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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Symphony of the Sword/The Order of the Rose
Topic ID: 11
Message ID: 12
#12, RE: Wait... what?
Posted by Sofaspud on Jun-06-06 at 02:55 PM
In response to message #11
>If it's on the inside of the sphere? An infinite amount. Mass _above_
>you on a sphere doesn't contribute either way to the gravitational
>pull -- only mass below you does.

Your statement confuses me. Mass is mass - it exerts gravitational influence regardless of its relative position to you. Distance is the only factor.

Hmm... I think maybe you missed what I was saying. Picture the sphere. Now, inside it, place a psuedocontinent (PC), happily orbiting the star that lives at the center of the sphere (put it a safe distance away from the inner surface of the sphere, of course :). People live on the PC, with their feet pointing at the star (on the other side of the PC), and their heads at the inner surface of the sphere. Cianbro's magic accounts for the apparent location of the star to the inhabitants (could be done with mirrors, theoretically).

I assume the PC's foundation ('bedrock', if you will) is constructed of the same material as the sphere, simply because it would have been simple (!) to extrude/manufacture/transmogrify/arm-wave-into-existence a wee bit more (relatively speaking) of the same material as used to construct the sphere itself, while it was being built.

It seems to me (upon thinking about it) that the gravity problem is pretty much not a problem, *assuming* that the sphere material is incredibly dense (which is hinted at fairly often, if not outright stated). It should only require a layer that is moderately thicker than the sphere itself as the bedrock of the PC to form a suitably strong gravitational field. Give the foundation edges, akin to the mountain ranges at the edges of Niven's Ringworld, to keep air from spilling out, and you'd be all set.

--sofaspud
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