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The post-apocalyptic journey had been an arduous one, and taxing on the once abundant resources, MikeD had embarked with.
With waning strength and diminishing supplies, he trudged onward.
“I must find it.” He repeated to himself; a whispered mantra whose encouraging resonations faded in the desolate
landscape.
Charred remains of civilization jutted into view from time to time. They spoke of futility, anguish and despair.
“What is the point?”
The acrid expanse offered no reply.
“WHAT IS THE POINT?”
The question echoed off of distant ruins, then dissipated. MikeD, however, was quickened by what he now, could see. With a feverish pace, he ran towards a croissant shaped structure on the horizon. It would be his salvation. A safe-haven for bakers, the world over!
The croissant grew ever closer! His desperate eyes lapped up every subtle detail of the structure as it loomed, ahead. Waves of emotion washed over him as he approached the building; gratitude being first and foremost. “They built it! Thank god, they built it!”
As he rounded the corner and ran towards the entrance, however, his heart sank. Horror overtook him as his cognitive processes came to grips with what lay between him and his salvation:
“A Foyerrey!” He screamed as he sank to his knees, and pounded his fists into the cold earth.
The workings of this cruel contraption were only too familiar to MikeD: 9 concentric pairs of sleeved cylindrical shells. Each pair consisted of one stationary shell, and one rotating shell. Both shells contained a portal whose passage-allowing alignment would occur only once per year, respective to that orbit the particular shell represented.
Newgrange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange
Prior Art [8th of 7, Feb 19 2010]
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Interesting, but the once per year piece throws me.
For the third ring, it makes sense as that would align once for each Earth year (Maybe a solstice, maybe not), but the others align based on their assigned planetary years or ours. Is this this kind of thing like a giant time lock that only allows speedy access during a complete planetary alignment? |
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[Mr.QED] once per year as defined by that particular orbit ... so the outer most shell will not present an opening but once every 248 earth years. |
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//Excellent. An allegorrery.// |
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I laughed so loud everyone looked at me as if I was a bit weird. |
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IDE/THEORY: The orrey is the new sphericon. |
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This would take foyerreryever. |
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How often do all nine planets come into alignment? |
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[EDIT] From what I can google it looks like the answer is: once in every 180 trillion years for a 2D alignment, and most probably not in the lifetime of the solar system for a true alignment on the ecliptic. |
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Interesting (probably naive) mathematical question:
will the alignment happen at regular intervals? |
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The answer seems obviously "yes", unless you think
about prime numbers. To generate primes, you cross out
all the multiples of two, then all the multiples of 3, then
of 4 (redundantly), then of 5 etc, and the primes are the
ones left behind. Yet, despite the fact that the patterns
of crossing-out are all perfectly regular, the pattern of
primes which is left is perfectly non-regular. |
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There's an analogy with this problem (you're crossing
out all the times when one planet is out of alignment, and
all the times when the next one is out of alignment etc
until you're left with the moments of perfect alignment),
but probably only a simple one. Is there a number theorist
in the house? |
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[MB], I seem to remember discussing something about planetary orbits with a philosophy professor, some time ago ... something about plotting all points where the planet intersects a plane orthogonal to the orbit will create some pattern or another. I'll look for a link. |
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// Is there a number theorist in the house? // |
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Yes, but he's currently rocking backwards and forwards with his arms wrapped round himself, muttering "I like blinking, I do" is a strange high-pitched voice. |
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We are concerned that he may not be entirely suitable for Assimilation. |
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// discussing something ... with a philosophy professor // |
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Are you sure about that ? Could it just be a memory for which you have no contemporary justification ? Do you have objective evidence ? What is objective evidence ? Is it possible to have objective evidence within the bounds of the Copenhagen Interpretation ? How do you rationalize this given that your observations are subject to Heisenbergian uncertainty ? |
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Is the cat alive or dead ? Or both, simultaneously ? Is the cat still alive and/or dead if the observation interval is less than the Planck time ? |
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By the way, you need to pay for the drinks. Can you lend us five bucks until next week ? We are expecting a postal order. |
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<Stomps on cat to bring 8th out of epistemological paradox> |
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I think it might have been regarding Poincare. |
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If I loan you five bucks, is it just five? Or five per each member of the collective? |
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