Need help with a novel (astronomy)

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Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by SebastianP » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:00 pm

I've been writing a huge novel for almost 20 years. I'm trying to finish it up now. One of the jams I am in relates to the calendar. I set the story on a different planet with different length of days and days per year etc. I confess I chose these things pretty randomly. Which has become a problem.

I was wondering if there was some whiz around here who could reverse-engineer all that & tell me what the size & orbit of my planet would be, moon phases etc. Just so I can go in and make everything logical & consistent. That would be a great help!

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Thu Oct 28, 2010 9:14 pm

Find the distance the Earth travels in one day. Multiply that by the days in your calendar. That's the circumference of the orbit. You don't have to be more precise than that for most purposes.
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Don't Panic » Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:20 pm

Gawdzilla wrote:Find the distance the Earth travels in one day. Multiply that by the days in your calendar. That's the circumference of the orbit. You don't have to be more precise than that for most purposes.
Earth is an average of 93 million miles from the sun, that's the radius, so times pi for circumference.
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Xamonas Chegwé » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:49 am

Don't Panic wrote:
Gawdzilla wrote:Find the distance the Earth travels in one day. Multiply that by the days in your calendar. That's the circumference of the orbit. You don't have to be more precise than that for most purposes.
Earth is an average of 93 million miles from the sun, that's the radius, so times pi for circumference.
Ahem! Better double that figure. Maths fail, Kev! Give yourself a sound thrashing! C = 2πr. :tea:
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Feck » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:54 am

I thought the circumference was Pi 2r XC or Pi D ?
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Xamonas Chegwé » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:56 am

Phi? :dono:
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Feck » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:00 am

Xamonas Chegwé wrote:Phi? :dono:
ah pendantry ........... Image Happy now ?
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Feck » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:07 am

Xamonas Chegwé wrote:
Don't Panic wrote:
Gawdzilla wrote:Find the distance the Earth travels in one day. Multiply that by the days in your calendar. That's the circumference of the orbit. You don't have to be more precise than that for most purposes.
Earth is an average of 93 million miles from the sun, that's the radius, so times pi for circumference.
Ahem! Better double that figure. Maths fail, Kev! Give yourself a sound thrashing! C = 2πr. :tea:
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Xamonas Chegwé » Fri Oct 29, 2010 3:09 am

Feck wrote:
Xamonas Chegwé wrote:Phi? :dono:
ah pendantry ........... Image Happy now ?
d = 2r

C = πd OR 2πr OR π2r OR any other rearrangement of 2, π and r.

klr equated C with πr. I expect he will hand in his pedant badge at the desk once he realises this. :tea:

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I think we should do whatever Pawiz wants.
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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by SebastianP » Sat Oct 30, 2010 2:26 am

If I could do those kinds of calculations I wouldn't need help!

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by cowiz » Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:28 am

I like pie
It's a piece of piss to be cowiz, but it's not cowiz to be a piece of piss. Or something like that.

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by amused » Sat Oct 30, 2010 4:20 am

Image

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by SebastianP » Sat Oct 30, 2010 4:32 am

amused wrote:Image
But is Pi cherry or apple...?

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by amused » Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:43 pm

I think it's peach, as in, ain't it peachy keen how them maths work!

Remember that if you have inhabited planets that they need to be in the habitable zone (there's another word for that) around a star.

I've always wondered, if a habitable planet is much bigger than earth, would life evolve bigger animals with bigger muscles to compensate for the higher gravity, or would it evolve smaller animals that are lighter?

And you can get away with things that might not really work anyway. The planet in Pitch Black had three suns, and yet still managed to be pitched into total darkness, all the while evolving animals that were ultra-sensitive to light.

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Re: Need help with a novel (astronomy)

Post by Don't Panic » Sat Oct 30, 2010 2:37 pm

Xamonas Chegwé wrote:
Don't Panic wrote:
Gawdzilla wrote:Find the distance the Earth travels in one day. Multiply that by the days in your calendar. That's the circumference of the orbit. You don't have to be more precise than that for most purposes.
Earth is an average of 93 million miles from the sun, that's the radius, so times pi for circumference.
Ahem! Better double that figure. Maths fail, Kev! Give yourself a sound thrashing! C = 2πr. :tea:
I'm DP, not Kev, are you high?
Gawd wrote:»
And those Zumwalts are already useless, they can be taken out with an ICBM.
The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened, it's just wonderful. And . . . the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned.
D.N.A.

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