Tigress

[whartung]

So if you're on a Ringworld, you wouldn't see any evidence from the ground that...you're on a ring world?

Wouldn't there at least be a black band in the sky cutting across the stars at night?

How does the horizon work on a Ringworld?

I've not been on one, so I can't say.

 

[whulorigan]

So if you're on a Ringworld, you wouldn't see any evidence from the ground that...you're on a ring world?

Wouldn't there at least be a black band in the sky cutting across the stars at night?

How does the horizon work on a Ringworld?

I've not been on one, so I can't say.

The curvature of a ringworld is so slight from the vantage point of someone standing on the surface that it would be unnoticeable. The "land" would seem to go off into infinity as a "flatland" until atmospheric haze obscured it from view at sufficient distances.

Think of the curvature of the surface of the Earth (and the horizon we perceive from the surface) , and compare that to the curvature of an immense ringworld along its entire orbital arc.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Wouldn't there at least be a black band in the sky cutting across the stars at night?

On a Niven ringworld, you'd see a dashed line in the sky (if you had a really good telescope).

 

[flykiller]

So if you're on a Ringworld, you wouldn't see any evidence from the ground that...you're on a ring world?

niven in "ringworld" described it plausibly.

 

[whartung]

niven in "ringworld" described it plausibly.

Which I read in 1981, forgive me for not keeping up.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

 

[whartung]

See? This ring world could be in a binary star system.