(urth) Ansible Interview

[Jordon Flato]

Yeah, I can't see it as anything other than opaque.  However, now picture a
slowly revolving shade over that bulb.  There are points where the shade
isn't completely covering the bulb above you (for a short time).  During
that point, there might be some shadows as the shade passes over the bulb
above your head.

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Some people seem to have a very different idea of what the long sun
> and its shade are than I do.  To my mind, the questioner is correct to
> ask how there could be shadows in the skylands.  There couldn't.  And
> why should the shade need to be translucent in order to see skylands?
> Aren't folks just looking *past* the shade?  What good is a
> translucent shade?  If we're talking about *diffuse* light casting
> *shadows*, then I'm completely lost.  Go stand directly under a long,
> tubular fluorescent bulb, or better, a column of them.  Try casting a
> coherent shadow.  It's real tough, huh?  You're gonna need a whole
> shade.
>
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > well.......
> >
> > the sun turns. It may be a cylinder or a plane, but the point is that
> half of it is shaded.
> > meaning, it's photon vectors are not omnidirectional.
> > At some points the sun is a sliver. it widens & narrows through the day.
> > and there IS a shade, that's why sunset is called Shadelow, I don't
> remember pulses of darkness and I just finished that book.
> > So as this light plane, or half cylinder rotates, it would have shadows.
> >
> > And then there is ambient reflected light, and we're talking about
> Shadows in the skylands, where, conceivably, there would only be reflected
> light off of neighboring lands that aren't yet in darkness. Then the fact
> that the Shade is not opaque, since you can see the skylands in the first
> place, so there would be additional reflected light.  I think all of that
> adds up to enough an uneven distribution of light, and thus shadows.
> >
> > /my two cents.
> > ~witz
> >
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: David Stockhoff [mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net]
> > >Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 01:50 PM
> > >To: urth at lists.urth.net
> > >Subject: (urth) Ansible Interview
> > >
> > >I have been browsing the Ansible interview, and I notice what seems to
> > >be a simple, incontrovertible error on Wolfe's part:
> > >
> > >8. /How is Silk able to see these valleys filled with shadows [in the
> > >skylands at night, at the opening of chapter 4, book 1] if the Whorl is
> > >a cylinder with the long sun running approximately down the centre?/ --
> > >This one throws me completely. Where is the difficulty, unless all the
> > >valleys run parallel to the Long Sun? Naturally they don't. [DRL: I see
> > >a Wolfean trap here. The groundlings' references to the 'shade' of night
> > >strongly suggest a literal revolving shade around the sun. But there are
> > >later indications that night involves some sort of dark stuff sent in
> > >pulses along the axis to mask a certain length of the Long Sun.]
> > >
> > >Thing is, the Whorl is the interior surface of a cylinder. Therefore,
> > >"up" is always toward the center.
> > >
> > >Since the LS runs along the center from end to end, you can treat the
> > >issue of shadows with only 2 dimensions. It won't matter whether the
> > >valleys run along the Sun or the other way. Only if they are tilted or
> > >overhanging will they cast shadows.
> > >
> > >Anyway, as Langford notes, there is a shade of some kind always blocking
> > >one side of the Sun.
> > >
> > >So we should not assume Wolfe to be perfect in his physics. ;)
> > >
> > >
> > >---
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> > >
> > >
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