From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Green's diameter, angular and otherwise
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 09:07:28 -0800

Mantis wrote:

> > Using the Moon as a model.
> >         ORBIT      ANGULAR DIAMETER
> > MOON    240,000    0.52 degrees
> > LUNE    150,000    0.83 degrees
> > GREEN   105,000    1.18 degrees
> > So even a puny world like the Moon (diameter 2160 miles) would be more
> > than twice the size of the Moon in our sky when located at a distance
> > attributed to Green.
> > 
> > A twin planet would naturally be much bigger.
> > 
> > Based upon this, the Bluvian astronomer is quite likely to be waaaay off
> > in his estimate of the "closest approach" distance as being 35,000
leagues.

... for which I am frankly grateful, because it seems to me to drive the
final nail into the "Blue = Urth" theory's coffin, based on past discussions
herein.

Then Jerry F. asks:

> How are you thinking the Bluvian astronomer would make his estimate?
> I can't think of a method that would be thrown off by Green's large
> size.  

I don't believe Mantis is referring to the Bluvian astronomer's "method"
but simply to his result. 

At one level, Mantis refers to the description of Green, seen from Blue, 
as a "baleful eye." A twin planet, or even the moon, seen at the distance 
of 105K miles, would be rather too large for an "eye" to be, at any rate, 
the most obvious metaphor. 

More important: from present evidence, it appears that Green, Blue, and 
Urth have fairly similar surface gravity (the evidence is, admittedly, 
negative: there is no mention of a sensation of weighing more or less, 
no sense that thrown or swung objects behave differently, etc., and it
is reasonable to suspect that _something_ of the sort would be mentioned) 
-- indeed, all these seem to be fairly close to the accelerational 
"gravity" of the Whorl at "ground" level. 

(BTW, the whole issue of the Fliers in a separate thread seems to miss 
the point that they rarely - never voluntarily? - come near "ground" 
level.) 

This being the case, Green needs to be at least somewhat similar in 
mass to Urth. Such a mass passing within 105K miles of Blue would have 
effects not terribly dissimilar to the effect of the passing of the 
White Fountain on Urth. (And, of course, vice versa for Green.) The 
effects described for the conjunction do not come close: for example, 
the Narrator mentions extreme tides, but apparently they are not so 
extreme as to swamp a seaside town (New Viron) or to make a home near 
the shore of an oceanic island (Horn's hut) infeasible over a period
of decades.

> Anyway, the higher the true distance, the harder the problem of how
> the inhumi cross.

True, but in any event the problem of how the inhumi cross between
Bleen and Grue is trivial next to the problem of how Remora (and,
apparently, other inhumi) achieved the crossing to the Whorl. If I
recall correctly, a Neighbor mentions to Horn that they (the Neighbors)
sent them (the inhumi) - but does not describe how this was done. 

--Blattid


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