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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)