(urth) Ansible Interview

[Matthew Groves]

The text in question is:
"Beyond the black streak of the shade, the skylands had been as bright
as Silk [...] had ever seen them[...].  Here were nameless mountains
filling inviolate valleys to the rim with their vast, black shadows."

Here's how it would have to happen.  Imagine a big bowl.  Imagine a
long sun extending to the east and west above it.  To fill that bowl
with shadow, you've got to tilt the whole thing so that it faces north
or south.  (Everything spills out of your bowl, but never mind that.)
Tilt it to the east or west and there's still long sunlight shining
into it from the further eastern or western segment of the long sun.
So tilt it to the north or south and you can get shadow.  If the bowl
is located north of "up" from Silk's perspective, and the bowl is
tilted to face north, then Silk can see the shadow in the bowl.
Likewise if the bowl is located south of "up" and the bowl is tilted
to face south.

The trouble comes with imagining this bowl as a valley with vegetation
and habitats and people living in it.  Problems with gravity and lack
of sunlight would prevent this, which is why these would truly be
"inviolate" valleys.

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 10:38 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tim:
>>
>> Who knows, maybe the shadows are caused by demons that sit on Silk's
>> retinas with the Whorl equivalent of a GPS unit and make complicated hand
>> shadows based on where he's standing and the direction he's looking.
>
> Jeff
>>
>> Why don't you use a compass and a rule to draw this situation, and upload
>> a scan of your drawing so we can literally see what you mean?
>
> Mostly because I don't think it will matter. I've essentially re-stated
> (former engineer) Wolfe's answer to this question half-a-dozen ways and the
> only response I'm getting is that "it's impossible because
> spin-gravitational forces wouldn't allow it" or "mountain shapes wouldn't
> allow that" -- even though no one here knows what materials made the
> mountains or engineering principles were employed to carve/build them or
> what the shape was of the mountains and valley's in question. It's crazy. I
> got into this thread with the misguided assumption that I was dealing with
> people who were willing to be persuaded.
>
> If you truly don't think its possible for a body to cast a shadow in a
> carved out hollow shape with a centrally located light source then you are
> not bothering to use your brain. It can. And, in The Book of the Long Sun,
> Silk saw it happen. Deal with it.
>
> J
>
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>