Help me get my head around some big numbers...

[Fnaar]

Hey if you need an editor I have experience. Lots of it. Also know a successful steam punk author (tho it ain't my thang personally)

Monty if you take up this offer I would advise ignoring any recommendations on humour

Lol at @MacB
In all seriousness tho, I edited a series of short stories, published in Feb this year, book launch in Waterstones. Have 2 books published myself, a lot of my dayjob involves editing , currently in negotiations with a fairly well-known musician who wants to publish his story ...

 

[MontyVeda]

.........which means 74 years travelling at 38,000 mph to be one light day from the sun, and 27,000 years to travel one light year. That's less than a quarter of the way to the nearest star.

like i say, far too slow. My clockwork Victorian spaceship travels at 20,000,000 mph.

 

[MontyVeda]

Has it got a big key for winding it up?

It utilises a very clever self winding mechanism. The big key had an adverse affect on the craft's aerodynamics.

 

[jefmcg]

It utilises a very clever self winding mechanism. The big key had an adverse affect on the craft's aerodynamics.

Of course, aerodynamics is only a factor in the first dozen or so miles, and the last ones too, I guess.

Thinking about that, most of the propulsion would be required to escape the earth's (and then the sun's) gravitational pull. I fear firing a Gatling gun at the earth might cause a wee bit of collateral damage.

 

[swansonj]

Of course, aerodynamics is only a factor in the first dozen or so miles, and the last ones too, I guess.

Thinking about that, most of the propulsion would be required to escape the earth's (and then the sun's) gravitational pull. I fear firing a Gatling gun at the earth might cause a wee bit of collateral damage.

But as I understand it, the bullets don't actually reach earth. After being fired at high speed to impart momentum to the spacecraft, they slow down (because that's what moving things do), and when they're almost stopped, they can be reeled back in by the spacecraft and reused.

Nothing wrong with that that I can see

 

[jefmcg]

, they slow down (because that's what moving things do),

That is specifically not what things do. See Newton's first law of motion.

 

[swansonj]

That is specifically not what things do. See Newton's first law of motion.

Yeah, well, I'm not sure this chap Newton with his newfangled ideas knows what he's talking about. Everyone knows that, if you don't keep pushing them, moving things soon stop moving. We cyclists of all people ought to understand that. Can you give me a single example of anything in the world around us that keeps moving of its own accord?

 

[jefmcg]

Can you give me a single example of anything in the world around us that keeps moving of its own accord?

Yes.

The world around us.

 

[TheDoctor]

And every single satellite.

 

[MikeG]

It utilises a very clever self winding mechanism. The big key had an adverse affect on the craft's aerodynamics.

When did it need aerodynamics?

 

[Racing roadkill]

That is specifically not what things do. See Newton's first law of motion.

Newtonian physics is sooooo last year.

 

[MontyVeda]

The Victorian engineers had the sense to build the craft outside the earths atmosphere... probably at a lagrange point near the moon. Maybe they used a solar sail for the first few million miles (this also shielded the craft from solar radiation) and what fool wouldn't use the gravitational pull of the gas giants to increase velocity and get on course. I think you guys are over thinking this.

 

[MontyVeda]

When did it need aerodynamics?

i think that was joke. It was late and i'd just put the clock back.

 

[jefmcg]

The Victorian engineers had the sense to build the craft outside the earths atmosphere.

So why did you mention aerodynamics? I would have otherwise assumed the craft would have been assembled in orbit.

 

[MontyVeda]

see post #47