War in space

> You've just reduced the main load- atmospheric loading at the
> breach point, so it might well survive in fact.

The load on a sphere or cylinder is from the whole rest of the
structure. It's simpler to visualize for a cylinder: the stress is
pure tension, all in the circumference direction, and two strips
along opposite sides have to keep the two halves from going their
separate ways: they have to bear the component parallel to their
tangential direction, of centrifugal weight plus atmospheric
pressure of the two halves. The outward force acting at that point
is perpendicular: varying the amount of mass or air pressure there
has no effect on the tension there, and maximal effect on the
tension 90 degrees away.

> Identity cards, cameras on every corner, long term detention
> without trial,

Hey, don't forget without access to a lawyer and without so much as
a warrant from the courts.

>speed cameras that increase the death rate<

How does that work?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ian Woollard
wrote:
>
> On 11/27/05, Dan Wylie-Sears wrote:
> > ... under a vast amount of tension so as to support its own
> > centrifugal weight with low curvature.
>
> Nope. Atmospheric loading is much less.
>
> 1 Earth normal atmospheric loading is 10 tonnes per square meter.
The
> weight of one square meter of floor material at 1 earth normal
gravity
> is *much* less; well under a tonne.
>
> > Punch a hole in the Ringworld
> > and you get Fist of God Mountain; punch a hole in a rotating
colony
> > built of real materials and the result may be catastrophic
failure.
>
> Maybe, maybe not. My gut feel is not.
>
> You've just reduced the main load- atmospheric loading at the
breach
> point, so it might well survive in fact.
>
> Also, the volume of a habitat is vast. It takes a very big hole to
> depressurise one in less than days.
>
> I mean, an aeroplane at 30 thousand feet can lose a window, and
still
> reach 30 thousand feet in a few minutes without everyone
suffocating.
> Concorde had smaller windows because it was higher and took longer
to
> come down.
>
> You need to think how much more volume a habitat has than an
aeroplane.
>
> O'Neill said it would take *days* to depressurise enough that you
> would have to evacuate from a 1kg lump meteorite hole for example.
>
> --
> -Ian Woollard
>
> Identity cards, cameras on every corner, long term detention
without
> trial, electronic tapping and reading of email/phone calls, speed
> cameras that increase the death rate, extradition for torture -
It's
> all double plus good, Big Brother Blair and Uncle Bush are my
friend!