DOCSLIB.ORG

Stellaris Dyson Sphere Star Type

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Stellaris Dyson Sphere Star Type Stellaris dyson sphere star type Continue The hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson as a 3D rendering of the Dyson sphere using large, orbital panels of the Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that fully covers the star and captures a large percentage of its power. This concept is a thoughtful experiment that attempts to explain how space civilization will meet its energy needs once those needs exceed needs that can only be derived from the resources of the home planet. Only a small fraction of a star's energy emissions reach the surface of any orbiting planet. The construction of structures surrounding the star will allow civilization to gather much more energy. The first contemporary description of the structure was Olaf Stapledon in his sci-fi novel Star Maker (1937), in which he described every solar system ... surrounded by gauze light traps that focus solar energy escape for intelligent use. The concept was later popularized by Freeman Dyson in his 1960 article Finding Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation. Dyson suggested that such structures would be a logical consequence of the escalating energy needs of technological civilization and would be necessary for its long-term survival. He suggested that the search for such structures could lead to the discovery of a developed, intelligent extraterrestrial life. The different types of Dyson spheres and their energy-saving ability would correspond to the levels of technological progress on the Kardashev scale. Since then, other design options related to the construction of an artificial structure or a series of structures covering stars have been proposed in research engineering or described in science fiction under the name Dyson Sphere. These later proposals were not limited to solar power plants, many of which concerned housing or industrial elements. Most fictional images describe a hard shell of matter encased in a star that was considered by Dyson himself to be the least plausible version of the idea. In May 2013, at the Starship Century Symposium in San Diego, Dyson repeated his comments that he wanted the concept not to be named after him. Origin concept See also: The development of the energy Freeman Dyson in the 2005 Concept of the Dyson sphere was the result of the thought experiment of physics and mathematician Freeman Dyson, when he stated that all technological civilizations were constantly increasing their demand for energy. He reasoned that if human civilization for a long time would expand the need for energy, it would find a time when it would require the total energy production of the Sun. He proposed an orbital system (which he originally called a shell) designed to intercept and collect the entire produced by the Sun. Sun. on the basis that such a structure can be distinguished by an unusual emission spectrum compared to a star. His 1960 article Finding Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation, published in the journal Science, is believed to be the first to formalize the concept of the Dyson sphere. However, Dyson wasn't the first to promote the idea. It was inspired by the 1937 sci-fi novel Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon, and possibly the work of J.D. Bernal. Although such megastructures are theoretically possible, the construction of a stable Dyson sphere system now goes beyond the engineering capabilities of mankind. The number of vessels needed to obtain, transfer and maintain the full Dyson area exceeds modern industrial capabilities. Georgi Dvorsky advocates the use of self-replicating robots to overcome this restriction in the relatively short term. Some have suggested that such habitats may be built around white dwarfs and even pulsars. Options in fictional accounts, the concept of the Dyson Sphere is often interpreted as an artificial hollow sphere of matter around the star. This perception is based on a literal interpretation of Dyson's original short work, presenting the concept. Responding to the letters, which were called to some documents, Dyson replied: A hard shell or ring surrounding a star is mechanically impossible. The form of the biosphere that I have provided consists of a free collection or a swarm of objects traveling in independent orbits around the star. Dyson swarms the Dyson ring - the simplest form of Dyson's swarm- in scale. The orbit is 1 AU in radius, collectors - 1.0×107 km in diameter (10 Gm or ≈25 times the distance of the Earth-Moon), from center to center around the orbital circle. The relatively simple arrangement of several Dyson-type rings, pictured above, to form a more complex Dyson swarm. Orbital radii of the rings have blurred by 1.5×107 km to each other, but the average radius of the orbit is still 1 AU Rings rotate 15 degrees relative to each other, around the common axis of rotation. An option close to Dyson's original concept is the Dyson Swarm. It consists of a large number of independent structures (usually solar satellites and space habitats) rotating in dense formation around the star. This approach to construction has advantages: components can be sized accordingly, and it can be built gradually. Different forms of wireless energy transmission can be used to transmit energy between a swarm of components and a planet. The disadvantages due to the nature of orbital mechanics will make the location of the swarm's orbits extremely difficult. The simplest such arrangement is the Dyson ring, in which all such structures have the same orbit. More complex patterns more rings intercept more of the output of stars, stars, some structures periodically overshadow others when their orbits intersect. Another potential problem is that the growing loss of orbital stability by adding more elements increases the likelihood of orbital disturbances. Such a cloud of collectors would change the light emitted by the star system (see below). However, the disruption compared to the star's total natural emitted spectrum is likely to be too small for astronomers based on Earth to observe. Dyson Bubble Bubble Dyson: Location of statins around the star, in a non-conbit orbital pattern. As long as the satellite has an unobstructed line of sight to its star, it can hover anywhere in space next to its star. This relatively simple location is just one of an infinite number of possible statin configurations, and is intended as a contrast only for the Dyson swarm. The stats are depicted in the same size as the collectors depicted above and are located at an even distance of 1 AU from the star. The second type of Dyson sphere is the Dyson bubble. This would be similar to the Dyson swarm, consisting of many independent designs and can also be built gradually. Unlike the Dyson swarm, the structures that build it up are not in orbit around the star, but will be static satellites suspended by huge light sails using radiation pressure to counteract the attraction of the star's gravity. Such structures would not pose a risk of collision or overshadowing each other; they would be completely immobile towards the star, and independent of each other. Since the ratio of radiation pressure to gravity from a star is constant regardless of distance (provided that the satellite has an unobstructed line of sight to the surface of its star), such satellites can also change its distance from the central star. The practicality of this approach is questionable in modern materials science, but it cannot be ruled out yet. 100% reflective satellites deployed around the Sun will have a total density of 0.78 grams per square meter of sail. To illustrate the low mass of the necessary materials, I note that the total mass of the bubble of such material 1 AU in the radius will be about 2.17×1020 kg, which is about the same mass as the asteroid Pallas. Another illustration: Ordinary printed paper has a density of about 80 g/m2. Such material has not yet been produced in the form of a working light sail. The lightest carbon fiber lightweight sail material is currently produced density-without payload-3 g/m2, or about four times as much as it would be necessary to create a solarstatite. One sheet of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon, has a density of just 0.37 mg per square meter, making such a single sheet possibly as effective as a solar sail. However, since 2015, graphene has not been and it has a relatively high radiation absorption rate, about 2.3% (i.e. about 97.7% more will be transferred). For frequencies in the upper GHz and lower THz range, the absorption rate is 50-100% due to voltage displacement and/or doping. Ultralight carbon nanotubes, netted using molecular production methods, have a density of 1.3 g/m2 to 1.4 g/m2. By the time civilization is ready to use this technology, the production of carbon nanotubes can be sufficiently optimized to ensure that their density is below the required 0.7 g/m2, and the average density of a sail with falsification can be maintained up to 0.3 g/m2 (stabilized sail light requires a minimum of additional mass in falsification). If such a sail could be built at such density, a space habitat the size of the proposed L5 O'Neill Society cylinder-500 km2, with a room for more than 1 million inhabitants, weighing 2.72×109 kg (3×106 tons) - can be supported by a circular light sail 3000 km in diameter,× By comparison, it is slightly smaller than the diameter of Jupiter's Europa satellite (although the sail is a flat disc, not a sphere), or the distance between San Francisco and Kansas City.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Idea for Dyson Sphere Proposed 30 March 2015, by Bob Yirka
    New idea for Dyson sphere proposed 30 March 2015, by Bob Yirka that the massive amount of material needed to build such a sphere would be untenable, thus, a more likely scenario would be a civilization building a ring of energy capturing satellites which could be continually expanded. But the notion of the sphere persists and so some scientists continue to look for one, believing that if such a sphere were built, the process of capturing the energy from the interior sun would cause an unmistakable infrared signature, allowing us to notice its presence. But thus far, no such signatures have been found. That might be because we are alone in the universe, or, as Semiz and O?ur argue, it might be because we are looking at the wrong types of stars. They suggest that it would seem to make more sense for an advanced civilization to build their sphere around a white A Dyson Sphere with 1 AU radius in Sol system. Credit: dwarf, rather than a star that is in its main arXiv:1503.04376 [physics.pop-ph] sequence, such as our sun—not only would the sphere be smaller (they have even calculated an estimate for a sphere just one meter thick—1023 (Phys.org)—A pair of Turkish space scientists with kilograms of matter) but the gravity at its surface Bogazici University has proposed that researchers would be similar to their home planet (assuming it looking for the existence of Dyson spheres might were similar to ours). be looking at the wrong objects. ?brahim Semiz and Salim O?ur have written a paper and uploaded Unfortunately, if Semiz and O?ur are right, we may it to the preprint server arXiv, in which they suggest not be able to prove it for many years, as the that if an advanced civilization were to build a luminosity of a white dwarf is much less than other Dyson sphere, it would make the most sense to stars, making it extremely difficult to determine if build it around a white dwarf.
    [Show full text]
  • Pyramid Volume 3 in These Issues (A Compilation of Tables of Contents and in This Issue Sections) Contents Name # Month Tools Of
    Pyramid Volume 3 In These Issues (A compilation of tables of contents and In This Issue sections) Contents Name # Month Name # Month Tools of the Trade: Wizards 1 2008-11 Noir 42 2012-04 Looks Like a Job for… Superheroes 2 2008-12 Thaumatology III 43 2012-05 Venturing into the Badlands: Post- Alternate GURPS II 44 2012-06 3 2009-01 Apocalypse Monsters 45 2012-07 Magic on the Battlefield 4 2009-02 Weird Science 46 2012-08 Horror & Spies 5 2009-03 The Rogue's Life 47 2012-09 Space Colony Alpha 6 2009-04 Secret Magic 48 2012-10 Urban Fantasy [I] 7 2009-05 World-Hopping 49 2012-11 Cliffhangers 8 2009-06 Dungeon Fantasy II 50 2012-12 Space Opera 9 2009-07 Tech and Toys III 51 2013-01 Crime and Grime 10 2009-08 Low-Tech II 52 2013-02 Cinematic Locations 11 2009-09 Action [I] 53 2013-03 Tech and Toys [I] 12 2009-10 Social Engineering 54 2013-04 Thaumatology [I] 13 2009-11 Military Sci-Fi 55 2013-05 Martial Arts 14 2009-12 Prehistory 56 2013-06 Transhuman Space [I] 15 2010-01 Gunplay 57 2013-07 Historical Exploration 16 2010-02 Urban Fantasy II 58 2013-08 Modern Exploration 17 2010-03 Conspiracies 59 2013-09 Space Exploration 18 2010-04 Dungeon Fantasy III 60 2013-10 Tools of the Trade: Clerics 19 2010-05 Way of the Warrior 61 2013-11 Infinite Worlds [I] 20 2010-06 Transhuman Space II 62 2013-12 Cyberpunk 21 2010-07 Infinite Worlds II 63 2014-01 Banestorm 22 2010-08 Pirates and Swashbucklers 64 2014-02 Action Adventures 23 2010-09 Alternate GURPS III 65 2014-03 Bio-Tech 24 2010-10 The Laws of Magic 66 2014-04 Epic Magic 25 2010-11 Tools of the
    [Show full text]
  • Astronomy 330 Classes Final Papers Final
    Astronomy 330 Classes •! CHP allows $100 for informal get togethers. •! We are meeting Thursday to watch a movie and order some pizza. •! Still want Armageddon? Music: Space Race is Over – Billy Bragg Final Papers Final •! Final papers due on May 3rd. •! Take-home final –! At the beginning of class... •! Will email it out on the last class. •! You must turn final paper in with the graded •! Will consist of: rough draft. –! 2 large essays •! If you are happy with your rough draft grade as –! 2 short essays you final paper grade, then don’t worry about it. –! 5-8 short answers •! Due May 11th, hardcopy, by 5pm in my mailbox or office. Online ICES Outline •! What is the future for interstellar travel? •! ICES forms are available online. •! Fermi’s Paradox– Where are they? •! I appreciate you filling them out! –! In addition to campus honors thingy •! Please make sure to leave written comments. I find these comments the most useful, and typically that’s where I make the most changes to the course. Drake Equation Warp Drives Frank That’s 22,181 advanced civs!!! Drake •! Again, science fiction is influencing science. •! Due to great distance between the stars and the speed limit of c, sci-fi had to resort to “Warp Drive” that allows faster-than-light speeds. N = R* ! fp ! ne ! fl ! fi ! fc ! L •! Currently, this is impossible. # of # of •! It is speculation that requires a Star Fraction Fraction advanced Earthlike Fraction Fraction Lifetime of formation of stars that revolution in physics civilizations planets on which that evolve advanced rate with commun- we can per life arises intelligence civilizations –! It is science fiction! planets icate contact in system •! But, we have been surprised our Galaxy 6 before… today 15 0.65 1.3 x 0.1 0.125 0.175 .8 1x10 •! Unfortunately new physics usually = 0.13 intel./ comm./ yrs/ http://www.filmjerk.com/images/warp.gif stars/ systems/ life/ adds constraints not removes them.
    [Show full text]
  • Location: NT-13 “Lamprey” Dyson Sphere Station (Incomplete), Edge of Terran Protectorate Shift Timestamp: 01:58 February, 30
    Location: NT-13 “Lamprey” Dyson Sphere Station (Incomplete), Edge of Terran Protectorate ​ Shift Timestamp: 01:58 February, 30, 2560 ​ ‘The amazing part is,’ a voice in my head spoke up as I slipped through yet another set ​ ​ of maintenance shafts and corridors that looked exactly the same as the last ones I’d just ducked out of, ‘the whole power grid is still working.’ ​ ​ I nodded at that, and got back to work slapping wall mounted Security flashers onto the walls, outright using some Clown’s SUPER Glue to get the job done in as short a time as I could. It didn’t stop the robots from using the damn places, but at least it kept the more biological threats from trying their hands at rooting me out personally. Waking up in this life had been not good. … Azure ‘starlight’ seeps like syrup though cracks in the glass ceiling, through which a massive sapphire blue ‘star’ could easily be observed from the viens the station that were the maintenance halls. The floor shudders in time with the churning of machinery somewhere far beneath my feet. The air, if I were to pull off my hermetically sealed helmet off for a moment, has the strange tang of unknown chemicals and over-processed air that speaks of any space station, but the undertones of copper and something wholly unpleasant, something like rot and excrement and worse, are unique to this place. I stopped as a door opened in the distance and without even thinking I unholstered the gun from my chest sling.
    [Show full text]
  • Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Journal.Finfar.Org
    ISSN: 2342-2009 Fafnir vol 3, iss 4, pages 7–227–23 Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research journal.finfar.org Speculative Architectures in Comics Francesco-Alessio Ursini Abstract: The present article offers an analysis on how comics authors can employ architecture as a narrative trope, by focusing on the works of Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Sidonia no Kishi), and the duo of Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters (Le cités obscures). The article investigates how these authors use architectural tropes to create speculative fictions that develop renditions of cities as complex narrative environments, and “places” with a distinctive role and profile in stories. It is argued that these authors exploit the multimodal nature of comics and the potential of architecture to construct complex worlds and narrative structures. Keywords: architectural tropes, comics, narrative structure, speculative fiction, world-building, multimodality Biography and contact info: Francesco-Alessio Ursini is currently a lecturer in English linguistics and literature at Jönköping University. His works on comics include a special issue on Grant Morrison for the journal ImageTexT, and the forthcoming Visions of the Future in Comics (McFarland Press), both co-edited with Frank Bramlett and Adnan Mahmutović. Speculative fiction and comics have always been tightly connected across different cultural traditions. It has been argued that the “golden era” of manga (Japanese comics) in the 70’s and 80’s is based on the preponderance of works using science/speculative fiction settings (e.g. Akira, Ohsawa 9–26). Similarly, classic works in the “Latin” comic traditions (i.e. Latin American historietas, Italian fumetti, and French/Belgian bande desineés) have long represented an ideal nexus between the speculative fiction genre and the Comics medium, one example being El Eternauta (Page 46–50).
    [Show full text]
  • Dyson Spheres Around White Dwarfs Arxiv:1503.04376V1 [Physics.Pop-Ph] 15 Mar 2015
    Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs Ibrahim_ Semiz∗ and Salim O˘gury Bo˘gazi¸ciUniversity, Department of Physics Bebek, Istanbul,_ TURKEY Abstract A Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical structure that an advanced civ- ilization might build around a star to intercept all of the star's light for its energy needs. One usually thinks of it as a spherical shell about one astronomical unit (AU) in radius, and surrounding a more or less Sun-like star; and might be detectable as an infrared point source. We point out that Dyson Spheres could also be built around white dwarfs. This type would avoid the need for artificial gravity technol- ogy, in contrast to the AU-scale Dyson Spheres. In fact, we show that parameters can be found to build Dyson Spheres suitable {temperature- and gravity-wise{ for human habitation. This type would be much harder to detect. 1 Introduction The "Dyson Sphere" [1] concept is well-known in discussions of possible in- telligent life in the universe, and has even infiltrated popular culture to some extent, including being prominently featured in a Star Trek episode [2]. In its simplest version, it is a spherical shell that totally surrounds a star to intercept all of the star's light. If a Dyson Sphere (from here on, sometimes \Sphere", sometimes DS) was built around the Sun, e.g. with same radius (1 AU) as Earth's orbit (Fig. 1), it would receive all the power of the Sun, 3:8 × 1026 W, in contrast to the power intercepted by Earth, 1:7 × 1017 W.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Discussion from the Epistemological, Religious and Societal Dimension
    International Journal of Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Astrobiology the epistemological, religious and cambridge.org/ija societal dimension Octavio A. Chon-Torres1 Research Article Programa de Estudios Generales, Universidad de Lima, Lima, Peru Cite this article: Chon-Torres OA (2019). Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Abstract the epistemological, religious and As astrobiology progresses in its quest to discover life on other planets or to put ourselves in societal dimension. International Journal of another one, so does its moral problematic. Astrobiology is not only part of natural sciences, Astrobiology 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S147355041900017X but also deals with direct aspects of humanities. For this reason, this paper aims to briefly examine astrobioethics from the epistemological, religious and societal dimension. It also Received: 31 January 2019 deals with different researches in this regard, in order to better understand the state of the Revised: 24 June 2019 art on this topic and that astrobioethics can help us not only on how we should relate with Accepted: 25 June 2019 extraterrestrial lifeforms, but even with terrestrials. Key words: Astrobiocentrism; astrobioethics; astrobiology; transdisciplinarity Astrobioethics is the discipline inside astrobiology that studies not only the morality of all activities related to the presence of life on other worlds, but also studies our attitude towards Author for correspondence: the expansion of terrestrial life in the Universe. The discipline that focuses on moral problems Octavio A. Chon-Torres, E-mail: ochon@ulima. edu.pe is ethics; however, as ethics is not an exact science but rather a branch of philosophy, its prob- lematic nature makes its content always updated according to the social context in which it operates.
    [Show full text]
  • Transhumanity's Fate
    ECLIPSE PHASE: TRANSHUMANITY’S FATE The Fate Conversion Guide for Eclipse Phase RYAN JACK MACKLIN GRAHAM ECLIPSE PHASE: TRANSHUMANITY’S FATE Transhumanity’s Fate: ■ Brings technothriller espionage and horror in a world of upgraded humans to Fate Core. ■ Join Firewall, and defend transhumanity in the aftermath of near annihilation by arti cial intelligence. ■ Requires Fate Core to play. Eclipse Phase created by Posthuman Studios Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios LLC. Transhumanity’s Fate is © 2016. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License. Fate™ is a trademark of Evil Hat Productions, LLC. The Powered by Fate logo is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission. eclipsephase.com TRANSHUMANITY'S FATE WRITING DEDICATION Jack Graham, Ryan Macklin The Posthumans dedicate this book to Jef Smith, our ADDITIONAL MATERIAL companion of many days & nights around the table. Jef was a tireless organizer in Chicago's science-fiction/ Rob Boyle, Caleb Stokes fantasy fandom, including the Think Galactic reading EDITING group and spin-off convention, Think Galacticon. In Rob Boyle, Jack Graham 2015, he co-published the Sisters of the Revolution: A GRAPHIC DESIGN Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology with PM Press. Adam Jury We will miss Jef's encouragement, wit, and bottomless COVER ART generosity. The person who lives large in the lives of their friends is not soon forgotten. Stephan Martiniere A portion of profits from Transhumanity's Fate will be INTERIOR ART donated to Jef's family. Rich Anderson, Nic Boone, Leanne Buckley, Anna Christenson, Daniel Clarke, Paul Davies, SPECIAL THANKS Alex Drummond, Danijel Firak, Nathan Geppert, Ryan thanks his wife, Lillian, for her support and Zachary Graves, Tariq Hassan, Josu Hernaiz, octomorph shenanigans, and blackcoat for being a font Jason Juta, Sergey Kondratovich, Ian Llanas, of feedback.
    [Show full text]
  • Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering
    Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.7, No.25, 2016 Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering Diana Starovoytova Madara* Sitati Namango School of Engineering, Moi University P. O .Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya Abstract There is overwhelming evidence that females are underrepresented in engineering worldwide, and Kenya is not an exception. Recent study at School of Engineering (SOE), Moi University (MU) established that engineering parity ration was found to be 1.68 %, meaning that for every 59 students admitted to MU there was only one student admitted to SOE. Engineering female parity index was found to be 0.0038, meaning that, on average, for 260 female students admitted to MU, only 1(one) female student was admitted to SOE. Humankind depends on engineers to create new technologies, to find solutions to practical problems and to shape the world that people live in and the future they rely on. Yet young people have little or no perception of engineering and the understanding they do have is all too often confused with other careers, such as science. The perception of engineering as “masculine” and “too hard” is a contributing factor for the female minority in engineering. On the other hand there are very few studies on what high school students think about engineering. In view of the above, this paper will try to fill this gap of information, by exploring teenage girls’ perceptions of engineering as a subject for study and as a potential career choice. Furthermore, it will attempt to raise awareness about and improve the image of engineering, by providing fused notion of engineering to the potential broad audience of this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics
    Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index Compiled by Andrew Fraknoi (U. of San Francisco, Fromm Institute) Version 7 (2019) © copyright 2019 by Andrew Fraknoi. All rights reserved. Permission to use for any non-profit educational purpose, such as distribution in a classroom, is hereby granted. For any other use, please contact the author. (e-mail: fraknoi {at} fhda {dot} edu) This is a selective list of some short stories and novels that use reasonably accurate science and can be used for teaching or reinforcing astronomy or physics concepts. The titles of short stories are given in quotation marks; only short stories that have been published in book form or are available free on the Web are included. While one book source is given for each short story, note that some of the stories can be found in other collections as well. (See the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, cited at the end, for an easy way to find all the places a particular story has been published.) The author welcomes suggestions for additions to this list, especially if your favorite story with good science is left out. Gregory Benford Octavia Butler Geoff Landis J. Craig Wheeler TOPICS COVERED: Anti-matter Light & Radiation Solar System Archaeoastronomy Mars Space Flight Asteroids Mercury Space Travel Astronomers Meteorites Star Clusters Black Holes Moon Stars Comets Neptune Sun Cosmology Neutrinos Supernovae Dark Matter Neutron Stars Telescopes Exoplanets Physics, Particle Thermodynamics Galaxies Pluto Time Galaxy, The Quantum Mechanics Uranus Gravitational Lenses Quasars Venus Impacts Relativity, Special Interstellar Matter Saturn (and its Moons) Story Collections Jupiter (and its Moons) Science (in general) Life Elsewhere SETI Useful Websites 1 Anti-matter Davies, Paul Fireball.
    [Show full text]
  • WAYS to USE SCIENCE FICTION in the SCIENCE CLASSROOM by Connie Willis, David Katz, and Courtney Willis ©1999 by Connie Willis, David Katz and Courtney Willis
    WAYS TO USE SCIENCE FICTION IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM by Connie Willis, David Katz, and Courtney Willis ©1999 by Connie Willis, David Katz and Courtney Willis. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the authors. Reproduction for classroom use must contain the original copyright. Originally presented as part of a symposium on Science and Science Fiction, National Science Teachers Association national meeting, Boston, MA, March 25-28, 1999. 1. SF can be used to teach science concepts Many stories explain and incorporate science concepts. --Arthur C. Clarke's "Silence, Please" discusses wave interference --Larry Niven's RINGWORLD shows us a Dyson sphere --the setting in Connie Willis's "The Sidon in the Mirror" is based on Harlow Shapley's theory of red giants --H. Beam Piper's "Omnilingual"'s plot revolves around the periodic table --George Gamow's MR. TOMPKINS IN PAPERBACK dreams of relativity and quantum effects --Anthologies such as THE UNIVERSE, THE PLANETS, AND THE MICROVERSE (edited by Byron Preiss) put essays by eminent scients and stories by noted sf authors side-by-side --Hal Clement, a retired high school chemistry teacher, has written a number of stories, including the classic MISSION OF GRAVITY, about all those things you learned in high school science classes. Bad science in science fiction (especially in the movies) can teach science concepts, too. --Why is it impossible for the spaceship in CAPRICORN ONE to make it back from mars in a mere three months? --Why does the strength to mass ratio make King Kong and Godzilla impossible? --What about all those loud explosions in outer space? And those spaceships that bank and turn just like fighter planes? 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragedy of the Megastructure
    105 Megastructures 3 | 2018 | 1 The Tragedy of the Megastructure Valentin Bourdon PhD Candidate École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [email protected] Valentin Bourdon is a PhD student at the Laboratory of Construction and Conservation (LCC) EPFL since 2017. His research explores the architectural challenges of the common space. In support of significant historical experiences, and contemporary subjects, such a project aims to help overcome the delay taken by architecture comparing to other disciplines in the appropriation of the notion of ‘common’. ABSTRACT Relating the megastructure to the issue of the commons is a useful exercise to understand the success and the disappearance of what Peter Reyner Banham called the “dinosaurs of the Modern Movement”. All these large-scale constructions suffered the same fate: a conflict between the promise of a large shared space and the temptation of its fragmentation. This quantitative quandary is also raised in another field by Garrett Hardin in 1968 as the ‘enclosure dilemma’. The publication of his article “The Tragedy of the Commons” sparked a broad controversy coinciding with the megastructure’s momentum. By assessing a number of theoretical correspondences, the article reexamines the impact of megastructures on the interdisciplinary debates of the time. It also considers the relationship between architecture and property as one of the possible–and tragically coincident–reasons for their success and dissolution. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0075/8523 ISSN 2611-0075 Copyright © 2018 Valentin Bourdon 4.0 KEYWORDS Megastructure; Commons; Ownership; Enclosure; Anti-enclosure. Valentin Bourdon The Tragedy of the Megastructure 106 When the American ecologist Garrett Hardin publishes his famous article entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons”1 in Science, the architectural 1.
    [Show full text]