Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Spoilers

angle of attack (first chapter)

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knnn:
Rereading the first chapter...

Basically, they consider using a "steeper angle of descent", because "gravity will get us there faster".  Obviously this cannot be strictly correct, but I was thinking maybe this meant that the ship itself was angled downward, creating a smaller cross-section for wind resistance. 

Thing is, I couldn't find a reference for an angle downward.  The ship simply falls "like a rock" and is still moving forward from the ethereal web.  That's what creates the angle of attack.  If this is so, they can obviously decide how much forward motion they have, but I don't see how they can drop faster. 


Shecky:
Easy. Turn down the power to the lift crystal and let gravity do the rest. Everything else requires power and/or sailing of one kind of the other.

knnn:

--- Quote from: Shecky on October 08, 2015, 02:30:40 AM ---Easy. Turn down the power to the lift crystal and let gravity do the rest. Everything else requires power and/or sailing of one kind of the other.

--- End quote ---

You're saying that initially the plan was not to turn off the lift crystal at all?  I thought that's exactly what a power dive was -- turn off the lift crystal and then turn it back on when you reach the proper altitude? 

Second Aristh:

--- Quote from: knnn on October 08, 2015, 02:35:15 AM ---You're saying that initially the plan was not to turn off the lift crystal at all?  I thought that's exactly what a power dive was -- turn off the lift crystal and then turn it back on when you reach the proper altitude? 

--- End quote ---
Power dive would imply that there's something more than gravity helping.  Grimm always called them attack dives or combat dives from what I can tell.

I don't think the ship was angled down for the dive just because of the extra complexity for aiming the cannons.  But it might not be totally impossible for the steeper dive to be the fastest approach for the ship.  Moving forward means interacting with etheric currrents, which screams drag to me.  So, less forward motion would translate to less drag and possibly more speed.  That's just my amateur physics intuition.  I haven't considered things like inertia.

knnn:

--- Quote from: Second Aristh on October 08, 2015, 03:44:35 AM ---Power dive would imply that there's something more than gravity helping.  Grimm always called them attack dives or combat dives from what I can tell.

--- End quote ---

But then that quote about gravity doesn't quite work.


--- Quote from: Second Aristh on October 08, 2015, 03:44:35 AM ---But it might not be totally impossible for the steeper dive to be the fastest approach for the ship.  Moving forward means interacting with etheric currrents, which screams drag to me.

--- End quote ---

Ah, you're saying that the web acts as a kind of sail and would serve to increase drag.  That might fit.

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