A few points about the speed of the Whorl;<div><br></div><div>1. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">You have to travel very fast to get to any stars because of their great distance. To reach even the closest star in 300 years, you would need a speed of about 1.5% of light (10,000,000 MPH). You would need some fantastic source of energy to get the Whorl to even 1.5%, a source that will only be found in the future. Wolfe says the long sun is powered by nuclear fusion, but he doesn't tell us what propels the Whorl. I think that is because he knows that no such power source exists yet.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">2. 95% of light speed requires even more energy, of course. But as long as we are tapping into an unknown power source, we might as well go as fast as we can.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">3. A travel speed close to the speed of light explains why only 300 years have elapsed on the Whorl while 1000 to 2000 years have gone by on Urth. At 95% of speed of light, Whorl time would be 300 years for 1000 Urth years. At 99% of speed of light, Whorl time would be 300 years for 2000 Urth years. </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Times New Roman">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">4. Of course, it's more complicated than traveling the whole way at one speed. You have to accelerate the ship up to a high speed, and then decelerate to stop at Blue-Green system. The rate of acceleration has to be slow, or the cargo would be pressed against the back of the ship.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Times New Roman"></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Times New Roman"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Acceleration would have to be very low. At an acceleration of 1/100 G, it would take about 97 years to get up to about speed of light. You could then coast for 100 years, and then decelerate for 97 years, making a total time of about 300 years.</span></p>
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</span></span></span><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 2:38 PM, James Wynn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com">crushtv@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<blockquote type="cite">
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<pre>Jack Smith-
" I think I've heard estimates the Whorl is at least 300 years
old. Typhon was presumably alive on its launching and is still alive when
Severian meets him
strapped to his couch. Quite a lifespan."
Isn't Typhon dead when found by Severian, who then resurrects him? Typhon
seems to have dried out after lying on the cold, dry mountain for 1000 or
2000 years (in contrast to Dorcas, who is soggy).
Since the Whorl has traveled near the speed of light on its voyage, time has
slowed down. So 1000 or 200 years can have passed on Urth, while only 300
years have gone by on the Whorl.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre>Gwern-
I don't remember if our past discussions went into the technical
details, but it's pretty unlikely the Whorl got any significant
slowdown.
Useful link: <a href="http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3aj.html#relativity" target="_blank">http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3aj.html#relativity</a><div class="im">
Notice that to get a slowdown of even 1/3, you need to get up to
somewhere around 0.97 or 0.98 _c_. Given that we're talking an entire
hollowed-out asteroid, and one which needs to slow down to rest at the
end... Well, the energy requirements would be absolutely fantastic.
(And I mean fantastic as in, you'd better have an entire other
anti-asteroid made of anti-matter for propellant.)
Dunno if Wolfe took all this into account, though.
</div></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
In the Urth List Q&A, Wolfe said:<br>
<br>
<i>Q: About how far, really, is the New Sun series set in our future
(or the future of the previous universe)? How much time elapses
between Typhon and Severian?</i> <br>
<br>
A: That is never specified in the books. My offhand guess is between
1000 and 2000 years. I would have to reread the books with care to
perhaps trim the estimate up a little bit.<br>
<br>
However, since Dream-travel can involve Time-travel, all of this
might be academic as far as the Rajan's visits to Urth go.<br>
<br>
u+16b9<br>
<br>
</div>
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