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starship-design: Re: Tidal forces
To Kelly
>>>Its still not practical to try to build a solid structure the size of a
>>>jovian planet. It wound be stiff, and will have a lot of trouble with
>>>tidal forces. Its simpler and cheaper to just have a lose swarm of
>>>syncronized transmitter platforms that wander around as need be.
>>
>>What tidal forces?, in orbit around the Sun the gravitational pull from
>>other planets is minimal.
>>(In fact the gravitational pull from the Sun on planets is already very low,
>>for Mercury the acceleration towards the Sun is only 0.004g)
>
>Tidal forces varry acording to size. Given a structure a dozen times the
>size of earth (and extrenmly unlikelt situation) it would have larger tidal
>force. Certainly enough to keep it edge on to the sun.
Why? Can you use a description without using "tidal forces"? That term seems
not so adequate here.
I understand that part that are at different distances from the Sun will
have a different gravitational pull, but believe me these differences are
REALLY small. You cannot compare those forces to those which a meteor
experiences when flying close by a planet.
Tim