On 8/7/2025 8:53 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven
Climate change provides a tribal leader a pretext to dispatch his least favourite tribe members on an ill-fated expedition from which none will return.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/your-sanctuary
Allow me to get super picky, and comment on a comment:
Jacob Haller wrote:
I would happily gloss over things like there not being any reason to
think that integral-shaped trees bobbing around in a vacuum would have
a stable orientation.
In this case Jacob's wrong, and Niven was right.
Elongated objects in orbit tend to assume a position with the longest
axis pointed towards to center of the orbit, due to gravity gradients.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity-gradient_stabilization
There's a lot of very bad physics in the book, but that at least
is right.
In article <1073n36$d5th$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
On 8/7/2025 8:53 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven
Climate change provides a tribal leader a pretext to dispatch his least
favourite tribe members on an ill-fated expedition from which none will
return.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/your-sanctuary
Allow me to get super picky, and comment on a comment:
Jacob Haller wrote:
I would happily gloss over things like there not being any reason to
think that integral-shaped trees bobbing around in a vacuum would have
a stable orientation.
In this case Jacob's wrong, and Niven was right.
Elongated objects in orbit tend to assume a position with the longest
axis pointed towards to center of the orbit, due to gravity gradients.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity-gradient_stabilization
There's a lot of very bad physics in the book, but that at least
is right.
I have a vague recollection of Niven mentioning that Robert L. Forward
did some of the world-building, which means that I am reluctant to use
the phrase "bad physics".
In article <robertaw-A2E2CB.21445407082025@news.individual.net>,
Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
In article <1073n36$d5th$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
On 8/7/2025 8:53 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
The Integral Trees (Integral Trees, volume 1) by Larry Niven
Climate change provides a tribal leader a pretext to dispatch his least >> > favourite tribe members on an ill-fated expedition from which none will >> > return.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/your-sanctuary
Allow me to get super picky, and comment on a comment:
Jacob Haller wrote:
I would happily gloss over things like there not being any reason to
think that integral-shaped trees bobbing around in a vacuum would have >> > a stable orientation.
In this case Jacob's wrong, and Niven was right.
Elongated objects in orbit tend to assume a position with the longest
axis pointed towards to center of the orbit, due to gravity gradients.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity-gradient_stabilization
There's a lot of very bad physics in the book, but that at least
is right.
I have a vague recollection of Niven mentioning that Robert L. Forward
did some of the world-building, which means that I am reluctant to use
the phrase "bad physics".
Remember that Forward's work then got filtered through Niven.
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