From: max@west.darkside.com (Erik Max Francis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science
Subject: Re: Anybody? Anybody? Class?
Date: 27 Jan 93 02:48:28 GMT
Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM

dayne@byron.u.washington.edu (Dayne Miller) writes:

> 2) Is there an approximate value for the tensile/compressional/torsional
> strengths of General Products monomolecular hull material (from Niven's Known
> Space) other than "effectively infinite"?

Such a thing is never tested, so there's no way to tell.  The only time a 
GP hull gets wrecked in the Known Space stories is when it is exposed to 
antimatter.  In other words, we never saw one fail due to tensile, 
compressional, or torsional stress, so we don't know what it can take.  
Probably about as much as anything you could throw at it in normal 
circumstances.

> 3) Years ago I heard about some U.S. Navy/DARPA feasability study concerning
> the possibility of using neutrinos to provide communication with submarines.
> Whatever became of that?

Well, neutrinos would be great for many things.  First of all, if you had 
an effective neutrino detector, you could pinpoint all sources of nuclear 
power anywhere on the planet.

> 5) Again from Niven: What *is* the theoretical minimum tensile strength of
> scrith (Ringworld foundation material)?

I've calculated it to be 2 x 10^15 Pa.

> 6) More Niven yet: Is there any theoretical way in which to "temporarily
> neutralize the charge of the electron" in a manner similar to that of the
> Slaver disintegrator (and the proton as well, as in the Wunderland
> Treatymaker)? Maybe some aspect of superstring theory of which I am unaware?
> (Yes, that covers a *LOT* of territory.)

I certainly don't know of one.  (And hey, didn't the modified 
disintegrator in _Ringworld_ -- or was it _The Ringworld Engineers_ -- 
suppress _both_ if you wanted, so you'd get a charge flow?)

> 7) Lasers consist of coherent, parallel quanta of energy emission. How perfec
> is the parallelism? In other words, how much spread will occur over, say, one
> light year in a perfect vaccuum? Or perhaps more importantly, how much spread
> (and scatter) can be expected over a given distance (AU, light year, light 
> minute, solar radius, whatever) given the mean density of solar and/or inter-
> stellar medium?

I've asked this question earlier, and it depends on the laser.  Someone 
_did_ give me an equation, which was dependent on the wavelength of the 
laser light used.  Unfortunately, I can't find it.  Hopefully someone 
else will be able to help you out on this.

> 8) How feasible is David Brin's idea of using "refrigerator lasers" to cool
> objects in space? Is the idea dependant upon high-temperature superconductors
> (of heat, not necessarily electricity)? Or would any highly-efficient heat pu
> work?

Lasers are used to confine samples, enabling them to be cooled further.  
I haven't reard Brin's ideas about the refridgerator lasers, so can't 
give much input on that.


Erik Max Francis  -)(-  ..!apple!uuwest!max  -)(-  max@west.darkside.com   __
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