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[Apologies for cross-posting... there's enough difference
between this and the copyediting list that I felt it would
be worth asking again here:]
An interesting problem arose just the other day: I was
writing a science fiction story, and tried to do some
velocity, time, and distance calculations to get some
details right for a space ship passing a planet. (What, me
anal? <grin>) I did a really crude calculation by hand, but
left myself a note to check it over in more detail so I can
get it right... but I really don't want to be doing
integrals that account for relativistic effects by hand. I
could probably fake it reasonably well, but I don't want to
contemplate all that manual labor. <shudder>
So, to the question: Do any CELmates write or edit science
fiction or orbital mechanics manuscripts? If so, how do you
"fact check" such things? Is there a shareware software
package somewhere on the 'net that lets you do simplistic
but realistic calculations of times and distances? I'd be
grateful for any pointers in the right direction.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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