(urth) The Apu-Punchau Eclipse

[Jeff Wilson]

b sharp wrote:
> At the beginning of UotNS, while on the Ship deck, Severian specifically 
> notes his weight has been
> reduced by 7/8. So Roy's assertion that the Ship is of planetary size is 
> a bit exaggerated but not
> by so much. A bit smaller but of similar size to our Moon, and thus 
> surely capable of causing an eclipse. 

Gravity doesn't dictate size, rather mass and distance dictate gravity. 
An asteroid can have a gravity of 1g is you pack it itghtly so that you 
can be withing a few meters of the whole thing. Likewise, the Ship has 
about 1/8 gravity at most, but Severian writes that he is much closer to 
the center of its mass that people on the ground are to Urth's center.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >