3.1 KiB
What if? by xkcd
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Author: u/raymestalez *
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Score: 24
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Created: 2015-08-07T09:14:13
Post:
Comments:
u/ArgentStonecutter [+4] Emergency Mustelid Hologram*
I guess this blows away that Poul Anderson (I think) story where a spaceship saves itself by reaching the level it floats in a gas-giant atmosphere. I only recall one line in the story now, "Like a bubble in a densitometer, the floated". Utterly ungoogle-able. Anyone remember this one?
u/Hurkel [+1] *
Anyone remember this one? Cold Victory.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram*
Cold Victory That's a short story collection. What was the name of the particular story?
u/Hurkel [+3] *
Brake. I found a pdf of the book here.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram*
Thanks! Edit: and I found a typo in the very sentence that I was looking for:
Like an old drop in a densitometer, like a free balloon over eighteenth-century France, like a small defiant bubble in the sky, the “Thunderbolt” floated. Should be "oil drop". [obviously my memory compacted the sentence since I first read it]
u/sparr [+2] *
The PDF is an OCR of the book. There are a lot of "typos" switching "i" for "l" and vice versa, and some o/a and some e/c as well.
u/FuguofAnotherWorld [+1] Roll the Dice on Fate*
It could still work so long as the spaceship was many, many times stronger and less meltable than a submarine. Being less dense would help too.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram*
It was definitely less dense, particularly after they stripped it of all unnecessary mass to pull the trick off. It helps that it was made of improbably strong materials.
u/sparr [+1] *
There are a few stories where ships descend into Jupiter's atmosphere and float with hot-hydrogen balloons before lifting back off using rockets.
u/DangerouslyUnstable [+5] *
I love the what-if posts but Randall has clearly taken on more than he can chew since the update schedule has gotten completely bonkers. Even after a several month hiatus, he is apparently not doing regular weekly posts anymore. I realize that as a consumer of his products (and one who doesn't even pay at that!) I have very little right to complain about scheduling, but I honestly wish he would go to a less frequent but more regular schedule. All that being said, perhaps one of the best comics for rational fiction type stuff.
u/raymestalez [+2] *
Everybody probably knows about it already, but I figured it belongs on this subreddit.
u/PeridexisErrant [+1] put aside fear for courage, and death for life*
I'm not sure it's quite fiction, but this seems like a case to apply the spirit instead of the letter of the rules!