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“Dark Fall” by David Weber

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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by Galactic Sapper   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:14 pm

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TFLYTSNBN wrote:Did anyone else check Weber's math on the impact energy?

It more or less checks out with my admittedly hamfisted calculations, allowing for various assumptions. The given energy yield is about 7000 times worse than what the dinosaurs got - and that's just Hammer Alpha.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by roseandheather   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:19 pm

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[insert boilerplate rant about my endless undying love for Eloise Pritchart here]
~*~


I serve at the pleasure of President Pritchart.

Javier & Eloise
"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley..."
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by noblehunter   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 4:59 pm

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I get the feeling RFC is chortling that he tucked away a whole series of stories her and is never going to write it. Just so we have to suffer as much as he does over all the stories he wants to write but doesn't have the time.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by Galactic Sapper   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:59 pm

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noblehunter wrote:I get the feeling RFC is chortling that he tucked away a whole series of stories her and is never going to write it. Just so we have to suffer as much as he does over all the stories he wants to write but doesn't have the time.

I suspect that's true of nearly all the major characters. Lots of episodes in their past or between the scenes we've seen that help explain their back stories, motivations, influences, etc. that help him write their personalities in a consistent way but don't become public until that particular bit of back story becomes relevant to the... front story?

I'd say that applies to most of what appears in the anthologies. We barely hear about Honor's middie cruise until Captain Bachfisch reappears, or about how Honor's parents met until Uncle Jacques makes an appearance rather than offhanded references, etc. The anthologies present a way to introduce those sorts of back story narratives that expand the universe but aren't absolutely vital to the current narrative, and would be jarringly disruptive to include as flashbacks or something.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by noblehunter   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:07 pm

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It's one thing to have enough storytelling meat for a novel stashed behind a side character. It's something else where there's enough for a whole series to be alluded to.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by Galactic Sapper   » Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:15 pm

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noblehunter wrote:It's one thing to have enough storytelling meat for a novel stashed behind a side character. It's something else where there's enough for a whole series to be alluded to.

I could see a novel with Pritchard, Usher, and other characters telling a HoS-type story of the resistance going from the Legislaturists to the Committee to Pritchard becoming President.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by roseandheather   » Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:10 am

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Galactic Sapper wrote:I could see a novel with Pritchard, Usher, and other characters telling a HoS-type story of the resistance going from the Legislaturists to the Committee to Pritchard becoming President.


Did you mean "the thing I have been dreaming of for well over a decade now"???

GIVEITTOME.gif
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by doug941   » Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:15 am

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Galactic Sapper wrote:
TFLYTSNBN wrote:Did anyone else check Weber's math on the impact energy?

It more or less checks out with my admittedly hamfisted calculations, allowing for various assumptions. The given energy yield is about 7000 times worse than what the dinosaurs got - and that's just Hammer Alpha.


Concerning the question of RFC's numbers, there is an asteroid impact simulator at "www.purdue.edu/impactearth"
that allows you to play around with various data points. Using a 25km iron asteroid hitting at an angle of 64 degrees at 56km/s and hitting dry sedimentary rock gives a yield of 2.45x10^10 megatons. Can you say "Oooops?"
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by TFLYTSNBN   » Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:12 am

TFLYTSNBN

doug941 wrote:It more or less checks out with my admittedly hamfisted calculations, allowing for various assumptions. The given energy yield is about 7000 times worse than what the dinosaurs got - and that's just Hammer Alpha.


Concerning the question of RFC's numbers, there is an asteroid impact simulator at "www.purdue.edu/impactearth"
that allows you to play around with various data points. Using a 25km iron asteroid hitting at an angle of 64 degrees at 56km/s and hitting dry sedimentary rock gives a yield of 2.45x10^10 megatons. Can you say "Oooops?"[/quote]


Weber's numbers are closer to my calculations then this on line calculator..
Lots of wiggle room for asteroud shape , spherical, oblate spheroid, prolate spheroid and density.

Does he say if Beta is bigger than Alpha?

That calculator is suspicious because impact angle is irrellevant unless it just grazes the planet.

Any crater greater than 100 km in diameter is likely to excavate the crust to expose the molten mantle. The heat energy of the exposed magma will multiple the energy release and environmental effects.

It is a shame that the colony ship didnt arrive prior to asteroid impact. They could have nudged the asteroids so that they would miss the planet.
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Re: “Dark Fall” by David Weber
Post by doug941   » Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:16 pm

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TFLYTSNBN wrote:
doug941 wrote:It more or less checks out with my admittedly hamfisted calculations, allowing for various assumptions. The given energy yield is about 7000 times worse than what the dinosaurs got - and that's just Hammer Alpha.


Concerning the question of RFC's numbers, there is an asteroid impact simulator at "www.purdue.edu/impactearth"
that allows you to play around with various data points. Using a 25km iron asteroid hitting at an angle of 64 degrees at 56km/s and hitting dry sedimentary rock gives a yield of 2.45x10^10 megatons. Can you say "Oooops?"



Weber's numbers are closer to my calculations then this on line calculator..
Lots of wiggle room for asteroud shape , spherical, oblate spheroid, prolate spheroid and density.

Does he say if Beta is bigger than Alpha?

That calculator is suspicious because impact angle is irrellevant unless it just grazes the planet.

Any crater greater than 100 km in diameter is likely to excavate the crust to expose the molten mantle. The heat energy of the exposed magma will multiple the energy release and environmental effects.

It is a shame that the colony ship didnt arrive prior to asteroid impact. They could have nudged the asteroids so that they would miss the planet.[/quote]

"Lots of wiggle room?" At Alpha's speed and mass, shape is meaningless. Angle is meaningless AT THIS SIZE. If the asteroid is measured in 10s or 100s of meters in diameter, the angle of impact is very important. The perimeters for Alpha were vague except for angle "an angle of sixty-four degrees." Speed and size were given as "traveling at over 50kps" and "no more than twenty-five kilometers." Composition of the asteroid and the ground it hit are not mentioned at all.

The Alpha vs Beta size is quoted as "Beta was smaller than Alpha, but its ocean impact had made it even deadlier, in its own way."

Lastly, you are assuming the crust of Calvin III is similar to Earth's. On Earth, that impact simulation WILL penetrate deep enough to fracture though to the mantle. On Calvin III??? Who knows.
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