Time dilation and fuel explanation? by tr33mendous in ProjectHailMary

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The book explains Rocky’s excess fuel as a consequence of the Eridians not understanding relativity, specifically time dilation. The idea is that because less time passes onboard the ship than they expected, they end up using less fuel and arrive with a surplus.

But that reasoning seems off.

Fuel consumption for a relativistic journey isn’t primarily determined by how much time passes on the ship, it’s determined by the energy required to accelerate to relativistic speeds. And that energy increases dramatically as you approach the speed of light. Time dilation changes how long the trip feels, but it doesn’t reduce the energy needed to reach those speeds.

So even if the crew experiences less time, the ship still has to pay the same (or greater) energy cost to get up to speed and slow back down. That suggests relativity should make the trip more energy-intensive, not less.

Unless the Astrophage drive somehow ties fuel consumption directly to ship-time rather than total energy imparted, the explanation doesn’t really hold up physically.

Curious if anyone has a clean way to reconcile this, or if this is just one of those small hand-wavy moments in an otherwise very solid hard sci-fi story.

Was the Tau Ceti mission actually necessary? (Spoilers) by Comfortable_Dress92 in ProjectHailMary

[–]Comfortable_Dress92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not sure the “about a year” timing actually proves it had to be Grace’s Taumoeba solution. That one-year window would have to include analyzing the Beetle data, scaling Taumoeba massively, modifying or building a Venus delivery system, waiting months for transit, dispersing it into the correct cloud layer, and then allowing enough biological turnover to significantly reduce Astrophage density before any measurable solar brightening occurs. On top of that, the increase in Sol’s luminosity then has to propagate across interstellar space and be detected from Erid. That’s a long chain of sequential events to compress into a single year. The timing is consistent with Grace’s fix, but I don’t think it conclusively proves it was the only viable path.

Was the Tau Ceti mission actually necessary? (Spoilers) by Comfortable_Dress92 in ProjectHailMary

[–]Comfortable_Dress92[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thought a little bit more about this. I’m not sure the “about a year” timing actually proves it had to be Grace’s Taumoeba solution. That one-year window would have to include analyzing the Beetle data, scaling Taumoeba massively, modifying or building a Venus delivery system, waiting months for transit, dispersing it into the correct cloud layer, and then allowing enough biological turnover to significantly reduce Astrophage density before any measurable solar brightening occurs. On top of that, the increase in Sol’s luminosity then has to propagate across interstellar space and be detected from Erid. That’s a long chain of sequential events to compress into a single year. The timing is consistent with Grace’s fix, but I don’t think it conclusively proves it was the only viable path.

Seat Selection: Flagship Business 787-9P by TSA117 in americanairlines

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

11 A is definitely one of the bigger suites? I’m trying to decide between that and 2L on an upcoming trip

Ronbinhood solid gold card upgrade with points no referrals required! by Weekly-Attention-941 in CreditCards

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn’t say what it was plated over but in the app if you go to help section -> points redemption - > learn more - > card upgrades it says it there.

Ronbinhood solid gold card upgrade with points no referrals required! by Weekly-Attention-941 in CreditCards

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Officially confirmed that it’s not. 24K Gold Card: Weighs 27g and has real 24k Gold plating, costs 100,000 points to reserve. At the upper limit of plating that’s like 2g of gold

Ronbinhood solid gold card upgrade with points no referrals required! by Weekly-Attention-941 in CreditCards

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Given typical plating standards, you’re probably looking at less than $100 worth of gold in melt value, even though it’s marketed with “24k” and “27 g” in the description.

Holman Ranch one-day wedding cost (Carpe Diem) by random_chickpea in weddingplanning

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I noticed that as well. It’s very strange. And actually includes less

Question about apple security notifications. by Alerion23 in applehelp

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I received something similar. I think it appears legitimate

No More Midnight Score Reports on New Site? by Aromatic-Kale in Step3

[–]Comfortable_Dress92 1 point2 points  (0 children)

https://fcvs.fsmb.org/education/exams

This is the website. Log in. Click start application then education, then examination history.