RINGWORLD

Painting Copyright © Rick Sternbach.

Larry Niven first wrote about RINGWORLD over 50 years ago.
I drew these in 2022 and revised them in 2023.
Each image is 100 inches wide. The scale is 1 inch equals 2 million miles.

Image Summary Sheet 1 Raw data is entered in EXCEL at the top left. Some of the formulae being used are displayed at the top middle. Some tests of the Small-Angle Formula are at the top right and across the middle. The data-columns in the lower left use the raw data and the formula for the "Chord Of A Circle." Sheet 2 I drew Ringworld in ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR (AI) at a scale of 1 inch = 1 million miles. The entire workspace is about 225" by 225". The red lines are the chords, each increasing by 1 degree. They show the line of sight of Ringworld from an Observer at P. The long table on the right is from calculations done in Excel. The purple, green, and orange lines show the Shadow Squares (SS) from an observer at P. The small table at the top shows the distances and Apparent Diameters of the SS. Sheet 3 Ringworld is shown here with Sol System. The diameter of Ringworld is a bit larger than the diameter of Earth's orbit. The width of Ringworld is 997,000 miles ... about 4 times the diameter of the Moon's orbit! Imagine Ringworld is a ribbon standing on its edge, looped around the sun. If you put 1,000 mile high walls along each edge, spin the ring, and add an atmosphere, the inner surface can be habitable. The walls hold the air in. Sheet 4 The Ringworld needs day/night cycles. This can be simulated by building a smaller ring of Shadow Squares (SS). The black / yellow rays show the light from the sun being blocked by the SS, thus creating "night" on the Ringworld's surface. The grey rays show how those night regions would be seen from an observer at P. Some of the key Apparent Diameters of Ringworld (as viewed from P) are displayed around the Ringworld on the left. Note that our Sun and our Moon have Apparent Diameters of about 0.52 degrees. Sheet 5 What sparked all these drawings is the pattern created by the Shadow Squares. I am not sure if anyone has ever shown or discussed this pattern before. There is an interference pattern (or diffraction pattern or Moire Pattern) created by the squares as the pass in front of the sun, then behiund the sun, all while passing in front of Ringworld. It is the interplay of the gaps between the SS and the changing sizes of the SS panels (becasue of the angle of observation) which causes the pattern. My friend created some videos HERE to show this effect. I also show the zones of day / night / twilight. Sheet 6 This shows how the Ringworld would look to an observer at P. The observer is looking Spinward or Anti-Spinward and tilts his head up to the Zenith (the sun is always there). In this example, the observer is in the middle of night, so above him would be one SS blocking the view of the sun. Shallow viewing angles result in an observer looking through many thousands of miles of atmosphere. Those shallow angles will creat a lot of haze. This will be shown later. Sheet 7 This image shows the smaller orbit of the Shadow Squares when they have retracted their stabilization wires so as to be close to each other. This happens to protect the surface of Ringworld from solar flares. Sheet 8 Our Solar System's planets are shown with correct relative sizes to each other and to the Ringworld. The distances between the planets is not correct. Ringworld has 2 Great Oceans. The surface of Ringworld has a hexagonal grid built into it. Details of that hex-grid are shown at the top right. Sheet 9 These views of Ringworld are cross-sections (wall to wall). There are 5 levels of zoom to show more detail. Viewing angles, the amount of atmosphere at each angle, and sizes of certain features are compared between Ringworld and Earth. The two tables in the lower right summarize the data shown in the images. Sheet 10 These views of Ringworld are cutaways (in the plane of the Ringworld). There are 3 levels of zoom to show more detail. In A and B, the Ringworld is a very thin black line. In C the Rim Wall and atmosphere become clearly visible. Viewing angles, the amount of atmosphere at each angle, and sizes of certain features are compared between Ringworld and Earth. The table in the lower right summarizes the data shown in the images.