Organization: Maya
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Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:20:00 -0400
              <GEODESIC@UBVM.BITNET>
Comments:     Unregistered Shareware User
From:         "(Gary Lawrence Murphy)" <garym@MAYA.ISIS.ORG>
Subject:      A _Real_ 'anti-gravity' Bucky Invention

The List God speaketh ... ;-)

In <92Sep29.215939edt.10515@mail.uunet.ca> GEODESIC@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu (
 writes:
>
> IF PERSONAL ATTACKS AGAINST MCELWAINE CONTINUE, LIFE HERE WILL CEASE TO BE
> INTERESTING, MEANINGFUL AND FUN.
>
> NO FASCIST WHINERS ALLOWED!

Indeed, indeed, Eric, but should you take the time to actually read my
follow-up to our dear est-steamed Mr. McElwaine, there was nary a hint
of, as you so astutely claim, personal attacks, and from the followups
I've seen to his possibly preposterous claims, all that come to mind
are those asking why such a Marvellous Machine does not have a
prototype we can see or a production edition we can buy.  If you
remember from last episode, I only asked him to explain certain
characteristically sophist assertions, and his sole reply, very
unfortunately unheeded, was to request instructions for dropping this
list.

Amazing as it may seem, Eric, the title of this list has some meaning,
and nowhere do I find any relevance to the mighty Est-Meister or
Ma-mirage Gee (willikers) in any of the literature by Bucky or any of
those who follow.  Perhaps you can elaborate your claim of personal
attack, but I'd prefer you just keep it to yourself --- among Rastas
they say, when attacked as you alledge Mr. Bobby has been, "Jah know
and I know", and nothing further is required.

But to keep things INTERESTING, MEANINGFUL AND FUN ;-) ...

Bucky did indeed envision an 'anti gravity' invention, infact, he went
one further and computed exactly, within the then known and accepted
laws of dynamics, how to build such a machine to such a scale as to
support whole towns aloft in the sky!  "How?" you ask? (or I truly
hope so ;-)).  Simple:

Bucky observed that hot air rises, a fact probably even with the grasp
of Mr. McElwaine's undergraduate physics.  Bucky also observed that
the surface area of a bubble increases to the second power of the
expansion, whereas the volume increases by a third power, hence the
shipping magnates could make a killing by doubling the length of their
ships, increasing the load capacity by the third power but needing
only to push the second-power increase in surface friction through the
water.  'Tis fact, sure and true.

Now, let us suppose you have a geodesic dome of such fine mesh as to
effectively trap air currents as does the in-reality-porous silk of
the balloonist's trade.  The surface area is exposed to the sun, and
being concave inside, tends to trap the energy, concentrating it
until, wonder of wonders, the air inside is hotter than the
surrounding air.  Scale it up, scale it WAYYY up, and the volume
inside becomes a thermal trap by the same principle that makes dome
homes easier to keep warm (more air molecules to intercept the
energetic ones, like the photons taking eaons to escape the solar
core), the dome reaches a point where the differential in
temperature-induced lift exceeds the weight.

Bucky calculated a dome on the order of 5-miles in diameter would
accumulate sufficient solar energy (those same damn photons!) to lift
the weight of tens of thousands of people, their homes, shops,
vehicles, and all their patent papers on impossible inventions.  Out of
the parking lot ... and into the sky!  Of course, ick-Meister Eberhardt
already knows when IT will happen, but for us mere mortals, Bucky
left the clue in his characteristic instructions for the production of
alloys through the decrease in inter-atomic distances (increasing
tensile strength by the second power) and the simple
surface-node-population and Euler-formula computations which tell us,
unless we have a robot spider capable of spinning tensegrity at an
enormous rate, we would be making tensegrity prisms 'til well past
doomsday.

On a side note, there was a story in the paper about an
arachnologist/materials-engineer who has succeeded in scaling up the
silk-producing of insects to industrial strengths.  The newspaper
report claimed we would see artificial robot-spun silk cable of amazing
tensile strength offered as a cost-effect alternative to steel cable
within the decade.

More and more with less and less.
What the List God speaketh is true.

Thus spake the List God, and all were afraid.

(ps to Eric: get Robert to put you on his mailing list --- I pay for
my connect time and get a tad mifted by blatently bombastic bandwidth
bother; thank heaven's I don't receive my own postings!)

--
Gary Lawrence Murphy -- garym@maya.isis.org -- (613) 230-6255
       --------------------------------------------
   "The present moment is a powerful goddess." - Goethe
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