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Bill DeWitt wrote:
> Simon de Vet <sde### [at] istar ca>
> >
> > That scene in Voyager is, (pardon the scientific terminology) absolute and
> > bloody nonsense.
> >
>
> Um, is that supposed to be Saturn? I assumed it was some smaller ringed
> planet on the other side of the galaxy...
Well, Smaller with the emphasis on the Small part... we're talking about a
teeny-tiny planet here... Suppose the ratio of Planet size to Ring size is
roughly constant. Jupiter is 71400km(planet diameter):114000km(ring width, inner
radius to outer radius) This is roughly 1:1.5. Now, suppose Voyager is about
500m long (more or less). The ring is no more than 6x it's width. This would
mean a ring 3km wide. Now, this would result in a planet 2km in didmeter. Think
about that :)
Now, to be generous, the thickest part of Jupiter's rings are only 22000 km
across. I'll suppose that this is what the visible rings on Voyager are,
resulting in a new ratio of 71400:22000, or 3.25:1 (big difference). However,
even this firendly estimate results in a planet about 20km in diameter. Still
far to tiny...
The fact is that no matter how you analyze the scene, no matter how generous you
can be, the planet always ends up being too small.
> I love that scene! I even like the impossible sounds.
I do to! Wonderful looking scene... captures the essence of trek, whatever that
is...
> I find that it is important for me to use my 8 year old mind while
> watching TV science fiction. I save my 16 year old mind for reading Science
> Fiction and only use my 43 year old mind for writing Science Fiction.
I agree! But my problem arises only here, when one mind (My trek mind) is forced
into direct competition with my other mind (my rendering/physics mind).
Unfortunately, my rendering mind won this round....
BTW, you write SF? Any available to read?
Simon
http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet
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