"Robert J. Chassell" wrote:
> By the way, does anyone know why so many science fiction writers
> descripe spinning space habitats as being longer than they are wide?
> Such habitats are intrinsically unstable. But habitats that are wider
> than they are long are intrinsically stable
>
> I know that the habitats are supposed to have stability controls --
> just pump water around. Nonetheless, it is easier to keep an
> instrinsically stable system stable than to stabilize an unstable
> configuration.
It probably makes for an environment that the reader is more comfortable
visualizing.
It also makes for more interesting crises.
So, from a writer's & reader's standpoint, it may be desirable, even if
it isn't from an engineering standpoint.
Julia
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