3 ms·
The Ringworld was kept stable artificially if I remember. Also it rotated extremely quickly which prevented it from getting squashed like the steel ring in the
by lmilcin 8y ago
The Ringworld was kept stable artificially if I remember.
Also it rotated extremely quickly which prevented it from getting squashed like the steel ring in the article. The rotation was so high that it created artificial gravity and so was also high enough to counteract star's gravity. In effect, the ringworld was in constant tension.
Since it was made from some pretty exotic stuff it is difficult to say anything about the tensile strength of the material.
- sliken 8y agoI believe this is pretty impractical, the required velocity was relativistic and created too much tension for any plausible material.
- ColinWright 8y agoFor reference, using the Earth as a measure, we are about 150 x 10^9 metres from the Sun, acceleration due to gravity is about 10 m/s^2, and a=v^2/R. So the speed required is about sqrt( 10 x 150 x 10^9 ) which is about 1.22 x 10^6 m/s. Light speed is about 3 x 10^8, so this is about 0.4% of c. So yes, we're coming into the realm of relativity.