS a "flat earth."  The Sun would
> > always be about at dawn, right?  So would you call it Dawnworld?
> > There'd be a permenantly Light and Dark side to everything, wouldn't
> > there?  Wait one.  Shadow squares, like with Ringworld?
> >
> I believe that the sun could (technically, if you ignore the physical
> effects of motion on the sun) bob up and down through a hole in the
> middle.
>
> So the sun would always be on one side but it could rise and set.

I'm not Leonard, so I don't know.  But that'd have to be an AWFULLY
thick disk, wouldn't it?  I'm thinking the disk must be less than one
Earth diameter thick (not as small as half, but a lot less than full,
I think).  Otherwise, the surface gravity gets too high.  Since the
star is a LOT bigger across than this distance, you'd end up with
about half of it visible from both sides of the disk.

> How do the weather patterns form, is the disk spinning at all?

I'm thinking the disk would have to be spinning.  The original
primordial mass would have been spinning.  Stopping that would have
been a needless waste of energy.  Besides, the centrapedal force of
the spin would be part of what's keeping the disk from collapsing into
the star.

As far as weather goes, I don't think you'd naturally get seasons.  No
axial tilt.  Seasons really would be "magical" in nature.  The Earth
Goddess and Old Man Winter - or rather the Builder AIs in charge of
simulating Earthlike weather conditions -  really would fight over who
gets to rule where!

As for weather, it would likely be tame.  The corealis force (if any)
would be very diffuse, I think.  You don't have a planetary spin, only
the orbital one.

Or not.  I think it would depend on the size of the disk's seas.  If
they're roughly Earth-sized, you get tame weather.  But seas scaled to
the disk - (a sea bigger than the asteroid belt!) - would give you
WILD weather indeed.  Hurricanes to make Force 5 monsters look like
summer breezes!

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein