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If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

joshworth.com

201–210 of 273 posts

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#201
post #3

Make sure you press the "c" button in the bottom right. Light is incredibly slow, and everything seems out of reach. I think we'll have a holodeck before we reach another star. And maybe that'll be enough.

Is light slow? Or is the human perception of time just scaled down as a result of our rapid metabolism and infinitesimality? People historically mistake plants for being inanimate things with no reactivity, that they are far more simple and stupid than they truly are. Outside of a few exotic examples, plants simply operate on a wider timescale that's basically imperceptible without careful and particular observation.…

humans are a blip. i think the overwhelming scenario is we were a bootloading sequence for silico sapiens.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't need a sudden jump. If you had a rocket that accelerated at a pleasant 1G forever, you could reach and stop at the center of the milky way in about 20 (your time) years, and you could reach and stop at the Andromeda galaxy in about 28 years. Play around with some of the online space travel relativity calculators--it's wild! Of course building and fueling such a rocket is what's totally out of reach.

Is there drag in space? I.e. would you need increasing energy to accelerate at a constant rate as the speed goes up?

I guess one assumes that whatever system prevents you from getting hulled by space dust also removes the drag from the equation?

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't need a sudden jump. If you had a rocket that accelerated at a pleasant 1G forever, you could reach and stop at the center of the milky way in about 20 (your time) years, and you could reach and stop at the Andromeda galaxy in about 28 years. Play around with some of the online space travel relativity calculators--it's wild! Of course building and fueling such a rocket is what's totally out of reach.

Is there drag in space? I.e. would you need increasing energy to accelerate at a constant rate as the speed goes up?

With a traditional rocket, I believe you'd need decreasing energy to maintain the same acceleration as the flight progressed, since you are carrying along with you and burning the fuel, and so the total mass (payload + fuel) that needs to be accelerated is constantly decreasing.

Of course there's the pesky problem that for every N kg of mass you want to accelerate at 1G for that kind of a trip, you're probably going to need somewhere on the order of N billion kg of fuel to burn.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#206
post #59

There are many physical scale models of the solar system around the world, many walkable, some bikeable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model I've seen several, Planet Trek in Wisconsin is a good bikeable one with high quality signage. The sun is downtown, the moon is the size of a peach pit, Pluto is ~20 miles away.

And for the lazy, there's the 1:1 scale model under your feet.

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wouldn't need a sudden jump. If you had a rocket that accelerated at a pleasant 1G forever, you could reach and stop at the center of the milky way in about 20 (your time) years, and you could reach and stop at the Andromeda galaxy in about 28 years. Play around with some of the online space travel relativity calculators--it's wild! Of course building and fueling such a rocket is what's totally out of reach.

> Of course building and fueling such a rocket is what's totally out of reach. We'd need a device that could efficiently transform several kg of matter to photons.

And back?

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#209
post #208

This was so cool I would add the planets as indicators on the right side and by clicking on them I would move the timeline fast to reach them

somewhat defeats the point I think (but they are at the top if you really want to)

Re: If the moon were only 1 pixel: A tediously accurate solar system model (2014)

#210
post #3

Make sure you press the "c" button in the bottom right. Light is incredibly slow, and everything seems out of reach. I think we'll have a holodeck before we reach another star. And maybe that'll be enough.

Is light slow? Or is the human perception of time just scaled down as a result of our rapid metabolism and infinitesimality? People historically mistake plants for being inanimate things with no reactivity, that they are far more simple and stupid than they truly are. Outside of a few exotic examples, plants simply operate on a wider timescale that's basically imperceptible without careful and particular observation.…

Comments like this are part of the reasons I come here.
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