I have a hypothetical physics problem for you /Sci/. Been mulling it over for reasons and want to confirm or debunk my conclusion.
Assume a stable Ringworld with a radius of 1 AU situated around a star, rotating at a speed sufficient to create 1g of acceleration on its inner surface. Now, assume that the Ringworld is instantly and cleanly severed at one point along its circumference.
What is the outcome? What would you see and feel if you were standing on its surface? Could civilization survive for dozens of years on the far side of the ring while the effect travels along the vast circumference of the structure?
>>8171511
>> assume a stable ringworld
THE RINGWORLD IS UNSTABLE!
That's a bad science fiction author, try Greg Egan.
>>8171511
>What is the outcome?
The Ring would probably tear itself to pieces.
>What would you see and feel if you were standing on its surface?
Probably be able to see the breakage from much of the ring. There would probably be hurricane force winds towards the part that ruptured.
> Could civilization survive for dozens of years on the far side of the ring while the effect travels along the vast circumference of the structure?
Not in the least. You're actually overestimating the scale of the ring here. Ringworld is spinning at an absurd rate and does a complete revolution in just over a week. You'd have a couple days at most before your part of the ring fell to pieces.
>>8171641
A dozen years is too long, yes. As for the rotational velocity I found it to be about 7000km/sec, so yeah the rotation is absurdly fast.
As for the speed of the propagation of destruction I took the assumption that it would be governed by the speed of sound in the base material, which I took to be approx 8000m/s. Based on that, it would take about 2 years for the lack of tension force to reach the far side. Would the rotation of the system really accelerate this?
>>8171511
>muh gravity
Just shed your flesh you retarded fleshbag.
What next, you want to terraform planets ?
>>8171681
think 8km/s Is a low ball estimate for the speed of sound in Scrith.
>>8171554
>That's a bad science fiction author, try Greg Egan.
>>8171729
Is Scrith the unobtanium used in the book? Never read it myself, just shamelessly lifting concepts from it.
I just used a ballpark estimate based on roughly the speed of sound through steel. When dealing with a circumference of 974 million kilometers it shouldn't make much difference unless we are talking orders of magnitude here.
>>8171750
It very well could be orders of magnitude. Scrith is absurdly strong (Ringworld's floor is only 30 m thick) and extremely dense. (It stops 40% of passing neutrinos).
>>8171554
>>8171511
Rotation doesn't provide "gravity." acceleration does, and it's called centripital force. That should answer your question.
>>8172950
>being this retarded
OP said "rotating at a speed sufficient to create 1g of acceleration"
>>8172164
Apparently I get that by fucking up. 1211 km/s is correct.
>>8172950
>Rotation doesn't provide "gravity." acceleration does, and it's called centripital force. T
If you're gonna be a spergy pedant, at east get your shit straight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centripetal_force
THE VERY FIRST LINE:
>Not to be confused with centrifugal force.
and...
>A centripetal force (from Latin centrum, "center" and petere, "to seek"[1]) is a force that makes a body follow a curved path.
>Its direction is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous center of curvature of the path.
>Isaac Newton described it as "a force by which bodies are drawn or impelled, or in any way tend, towards a point as to a centre".[2]
>In Newtonian mechanics, gravity provides the centripetal force responsible for astronomical orbits.
You're apparently thing of centrifugal force, which (more or less) pulls outward.
