From: jpolowin@sympatico.ca   
      
   On 2021-01-08 9:26 AM, Adam Warnock wrote:   
   > Y'know, pneumatics/hydralics would would make things simpler than using some   
   supermaterial. And the point about info-dumping (especially with bad   
   explanations) is duly noted. I wanted to know so that even if it never came   
   up, I had a solid foundation    
   to build details around.   
      
   While I'm entirely on board with the principles of "keep it simple" and   
   "don't over-explain what can better be left as a black box", you might   
   want to read about magnetorheological fluids.  Ordinarily fluid, they   
   become much more viscous under magnetic fields.  They might be useful in   
   providing some rigidity to the system that you're describing.   
      
   I was slightly irritated while overhearing an audio book that my partner   
   was listening to recently, in that the author kept referring to lights   
   as "LEDs".  The book was set some 300 years in our future.  Being   
   specific about the lighting technology implied that in 300 years,   
   despite tremendous advancements in other areas, we'd still be using   
   LEDs.  Unless they intended to make a statement about the state of human   
   technology, the author would have been better off just using "lights" or   
   "lamps" or some such thing.  The details of the lighting tech weren't   
   relevant to the story itself.   
      
   If your radiators were working by conduction or convection -- that is,   
   by transferring heat to another medium -- you'd want them to have as   
   much surface area as possible.  If they're working strictly by   
   radiation to space, you want them to have as much unobstructed   
   line-of-sight exposure as possible.  Radiation from one part of the radiator   
   that hits and is absorbed by another part of the radiator doesn't do   
   you any good.   
      
   Joel   
      
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