Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 10:17:08 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) probable distance from Urth to Bleen

Blattid wrote:
>While I appreciate Don's suggestion that Wolfe might have
>built a deliberate ambiguity into the text, it seems to me
>that the Blue = Ushas "reading" introduces all sorts of
>problems and complexities which simply disappear if we
>accept the more straightforward idea that the Bleen system
>lies a few dozen lightyears (or however far the Whorl might
>reasonably travel in 1000/300 years) away from the Urth
>system.

Oh, oh!  In 1997 I worked out the distance as 930 light years, but that was
without figuring a hundred years in parking orbit.  If we factor that in,
so the journey is only around 230 years, then the time dilation goes up to
4.11:1, suggesting the velocity is 0.97 c, and the distance is more like
850 light years.

             OBJECTIVE   SUBJECTIVE
LEG    RATE    TIME        TIME        DISTANCE
Boost  0.1 g   10 years     8 years      0.5 light years
Glide  0 g    880 years   214 years    853.6 light years
Boost  0.1 g   10 years     8 years      0.5 light years
===
TOTAL         900 years   230 years    854.6 light years

(The rates for the boost legs are simple speculation.  It doesn't seem like
the boost could be as high as 1 g, but it could be much lower than 0.1 g)

=mantis=



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