Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2156-60 (2-6 April 2012) Questionable Content Discussion
Method of Madness:
So they're going home next week! Also, is it just me, or is this still the day after they got up there?
jwhouk:
I think they have been up there for a few days.
But a good gag would be Marigold coming home and saying something to Momo like, "The weekend up at the station seemed to last about three months!"
Binary:
--- Quote from: Schmorgluck on 06 Apr 2012, 05:48 ---That, or it's a consequence of the station rotating...
--- End quote ---
Hmmm. "Down" is out through the bottom of the comic panel so the plane of the ring must be parallel to the Earth's surface and its axis of rotation is pointing towards the Earth's centre (an orientation pretty much as drawn in panel one of this comic). So the station's spin should have rotated the Gulf, not just shifted it to the left. When I hold the edges of two envelopes on the screen passing through the same pairs of cloud-dots on the two panels, they are parallel, so I'm still going with a low, fast orbit and... I'm really over-thinking this now, aren't I?
Breathtaking low-orbit videos taken from the ISS are here and here (though those are speeded up by time-lapse filming: I believe this one is real-time, and is amusingly titled "Views of Hurricane Irene from Station"!)
Thank you for the clever observation, Akima - I had not made that connection!
Skewbrow:
--- Quote from: Binary on 06 Apr 2012, 05:15 ---So from the view of Earth in panels six and seven, we can deduce that Station is in a sub-geosynchronous orbit, thus travelling faster than the Earth's rotation and "overtaking" the Gulf of Mexico. This ties in with the way the Earth fills the viewport, which implies a low, close orbit.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I've been trying to gauge the altitude of station's orbit, too. Definitely way below geosynchronous. But also more than a couple hundred miles. If the entire globe of the Earth would cover an angle of 90 degrees, then their orbit would be at an altitude of approximately 1600 miles. If less than 90 degrees, then they need to be higher up. Panels 2B and 4 suggest that it may be less than 90 degrees, but I may be wrong. If the angle is 60 degrees, then they are 4000 miles away (=two Earth radii from the center), OTOH if it is 120 degrees, then their altitude is only about 15 per cent of Earth's radius or about 600 miles. Narrativium has conveniently placed the Earth, and the US, in the middle of the viewport for this occasion, but that will change soon.
--- Quote from: Binary on 06 Apr 2012, 07:11 ---Hmmm. "Down" is out through the bottom of the comic panel so the plane of the ring must be parallel to the Earth's surface and its axis of rotation is pointing towards the Earth's centre (an orientation pretty much as drawn in panel one of this comic). So the station's spin should have rotated the Gulf, not just shifted it to the left. When I hold the edges of two envelopes on the screen passing through the same pairs of cloud-dots on the two panels, they are parallel, so I'm still going with a low, fast orbit and... I'm really over-thinking this now, aren't I?
--- End quote ---
Welcome to the overthinkers' club. :-) IIRC this was discussed in length in the Spinning Space Station -thread. The axis of rotation of the station cannot continue to point towards the Earth. That is prohibited by the conservation of angular momentum (which basically implies that, apart from a bit of wobbling, the axis of rotation must keep pointing at the same distant star). For example, in strip number 2140 the Earth is clearly not in the center of the viewport (not forgetting that Jeph may be using his creative license here).
Black Sword:
--- Quote from: Akima on 05 Apr 2012, 17:29 ---Presenting a Confucian perspective on QC, an American web-comic... Does this represent a new low for this forum? :psyduck:
--- End quote ---
Actually, I find it very fascinating. If you're not adverse, I'd like to hit you up for more information in the future.
For the present, can I ask for a clarification on something? You said a personal relationship between teacher and student is immoral regardless of age. Does this mean anything beyond the bond developed as teacher and student, or does it imply that even that bond is immoral, and it should only exist as teacher teaches, student learns and moves on?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version