Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unm-cvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!cmcl2!lanl-a!unm-cvax!janney From: janney@unm-cvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: More on Matter Transmission (Nicholls encyclopedia) Message-ID: <1106@unm-cvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Aug-84 19:14:03 EDT Article-I.D.: unm-cvax.1106 Posted: Wed Aug 15 19:14:03 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Aug-84 02:27:31 EDT References: <12392@sri-arpa.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque Lines: 25 A minor error in the Nicholls encyclopedia: > Larry Niven has himself written a number of stories based on the assumption > of a m.t. which will revolutionize transport on Earth but will not work over > interplanetary distances, . . . [including] "Flash Crowd" (1973), . . . "The > Alibi Machine" (1973), "All The Bridges Rusting" (1973), "A Kind of Murder" > (1974), and "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club" (1974). The stories do involve interplanetary travel, and even interstellar travel. Since the m.t. conserves energy and momentum, you have to be careful about where you go: transmitting from one of the poles to the equator will leave you with a difference in velocity of about 1000 mph, not the most pleasant way to arrive. Similarly, changes in altitude consume or release energy. "All The Bridges Rusting" involves the problem of using a m.t. based ship to rescue a conventional (interstellar) rocket that is traveling at 1/7 the speed of light: getting there is easy, but what do you do about the tremendous difference in velocity? Naturally, an ingenous solution is found. Jim Janney {{ucbvax,gatech}!unmvax, {purdue,lbl-csam,ihnp4!cmcl2}!lanl-a}!unm-cvax!janney "Slowly, an icy clam descended upon him" (glom)