The Sword and Laser discussion

http://www.dennisantinori.com/Resourc...

Allows you to scroll through and various locations can be zoomed in and/or have info.

I only just barely messed with it because apparently it can be spoilery, but I'll definitely take a closer look once I'm done with the book.

Thanks for the link. I don't think its really too spoilery since there was a similar map of one of the zoom ins in the beginning of the edition I read, but I understand not looking at it until completed. I love the overall representation of the ringworld from that link though. Gives you an idea of the magnitude of that thing.

Very impressive.

To get an ever better sense of the awesome scale, check out this animation that shows how a map of the earth would look mapped in 1:1 scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR2296...

I did a quick calculation and a jet airliner, traveling at 500mph, would take 83 DAYS to fly across the ring from edge to edge. Going all the way around would probably take an entire lifetime.

AndrewP wrote: "I did a quick calculation and a jet airliner, traveling at 500mph, would take 83 DAYS to fly across the ring from edge to edge. Going all the way around would probably take an entire lifetime."

Interesting you should mention that, considering what one of the characters tries to do. We see them again in the sequel.

All I keep imagining is the Halo campaign. I was blown away by how it looked - probably looks awful now :)

This is a nice visualization. I had imagined the width to be much narrower than depicted here though.

Ric wrote: "This is a nice visualization. I had imagined the width to be much narrower than depicted here though."

I thought that at first too. But, the earth has a circumference of approx 25,000 miles and the ring is 1,000,000 miles across. That's 40 complete maps of the earth put end to end.

AndrewP wrote: "To get an ever better sense of the awesome scale, check out this animation that shows how a map of the earth would look mapped in 1:1 scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR2296...


I didn't want to spoil anything, so I didn't look at these until I finished reading, and all I can say is that clip was cooler than the book. Granted there were some neat concepts in the read, but nothing that left me with nearly as much of a WOW factor as just watching that 36 second youtube video. I guess that means that I was disappointed by the missed potential? This leaves me a little conflicted.

AndrewP wrote: "I thought that at first too. But, the earth has a circumference of approx 25,000..."
Possibly. Is the Ringworld also 93 million miles from its sun? So the ratio of the width of the ring to the distance from the sun is 1:93?