driftfleet | 2 >> nerd life is hard

Entry tags:

2 >> nerd life is hard

Who: Megaman and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: Moping at the desk in the engineer's office on the SS Golden, lights on as usual
When: RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW somewhere around the space equivalent of midnight

Hello, I'd like to ask a question for anyone still awake. Some of you have been here for a little while now, right? I was wondering...has anyone ever been able to contact people they know back home here? Has Atroma ever allowed it, I guess.

My friends back home are probably really worried about me by now...I don't think they would know what's going on. To them I might have suddenly become missing! And I'd like to let them know that I'm okay, if I can. But I don't know if there's a way...

And also, since [ah] maybe I'm going to be here for awhile too. Does anyone have a database about outer space that I could borrow for a bit? A book or a data file you'd be willing to lend? Just, something that gets detailed about how things work in general out there. I have basic knowledge on the subject, but I'd like to learn more of I can.

Thank you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yaaaaas. The pun makes him laugh, both from how good it is and from how happy he is to finally have a friend he can share these puns with.]

Looks like we'll both have to take care fully cleaning our room! [Jesus christ]

Anyway, so! Anything you really wanted to know about space? [He straightens up a bit, fiddling with the edge of his visor like some kind of hot shot.] Just ask me anything!

[AH MAN YOU'RE A TRUE PRO, HE'S SO GLAD...Clay isn't the only one laughing by the time everything is said and done. Finally finding somebody that appreciates puns just as wholeheartedly, it really is so nice...!]

Yeah, hopefully the both of us will be able to manage it! Otherwise we'll be washing like a couple of scrubs, I bet...

[Dear god....BUT NO ALRIGHT he'll stop laughing at his own pun for a least a few moments now, with that question sinking in. Oh right, space, that was a thing before this life of puns.]

Right, ah! Geez, I almost don't know where to start now, there's a lot of things I don't know... [He rubs one of his arms absentmindedly.] Actually, though--I've been talking to somebody else about this, and now I'm wondering if it's normal! Like...how time passes between different places in space? We're probably really far away from Earth right now--would that normally change the way time is passing between here and there by a lot?

[Clay also makes himself stop laughing, because if there's one thing that can pull him away from being a pun machine, it's space. Even though that was a good one, ah yis the art of puns is a wonderful thing - NO FOCUS.]

I'd say so! The further away something is from Earth, the more time it takes for one or the other to see what's going on. You know those stars we see in the sky? What you're actually looking at is light from years ago, sometimes thousands! It all depends on how many light-years away an object in space is.

Take our sun - or, uh, the sun from my galaxy as an example. The Earth orbits the sun at roughly 150 million kilometers per hour, while light travels at 300 thousand kilometers per second. If you divide those two together, you get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20 seconds. That's how long it takes for the light of the sun to reach the Earth, give or take. This makes the sun about 8 light-minutes away from the Earth.

In other words, if we had a super powerful telescope and were able to look at the Earth right now, we wouldn't see what's going on today. We'd likely see what's going on in the past, maybe even back in the day of the dinosaurs!

Though I'm pretty sure time's passing by normally for the both of us. We just won't receive images of those times unless we got way, way closer.

[Alright, no, this....this is pretty interesting! More than interesting enough to set puns momentarily to the wayside, as great as they might be. Megaman gradually sobers as Clay goes on, but it's only in favor of increasing, rapt interest as the explanation unfolds. Some people would probably think this a bit excessive--but to Megaman, if anything, it's surprisingly thorough...and just the kind of explanation he'd want.

Programs have an easier time processing information in general anyway. All this? Already locked down and committed to memory, as Clay speaks, and by the end of it Megaman looks thoroughly fascinated.]

Ah, this is really neat! I always knew light traveled at a certain speed, but when it's that much distance...it does make sense, I suppose! It'd be a long way to travel.

[From what he can make of this, it does kind of correlate to Dr. Crusher's explanation as well...maybe not as entirely impossible as it sounds, after all. Hmm.]

That really does make time a pretty complicated thing to think about...and I guess every star we're seeing out there is already in the past, huh? Maybe they're not even actually there anymore? [Actually, this thought sticks a bit onto another thing that's been nagging at him for awhile...ah.] Oh, man, I wonder if this is something that I should account for on the star charts...

Think of it like sound waves! When you hear a... say, an explosion from far away, you notice how you don't hear the sound of it until a few seconds later? Thunder and lightning work the same way; that's why you see the lightning first before you hear the thunder. You can tell how far away lightning struck by counting the seconds between the flash and the sound of thunder! It's the same way with light. Light's way faster than sound waves, so the human eye only sees light appear instantly. But put it far, far away, and it'll take some time to travel.

[Star charts, though... Megaman's making star charts? Clay's eyes go wide, and then he's leaning forward with an excited grin.]

Yeah, yeah! Absolutely add that to the star charts! Scientists discovered that several of the stars we see at night aren't actually there anymore; we're just seeing the after images of the time they were still there!

Yeah, this does make sense! Comparing it to sound is a good way to put that...

[Ah honestly this enthusiasm's getting kind of contagious--Clay leans forward and Megaman almost does too, contemplative as he considers this slew of new information on the whole.]

But well, okay, I'll definitely be sure to do that! Though I'm--not sure how I'd note it, or how that impacts things...? Like, if it's a map for navigation? [Rubbing the back of his neck now, he tilts his head a bit at the feed.] Actually, do you have any experience with this kind of thing? I've never really done it before, so I'm still trying to figure some parts of it out...learning more about space would probably help it a lot, too!

If it's a map for navigation, then if a star isn't there anymore, it might disappear as we get closer to it. Not that we won't see a light show or anything; when stars die, they explode in what's called a supernova, and they can last for weeks, or even months! We ought to see that first, if we get closer to a star that isn't there anymore.

As for star charts measuring the distance of them... [Clay hunches over a bit, finger pressed in the space between his eyes.] That's a bit more difficult. We'd need a lot of time on one planet, not just the limited time we've been staying. See, the way astronomers find out how far away a star is in space is by setting up a decent spot, marking where a star is in the sky precisely, then coming back to that same spot six months later and calculating the difference in the viewing angle of the star. There, they use a method called triangulation, which uses trigonometry to give them a distance.

The problem with that is we never spend six months on a planet, and we'd need to know how fast the planet in question rotates around its sun and on its axis. And even with that method, you can't go beyond 400 light years. [He frowns, his eyes crossing to look at his finger.] There is another way, but that's a little more difficult. We'd really need a telescope or something like it for that.

Edited 2015-07-28 07:17 (UTC)

[Oh my god star map trivia yes he is here for this....and Clay really seems to be getting into it, too! Megaman leans a bit closer to the screen despite himself, paying careful attention, a slight frown beginning to edge its way onto his features as the explanation goes on.]

Hm, so if we want that kind of star chart, it's going to usually require a lot of time in one place... [Head tilting slightly to the side, eyes slide off the screen as he considers this. One hand goes up to absently rub at the edge of one of his earpieces, rather the way a normal person might scratch the side of their head.] Time that we don't really have, even if we want to have it! Since we pretty much have to follow the ships, and the pilot can only do so much. That's tricky...

...But, ah, maybe we don't have to rely solely on that? Here, I should explain--mapping things out wasn't really my idea! There used to be a couple of people here named Mattias and Oren, and they wanted to try and keep track of where we've been so far over the course of our space travels. So that we can start figuring out a path? Or at least record where we've been, in case we ever get the chance to backtrack later. Those two, they left a little while ago...but I said I'd help them with the map, so I wanted to continue where they left off!

[Megaman sits up, now, and reaches for one of the many scattered papers on his desk, holding it up to the screen--the sketches and notes are visible on it.]

From what I could gather of their notes, here, they were using the comm officer's radar tools to take down the star coordinates on paper! Maybe that would help a bit, with our distance measurement problem? I'm not a comms officer, so I don't know as much as I should about their equipment, but maybe they might be capable of that even in passing... [He lowers the paper a bit, frowning at it instead now.] Otherwise, I'm not sure where we're going to get a telescope, hm....maybe one could be built? Materials, though...

[Clay leans in towards the communicator to see the sketches and notes, hand on his chin and a frown on his face. Hmm... that could work just as well. After all, his form of measuring star distance is from his Earth, and there ought to be other ways out here and from other worlds as well.]

Unfortunately, we don't have a comm officer on the Vanquish, though as the pilot, I've got some access to their radar tools. I could probably use that to measure the distance, then use some of my own calculations to expand further on that. [This is actually pretty exciting, and Clay looks as if there's a thousand ideas at once going off in his head. So much to do! So much to discover! But first...]

Though if we could build a telescope, that'd help this project come along as well as others we might have. See, astronomers can also tell the distance of a star by their color spectrum. There's a relationship between a star's color and brightness, and from its brightness, we can tell how far away a distant star is. By using a telescope, we can see what colors a star has, then determine its true brightness from there. Then, when you compare the true brightness from its apparent one - that is, how it looks from our current position, then you can figure out how far away the star is!

It's not the most accurate method, but it's proven to be very close.

Edited 2015-08-07 06:23 (UTC)

Yeah, that might be a good start! And actually, we do have a comm officer here on the Golden--I'm sure she wouldn't mind lending us her tools every now and then, if we need them...

[Ah, it really is almost exciting in a way--just having another person here who knows so much about space, to bounce ideas off of! Honestly, Megaman had been getting a little worried about ever actually finishing the starcharts, at the rate he'd been going before. But now, maybe...

The information about telescopes just has him all the more visibly intrigued; he perks up, especially once its various uses are brought to light.]

And it sounds like we'd definitely benefit from having a telescope for sure, in that case! Just a matter of getting one... [Setting down the star chart sketches, he sits back a bit now, folding his arms contemplatively.] I mean--do you know what a telescope's made of, how it works? I'm an engineer, here...if I knew how to start, I think maybe I could try to build one! It would probably take awhile, since the materials might not be immediately available, but--it would be a huge help, by the sound of it, so I don't think I'd mind!

Edited 2015-08-07 18:59 (UTC)

[Clay opens his mouth -- and then shuts it, once he realizes just how much goes into building a telescope. He'd have to explain complicated things, and Megaman probably wouldn't get it if he didn't have a diagram.

So Clay leans away out of the camera's range to grab some paper without explanation, only to lean his head back into the frame once he realizes what he's done.]

You mind if I write and draw it out, actually? It's kind of complicated, and if you try to make one, it might be easier to have a guideline with you!

[He's seen the files both NASA and GYAXA gave away for people to make their own telescopes, after all; he's pretty sure he remembers how they're done.]

[It's certainly cause for a spot of confusion, for a moment, as Clay falls quiet so suddenly and then suddenly leans out of the camera. At least he pops back in before Megaman can start being concerned, however, and he blinks at the question before the idea finally sinks in.]

Oh! No, it's fine, I wouldn't mind if you drew it out at all! Ah, that'd probably be easier on the both of us, really... [He smiles, holding up a hand.] And, no rush on it either, actually! I just realized it might be pretty complicated, come to think of it...so take your time! A diagram would be really neat, though. [He hums thoughtfully.] Maybe whenever you get finished with it, you can let me know and we can meet up to look at things together sometime later? You could stop by the Golden if you want, really, and I could show you all the charts I have here so far too...

[Rubbing the back of his neck, he laughs a bit sheepishly.]

Besides, it is pretty late right now! I'm probably keeping you from sleeping at the moment...

I don't mind staying up!

[He says, as he ends up yawning as soon as he's done with that sentence. Wow, way to go body, curse your sudden but inevitable brotrayal.]

Haha... yeah, okay, let's meet up sometime! That way, we can exchange everything we've written and discovered. And I'll be sure to have the telescope diagram drawn out for you, too!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

2 >> nerd life is hard

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject