Ringworld is the title of a classic science fiction novel written by Larry Niven in 1970. Set in the year 2850, it is the story of four adventurers (two human and two alien) who are chosen to explore an engineered world encircling a sun-like star. The Ringworld is an enormous cylindrical band with a radius roughly equal to that of the earth's orbit and a width about the same as the diameter of the sun. It was constructed by some unspecified form of matter transmutation using the planets and minor bodies that once orbited the Ringworld's sun as raw material. The flat, inner surface is covered with a natural-looking, earth-like terrain and it spins at a speed fast enough to provide its inhabitants with the sensation of earth gravity. Thousand mile high walls along the edges keep the Ringworld's atmosphere from spilling out into space. The Ringworld is the home of hundreds of hominid species, but they are mostly non-technological. The sufficiently advanced civilization that engineered the Ringworld collapsed centuries ago and the adventurers find only its remains.
a.Fill the following table with the data you will need to solve the remaining problems.
b.Determine the surface area of …
i.Ringworld
ii.the earth
iii.a sphere with radius equal to the earth-sun distance
c.How fast does Ringworld spin to provide its inhabitants with the sensation of normal earth gravity? State your answer in …
i.meters per second
ii.earth days per rotation
iii.rotations per earth year
d.Determine the …
i.kinetic energy of Ringworld due to its rotation and
ii.number of days it would take to accelerate a newly constructed Ringworld from rest up to its final rotational speed if all the solar energy that landed on its surface was converted to kinetic energy.