Blimey, I'm A Slow Learner

[CaptSolo]

Could someone please confirm a thing about light years that I bet everyone but me has discovered: That there is in fact a logarithmic scale with travel time on one axis and light years on the other. I have no excuse for not noticing this before. Of course it may not be logarithmic but something similar.

[submersible]

Could someone please confirm a thing about light years that I bet everyone but me has discovered: That there is in fact a logarithmic scale with travel time on one axis and light years on the other. I have no excuse for not noticing this before. Of course it may not be logarithmic but something similar.

I think time in hours is the square of distance (for oolite). So travelling 7ly in witch space will consume 49hrs.

[Cody]

<nods> Yep, a 4ly jump takes 16 hours. A misjump to midway takes 75% of the expected travel time.

[maaarcooose]

Might be a dumb question but why is that?

Seems somewhat illogical for it to take exponentially longer to travel a further distance.

Handwavium accepted of course.

!m!

[cim]

We wouldn't call it "witchspace" if it behaved in an easy to understand way...

An analogy which doesn't involve too much multi-dimensional physics: the witchdrive tunnels through into witchspace to a depth roughly proportional to the amount of energy (fuel) put in to making the wormhole, and then from that anchoring point you head in the direction of the star at your destination as a second anchoring point which is on the "surface" of witchspace. Now, the speed you can travel through witchspace is proportional to the depth you're at, so the time taken to travel that distance - rising at a constant rate - is proportional to the area of the triangle described, which is proportional to the square of the distance travelled. ("depth", "surface", and "area" all being crude analogies for properties of witchspace which are not fully understood even by top researchers, of course)

(If you drop out of witchspace half way, in a misjump, then you've covered 75% of the area of the triangle to get that far, so the jump takes 75% of the time)

If you want to see something even stranger, theorised to be caused by quantum effects in the witchspace medium, fly to Usinribe in the southeast of chart 5, and fill up your fuel tank. Note that Teusatve to the south is slightly out of range. Then jump to Enonis, then on to Rareat, then to Eszaan, around that arc, without refuelling. Teusatve is now just in range of your remaining fuel.

(Yeah, we trust the entire coherence of Galcop space to a drive technology we aren't entirely sure how it works. Try not to think about it too much, is my advice.)

[DaddyHoggy]

A wonderful description cim!

Made me

[maaarcooose]

Thank you.

That gives witchspace a whole different feel for me.

I never really thought of it as a different dimension before, very much like hyperspace in B5 but in many ways, more limited.

I always simply thought of it as a created wormhole between 2 different points. Witchspace was the name given to the theoretical space the wormhole goes through.
This gives me a great idea for a story though.

!m!

[Diziet Sma]

(Yeah, we trust the entire coherence of Galcop space to a drive technology we aren't entirely sure how it works. Try not to think about it too much, is my advice.)

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

[Cody]

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

Curious... I was just reading a synopsis of an old Heinlein novel, and you go and quote him. An excellent quote too!

[CaptSolo]

It has sunk into my thick skull now. This observation occurred upon starting parcel and passenger contracts and the shortest time versus fewest jumps data. Thanks for your post, Cim.

[maaarcooose]

So, if you could program the drive to do multiple 0.1ly jumps, your travel time would be reduced to the absolute minimum.

!m!

[Diziet Sma]

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

Curious... I was just reading a synopsis of an old Heinlein novel, and you go and quote him. An excellent quote too!

Which novel? (And have you ever read the unpublished screenplay that was written for The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? Not too bad at all)

[Cody]

Which novel? (And have you ever read the unpublished screenplay that was written for The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? Not too bad at all)

Tunnel in the Sky (which was the first one I ever read, aged 9-10) - and no.

[Malacandra]

Mathematically, btw, a log relationship would punish long trips far more than the existing (quadratic) relationship does. It might be something like 1ly = 1hr, 2ly = 2 hr, 3 ly = 4 hr, 4 ly = 8 hr, 5 ly = 16 hr, 6 ly = 32 hr, 7 ly = 64 hr. Here the formula I've used is distance = log2 (time) + 1, or you could rewrite that as time = 2^(distance - 1).

[Diziet Sma]

Tunnel in the Sky (which was the first one I ever read, aged 9-10)

Ah yes.. one of the first Heinleins I read, too.. for me, "stobor" began a lifelong habit of reading strange words backwards, to see if they made a word..