UmbralRaptop changed the topic of #principia to: READ THE FAQ: http://goo.gl/gMZF9H; The current version is Διόφαντος. We currently target 1.3.1, and 1.4.x. <scott_manley> anyone that doubts the wisdom of retrograde bop needs to get the hell out | https://xkcd.com/323/ | <egg> calculating the influence of lamont on Pluto is a bit silly…
<egg>
novasilisko: no, KSP is unlikely to lead to sanity
<egg>
(KSP fora that is)
<novasilisko>
no i think your first statement was more correct
<egg>
:D
<egg>
I'll probably poke at your ellipsoids eventually, or bofh will
<novasilisko>
i wonder if it would be possible to approximate gravitation of an oblate body by dividing the force among four points (two per axis) or something
<novasilisko>
that sounds like an extremely dangerous path
<egg>
no that sounds like a path to silliness
<egg>
just do spherical harmonics, it's not that hard
<egg>
you can lift the calculations off some shitty fortran or principia or something
<egg>
(hell we used some shitty fortran we found to check that we had implemented it correctly)
<bofh>
egg: thinking and reading a textbook right now, that's not a trivial question
<bofh>
like the "triaxial" bit messes everything up
<bofh>
actually is this question equivalent to just asking what the geodesic curves on a triaxial ellipsoid are?
<bofh>
"just"
<egg>
bofh: hmm how so?
<egg>
bofh: question: are sections through an axes ellipses?
<egg>
bofh: yeah, any section is an ellipse, right?
<egg>
bofh: so now you need sectional eccentricity (spherical longitude) or something, and then you're back to the more pedestrian problem
<egg>
bofh: hm wait no, the nearest point doesn't have to be on the plane through any axis
<egg>
bofh: argh the lack of symmetry does fuck with things
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<novasilisko>
this is like the only place i know that will know what i'm talking about - just messing around, made langton's ant https://i.imgur.com/JOw70HB.gif
<egg>
bofh: but still, that should be a workable approach: parametrize on spherical longitude, on the ellipse of constant longitude it's classical geodesy, so compute the shortest distance, and minimize over longitude hoping that the derivative isn't too horrid
<egg>
not sure what the section eccentricity (λ) is, but that should be feasible too
<bofh>
egg: hrm. I suppose that should work, come to think of it, yes.
<bofh>
I guess even for nasty values of λ it should still be workable.
<egg>
bofh: what do you mean nasty values of λ
<bofh>
hm. disregard, I just realized now you're talking *section* eggcentricity and not, like, any global oblateness.
<egg>
bofh: yeah by (λ) I mean as a function of λ, i am good with the words,
<egg>
!seen awang
<Qboid>
egg: Value cannot be null.
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<novasilisko>
!wpn
* Qboid
gives novasilisko a Molotov semimetal
<novasilisko>
today i learned about semimetal
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