(C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

[eldin raigmore]

Would 200 years be enough for the place names [↑ɑ.räɑx ↑tʰʊ.rʊ.ɑx] and [↑ɑx.tʰäɑx xʊ.↑ɑx] to become, through lazy pronunciation, [↑ɑr.tʰʊ.rʊx] and [↑ɑx.tʰä.xʊx] respectively?

Why not?
"Mary Land" became "Maryland" in about that much time.

And actually "Baltimore Maryland" is more "Balmer Merlin" now.

"Port Huron" became "Porch Yearn" in about that much time.
etc.

[Ànradh]

Awesome, thanks.

[Flaverius]

Could have a moon orbitng around a planet have moonlike objects orbting around himself.
A moon with own moons?

[Ànradh]

Could have a moon orbitng around a planet have moonlike objects orbting around himself.
A moon with own moons?

I have read that that kind of arrangement would be unstable... However, I never recall reading a 'why', which is a general indicator to take it with a grain of salt.

[Creyeditor]

Could have a moon orbitng around a planet have moonlike objects orbting around himself.
A moon with own moons?

The wikipedia article says that it is possible, but it there is no known example ...
Plus, this has to do with the Hill sphere.

[gach]

Calculating Hill spheres is useful. The Earth's for example has a radius of 1.4 million km. This is more than three times further out than the Moon's orbit making the Moon securely bound to Earth's gravity. The Moon's Hill sphere is much smaller at 62000 km or 36 times the radius of the Moon. It's still easy to put a spacecraft there, but for a natural moon that means a very tight orbit.

You are probably also interested in the satellite systems of giant planets as these have a higher tendency of having loads of moons and it's also easier to have a large moon there as you don't need to make the system a double planet to do it (like the Earth Moon system). Unfortunately the overwhelming gravity of the giant planet shrinks the Hill spheres of the moons very small. For example the Hill sphere of Ganymede has the radius of only 32 km from the centre of the moon. There literally isn't any space there for a secondary moon to have an orbit that goes even once around the larger moon.

Notice also that the Hill sphere is only a simple approximation of the stable area around an orbiting body. Even more importantly even the smallest perturbations can grow large over astronomical time scales and result in loosing a satellite that over short time scales appeared to have a stable orbit. Thus the orbit of a moon needs to be deep within the Hill sphere of its parent body to make its orbit stable for billions of years.

[Nemesis]

I didn't know that there were this kind of concepts in which I could fit in, and maybe lots of you!
Check out and give opinions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracosm

[Chagen]

Alright, while coming up with Azen naming traditions, I've run into some problems.

I'll have to describe: The Azen split themselves into 20 "dynasties" (don't know a better term for this), which are then each split into 5-25 clans. Each clan has endless families (actually more generations--you'll see later).

So, every Azen has four names, put into this order: [given] [family] [clan] [dynasty]. So let's take an Azen woman. Her name is Uzzi Daccos Hescojobharis Carrarna. Her given name is Uzzi, and she's a member of the Daccos family, who are part of the Hescojobharis clan of the Carranami dynasty.

Now, let's take a man. His name is Frostav Aghjuram Musnjota Stalana. Let's suppose he and Uzzi get married.

Under the system as I have it now, the two of them would change their family names to a new shared one, made up by them. They make their new family name Aghjos. Then they have a son and a daughter.

Both kids will have the family name of Aghjos, but the son will receive the clan and dynasty names of his father--likewise, the daughter will receive the clan and dynasty names of her mother. Thus, the son shall be named Vrosca Aghos Musnjota Stalana, the daughter Ladibho Aghjos Hescojobharis Carrarna.

Now, this is where the problems begin. Under this system, the family name changes every generation. Indeed, under this system, tracking lineage would be basically impossible without an explicit family tree (thankfully the Azen keep very detailed family trees, and everyone from a teen texting his girlfriend at the corner store to a shrine maiden of the traditional Azen religion Dordhjan is expected to be able to recite their relatives on their gender of the family for 50+ generations back on command).

Is this a problem or not? I feel like not being able to track lineage by last name (that is, you can't tell two people are related merely by their name--before you try to act smart, yes, the clan and dynasty names will be the same, but only if their the same gender e.g you wouldn't be able to tell Vrosca and Uzzi were mother and son by their names alone) is a little weird.

///////

The names are translated like so, by the way:

Uzzi Daccos Hescojobharis Carrarna: True Dawn Enlightened Sailor

Frostav Aghjuram Musnjota Stalana: Missile (yes, in the sense "rocket-propelled weapon) Strong Mercy-Showing Lover

Vrosca Aghjos Musnjota Stalana: Poetic-Verse Moon Mercy-Showing Lover

Ladibho Aghjos Hescojobharis Carrarna: Intelligent Moon Enlightened Sailor

Azen names are sometimes rather overwrought, as you can see.

[Micamo]

The Azen split themselves into 20 "dynasties" (don't know a better term for this)

"Tribe."

Is this a problem or not?

No.

[Chagen]

"Tribe."

Thank you. Looking at Wikipedia, "phatry" could be used but it also seems be a really rare/archaic term.

[SitheseParadox]

Hello, lads! I am new around here...

Anyways, I am making a planet for a roleplay forum I'm involved with, and I've stumbled across a rattling concern: In order to make my planet have Earth gravity with 0.6 Earth radii, I've calculated that my planet's mean density must match 21.77 g(cm^3)^-1. I have allocated most of the planetary mass to osmium-iridium (It is an alien construct forged from nuclear-transmuted elements, perhaps) , but now I need to fill in the rest of the mass with other elements.

This may be more mathematical than conceptual, but might someone lend me a hand in making a well-rounded planetary composition capable of (barely) tolerating human life?

[eldin raigmore]

Hello, lads! I am new around here...
Anyways, I am making a planet for a roleplay forum I'm involved with, and I've stumbled across a rattling concern: In order to make my planet have Earth gravity with 0.6 Earth radii, I've calculated that my planet's mean density must match 21.77 g(cm^3)^-1. I have allocated most of the planetary mass to osmium-iridium (It is an alien construct forged from nuclear-transmuted elements, perhaps) , but now I need to fill in the rest of the mass with other elements.
This may be more mathematical than conceptual, but might someone lend me a hand in making a well-rounded planetary composition capable of (barely) tolerating human life?

You should check out Stephen L. Gillette's World-Building, part of Ben Bova's Science Fiction Writing Series.

(There are at least four books in the series, but the only two I've ever had are the above and Stanley Shmidt's Aliens and Alien Societies; which I also recommend. Probably the others would also be good and helpful, but I've never seen them.)

The main thing, as far as whether or not the planet would support life, is the makeup of its "volatile" or "atmophilic" substances.
A compound is called "volatile" or "atmophilic" if it remains on or above the crust because it is fluid (liquid or gas) in the conditions ambient on the planet's surface. An element is called "atmophilic" if it readily forms atmophilic compounds in the conditions ambient on the planet's surface.

Clearly, which substances are "atmophilic" or "volatile" depends on the planet -- how big it is, how hot it is, how close to its primary star it is, what the relative chemical abundances were in the dust-cloud out of which it was formed, etc. (Or what the aliens made it out of.)

For technology you also want to know about the make-up of its "lithophilic" ("rock-loving") substances, and its "chalcophilic" ("ore-loving") substances.
An element is called "lithophilic" if it remains on or in the crust because it readily combines with oxygen to form compounds that don't sink into the mantle.
An element is called "chalcophilic" if it remains in the crust or upper mantle because it readily combines with sulfur or some other chalcogen (e.g. selenium or tellurium -- but oxygen and sulfur are most of the chalcogens) to form compounds that don't sink into the lower mantle or the core.

The remaining major category of chemical constituents of a planet, are compounds are called "siderophilic" ("iron-loving"). These sink into the lower mantle or the core -- at least the outer core -- because they readily dissolve in iron. Elements that form siderophilic compounds are called siderophilic elements.

Again, which compounds and which elements are lithophilic, which are chalcophilic, and which are siderophilic, depends on various other information about the planet -- the answer may be different from one planet to another. For instance, for some planets H2O is more lithophilic than atmophilic.

Anyway; Gillette's book gives "recipes" for making several types of worlds. If memory serves that includes what I think is the type you are interested in making.

---

Go ahead and look up the other stuff on World-Building in this search, too.

[Chagen]

Incredibly minor question, but:

Is it possible for someone to be born with naturally white/silver/gray/argent/etc. hair? As of now, the Azen are highly notable in that a huge amount of them have gray-ish hair from birth, probably from a benign mutation that arose in their formative years and spread throughout their ethnic group.

[Egerius]

I think this falls under the category "partial albinism" or "hypomelanism", i.e. a certain amount or type of melanin can be produced by the body, or parts of the body receive no pigment.

[Salmoneus]

Incredibly minor question, but:

Is it possible for someone to be born with naturally white/silver/gray/argent/etc. hair? As of now, the Azen are highly notable in that a huge amount of them have gray-ish hair from birth, probably from a benign mutation that arose in their formative years and spread throughout their ethnic group.

Yes, of course. Many people are born with naturally white (or extremely pale blond) hair. However, this is due to albinism, so the rest of them will also be pale.
Otherwise, white or grey hair is essentially a genetic disease - it occurs when toxic levels of hydrogen peroxide build up and kill off or badly damage the melanin-producing cells, ultimately, it now seems, because the body has failed to produce certain enzymes correctly. For some, this can occur in childhood, or even before birth. But as with many genetic abnormalities, there are often consequences - grey hair at birth is, I think, more common as one symptom of a broader genetic disorder. Having said that, it is in theory possible to have the one disorder without having anything else wrong with you, so your conceit is possible, if unlikely.

The bigger problem, I would think, is the colossal amount of cliche that it would generate.

[Chagen]

If it's formed from Albinism...then that would be quite weird for the Azen, as they are an island nation living in basically Thooselqat's equivalent to Indonesia...so they have dark skin which would obviously require lots of melanin. Then again, Thooselqat has people who have completely impossibly-colored hair anyway.

Even though Thooselqat is an Urban Fantasy, I don't want to use "lolmagic" too much to explain things and I want my sexy dark-skinned argent-haired Azen women dammit

[Dormouse559]

and I want my sexy dark-skinned argent-haired Azen women dammit

Only if you name one Kidagakash.

[Chagen]

I see just "image".

But...scouring my favorite anime art databases, some examples of an Azen: This is a good example of an what an Azen girl, though a very light one, she's probably from the north or got some Heocg in her, would look like.

Minus the minor elf ears, a good example of an Azen woman: shining white hair, and dark but not very dark skin (that's the domain of the Ngith)

This picture...ignoring the elf ears, somehow a really stacked Azen woman and a half-Chyffelb half-Vzodyet (if she was full Chyffelb she'd have red eyes) have teamed together and are about to challenge you to a children's card game.

Man, can I find a picture that doesn't have an elf-girl?

[Dormouse559]

I see just "image".

Yeah, I changed it to a plain link. Can you navigate to it now? If not, there's no shortage of Google search terms (e.g. "Kidagakash" "Princess Kida" "Atlantis: The Lost Empire").

I think she looks pretty similar to the last two examples you gave, except her anatomy might be a little more realistic. And she's over 10,000 years old.

[SitheseParadox]

-Snip-

You wouldn't happen to know if any reputable outlet sells an electronic version, would you?