Travelling North aka miscellaneous thoughts on Wolfe

Tony Ellis · 09 Jun 2010, 16:55 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com (Tony Ellis)
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 17:55:21 +0100
Subject: (urth) Travelling North aka miscellaneous thoughts on Wolfe
Message-ID: <AANLkTinJMDiRAZx6JJYVHviwSrC4zvwW8yPPJQ3oXQhe at mail.gmail.com>

Gerry Quinn wrote:
>Secondly, the 'tacking' method of travelling faster than the wind works for
>sailboats.  But the analogy between wind and light radiation doesn't hold up
>because light does not exert pressure in directions orthogonal to its
>direction of travel, as moving air does.

The sails in question aren't your common-or-garden solar sails, but
the same monster-summoning, space-warping mirrors found in the
Autarch's book and Father Inire's workshop. It's not a pressure-driven
means of transport.

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