Handling day and night on infinite plane?

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I'm not quite sure why this is a problem anyway. Just ask the flight attendant to turn the lights on.

 

 

 

[Sgt_Pedro]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I'm not quite sure why this is a problem anyway. Just ask the flight attendant to turn the lights on.

 

 

 

 

Baloo wins the internet.

[The Monster]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I'm not quite sure why this is a problem anyway. Just ask the flight attendant to turn the lights on.

 

...the problem is, on an infinite plane, it takes the attendant an infinite amount of time to get to the light switch...

[Comic]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

...the problem is' date=' on an infinite plane, it takes the attendant an infinite amount of time to get to the light switch...[/quote']

It depends.

 

Say the seats on the infinite plane are arranged in rows and columns, and they are infinite in every direction, as marked on the carpet runners in the aisles.

 

To get to a specific location in the plane in finite time, an attendant need merely pull the carpet runner so it folds, step over the fold to the desired seat row and column, and then unfold the carpet runner.

 

Of course, the electric signal from the switch, and the light from the bulb, traveling only at the speed of light, would take infinite time to get there.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

It depends.

 

Say the seats on the infinite plane are arranged in rows and columns, and they are infinite in every direction, as marked on the carpet runners in the aisles.

 

To get to a specific location in the plane in finite time, an attendant need merely pull the carpet runner so it folds, step over the fold to the desired seat row and column, and then unfold the carpet runner.

 

Of course, the electric signal from the switch, and the light from the bulb, traveling only at the speed of light, would take infinite time to get there.

 

So, if there is a day-and-night cycle at all, this means that the "sun god" on the infinite plane is a flight attendant who's been operating the light switch on a continuing basis for an infinite amount of time?

 

Of course, if she's really infinite, then she's everywhere she's needed throughout time. I give you the Infinite Stewardess:

 

Coffee, Tea, or Eternal Wisdom?

[The Monster]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

It depends.

 

Say the seats on the infinite plane are arranged in rows and columns, and they are infinite in every direction, as marked on the carpet runners in the aisles.

 

To get to a specific location in the plane in finite time, an attendant need merely pull the carpet runner so it folds, step over the fold to the desired seat row and column, and then unfold the carpet runner.

 

Of course, the electric signal from the switch, and the light from the bulb, traveling only at the speed of light, would take infinite time to get there.

But the point is really moot, since nobody can afford the infinitely high ticket prices (not even for budget class!)!

[Comic]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

So, if there is a day-and-night cycle at all, this means that the "sun god" on the infinite plane is a flight attendant who's been operating the light switch on a continuing basis for an infinite amount of time?

 

Of course, if she's really infinite, then she's everywhere she's needed throughout time. I give you the Infinite Stewardess:

 

Coffee, Tea, or Eternal Wisdom?

Sadly, if your postulate is correct, for the Eternal Stewardess to have the attributes you posit, she would have to be Real, Irrational, or Imaginary.

 

Now, I know what 'Real' means as a limitation on a weapon, but I'm not sure exactly how to apply it to a goddess.

 

Irrational and Imaginary, those I pretty much understand how they apply, and they are not Good Things.

[tkdguy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I would have just had one gigantic lightbulb illuminating the whole place. Then you see a gigantic hand flip the switch at night with an audible click.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Funny' date=' I am a physics major. Physics is all I every worry about.[/quote']

 

Hmm... well, if I remember my college physics classes correctly, in our real-world universe space-time is infinite but curved, so that it bends back upon itself. There may be one sun on your infinite plane, constantly in motion, but wherever it goes it always eventually returns, so it keeps following the same path over the plane endlessly. Daylight is when the sun passes over a particular part of the plane.

 

Now, how can we make this mythic? The god of the Sun is trapped on this plane, and keeps moving trying to find the end of it so he can escape; but since there is no end, he just keeps cycling over the same regions over and over again.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I would have just had one gigantic lightbulb illuminating the whole place. Then you see a gigantic hand flip the switch at night with an audible click.

 

That also provides the possibly of a mid-day *Flash!* followed by unexpected darkness. A giant hand reaches over and unscrews the bulb and inserts a replacement, thus ending the "eclipse".

[Teflon Billy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Sadly, if your postulate is correct, for the Eternal Stewardess to have the attributes you posit, she would have to be Real, Irrational, or Imaginary.

 

Now, I know what 'Real' means as a limitation on a weapon, but I'm not sure exactly how to apply it to a goddess.

 

Irrational and Imaginary, those I pretty much understand how they apply, and they are not Good Things.

Well, point of fact.

 

All Irrationals are Real.

 

I'd personally call her Complex, closed under all operations, and therefore complete.

 

TB

[tkdguy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

That also provides the possibly of a mid-day *Flash!* followed by unexpected darkness. A giant hand reaches over and unscrews the bulb and inserts a replacement' date=' thus ending the "eclipse".[/quote']

I remember reading fanfic in Shadis (I think) based on the Floating Vagabond series. Someone cleaning the bathroom found out that life had started inside one of the stalls and advanced at a rapid pace. They worshipped the ceiling lights. When the guy turned off the lights, he was attacked by the beings for killing their gods.

[Kristopher]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Hmm... well' date=' if I remember my college physics classes correctly, in our real-world universe space-time is infinite but curved, so that it bends back upon itself. [/quote']

 

That was/is but one concept out of many.

 

There may be one sun on your infinite plane' date=' constantly in motion, but wherever it goes it always eventually returns, so it keeps following the same path over the plane endlessly. Daylight is when the sun passes over a particular part of the plane.[/quote']

 

This idea actually got me thinking, how can a space be both curved in on itself in all directions, and infinite?

[tkdguy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Here's an article about the possible shape of the universe.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

If it curves back on itself, then it doesn't have an end, but it's also not infinite. You could measure it by heading out with an suitably long measuring tape, then seeing how much tape had played out when you got back to the starting point.

 

Edit: This is exactly analogous to the way the surface of the Earth can be considered a two-dimensional plane which "curves back on itself" in a third dimension.

[tkdguy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I remember the unverse being described as "finite but unbound." I don't remember the source, but I'm fairly certain I was reading a book on relativity.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Well, point of fact.

 

 

I'd personally call her Complex, closed under all operations, and therefore complete.

 

TB

 

Flight attendants have come a long way. They didn't use to have a reputation for being closed under all operations...

[Old Man]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I remember the unverse being described as "finite but unbound." I don't remember the source' date=' but I'm fairly certain I was reading a book on relativity.[/quote']

 

Whereas if it is infinite, then if you go out far enough, you'll find another you.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Whereas if it is infinite' date=' then if you go out far enough, you'll find another you.[/quote']

 

Dear lord I think I understood that! If I did does that mean I'm smart and insightful or just loony?

[tkdguy]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Whereas if it is infinite' date=' then if you go out far enough, you'll find another you.[/quote']

The universe can't handle two of me! I'd have to get rid of him.

[Basil]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Dear lord I think I understood that! If I did does that mean I'm smart and insightful or just loony?

 

Yes.

 

 

 

 

[JPicasso]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

How about some sort of "shadow" substance between the infinite plane and the eternal light bulb. It would operate similar to the shadows one sees in clear shallow water. The shadows, or night, would be where the waves are rising and falling. There would be two "days", one where you are at the crest of the wave, and one where you are at the dip of the wave.

 

So imagine the atmosphere as being the water... When you are in the "dip" of the waves, the atmosphere is at it's thinest, so it would appear to one standing at the bottom of the air that they are at High-day, because the light passes through, and it's thin, so your goody-two-shoes-aligned gods and spirits would be at an advantage. Then, as the wave starts to rise, it would block the sun, and you would have night. As the wave crests, you again have a "day" but it would be a different day, perhaps leaning toward some other type of gods. (if you want to keep night time for skeletons and devils, use some other identifier, perhaps the new gods vs nature and elemental gods.) The wave crests would be called "low-day" to an observer on the ground, due to the wave being thickest, and blocking out more of the good stuff. Whatever that is. As the wave drops again, night approaches and it starts all over.

 

I've had a few beers and there's noone to talk to here, so hopefully this helps someone.

[badger3k]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

I have been trying to think of a way to create the effect of day and night on an infinite plane?

I was thinking about doing the whole Apollo thing with a god riding the sun every morning but that would mean he would have to ride in circles and some portion of the plane would always be in darkness.

Then I thought about having the stars simultaneously wax and wane with intensity as the day goes on to create the illusion of day and night without the need for a sun. I like this idea the most so far, but I have not came up with a good idea of why they do this. Is it the cities of heaven turning on their torches? Or is it the spirits of ancestors breathing life into the plants? Or something else.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

I was going to run a world that was at least as large as a galaxy, and there were numerous suns going around it. Some orbited an area, others went as bands across huge (light year) areas. Other areas were indeed all in darkness. Such areas would be freezing, with creatures adapted to darkness and cold. It was going to be a mix of sci-fi and fantasy (Elves were related to dragons, and the Star Dragon, as big as a battlecruiser and living in the void of space, were two ideas I liked). Of course, there was no sense to it, and I kept that as a mystery (of course, since I knew it was all writer fiat, I really wasn't happy with it).

 

I did have another idea for inside a dyson sphere, where the land was broken up into levels (like a layer cake), with upper (closer to the sun) levels being tropical, down to the freezing lower levels. There I had the "sun" in the center just dim out on a regular cycle, so there was night and day over the entire world at once.

 

Heck, you can have the "apollo's chariot" idea over a larger area - he is more like a herdsman, sending his solar cattle over the skies, so that there are many suns. Depending on the scale, you can have areas that get one sun, two, or even more. Do it that way, and you can even add in periods of darkness where there is no sun (the cattle strayed). Hmm. Maybe they could help the god out and find the missing sun?

 

Don't forget the Discworld idea where the light from the sun is influenced by a magical field and it's speed varies. Perhaps there are areas of magic in the sky that causes night by slowing down or shifting light. A day of normal light, a night of "anti-light"?

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane?

 

Perhaps the infinite plane is sort of an infinite version of an Alderson disk* with stars bobbing up and down through holes spaced at regular (or irregular) intervals on its surface?

 

*I've always wanted to use an Alderson Disk in a Science-Fiction or Fantasy setting ever since I heard about it.