Aggravating reviews. . .

But think of how great that would all look with CGI.

wow... that would be cool.

 

Amazon should require IQ tests prior to posting reviews. This person is a dufus of the highest order. And I won't even address his Star Wars-related dementia at all.

It seems that when his thermodynamics professor told him to study Claperyon, the reviewer misheard him and instead took it upon himself to study the long-term effects of "the Clap." This review is obviously a byproduct of that study.

The clown finds the Ideal Gas Law in a textbook and goes forth to condemn all of science-fiction?!? Get real. The reviewer writes...

"Finally, I have another general complaint, this toward almost all of science fiction, though the problem manifests itself frequently in this book. Air, when exposed to the vacuum of space, does not freeze! If it did, Earth's outer atmosphere would be entirely composed of frozen air crystals. It is not. Go look at a pressure vs. temperature diagram for air."

Whoa! Hold on Doc. While I should note that I'm not going to spend that much time to detail the fine details of thermodynamics, the Earth's atmosphere and its place in the cosmos, we can at least touch on some of his factual errors he made in coming to his flawed conclusion.

First off, air is a mixture made up of a whole lot of materials like ozone, non-methane hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, reactive nitrogen, surface fluxes, aerosols, and a whole lot of other materials. However, PT diagrams by nature have to be idealized to some degree. And furthermore, this guy's going to try to shoehorn every single upper-atmosphere volume of "air" situation found in real life and speculative fiction into his model as given in an idealized textbook diagram. Particles are in constant motion and therefore, you would actually have to sample your given volume of air and diagram your specific situation to be correct. A volume of air at one time and place can be different from the same volume of air taken at a different time and place. And therefore, the properties between the two volumes will be different.

So, strike one - you're actually not dealing with reality, as reality (or fiction, as the case may be) is much more difficult to model with such diagrams.

Strike two - Air is a mixture. Therefore, there is no such thing as a freezing point for "air," as its constituent parts will all behave differently according to their nature. I.e. they'll all "freeze out" at different points for a given volume of "air." The freezing point of water vapor is different from the freezing point of nitrogen, which is different from a plethora of other gases and materials which are found in common upper atmospheric "air."

Strike Three - The temperature of "dark space" (i.e. not receiving light from the sun/stars) can conservatively be put at around a freezing minus 250 degrees F (-157 C). For reference, the freezing points of:
1. Water vapor = 0°C
2. Oxygen = -222.65°C
Both of which are common to "air." So, one can easily see that yes, certain items making up "air" can indeed freeze in space.

However, the whole issue of the upper atmosphere freezing based merely on the Ideal Gas Law equation is ludicrous. This ignores any energy being absorbed, redirected, reflected through the atmosphere by all of the various astral bodies - the sun, stars, etc. (There's a whole host of invisible energy being transferred through the upper atmosphere as well) Also add in the fact that the upper atmosphere and the region of space next to it is far from being a true vacuum, of which this whole flawed review is based upon.

Basically, some clown found an idealized case in a textbook and saw fit to try to cram real life (or fictional life for that matter) into his fundamentally flawed model.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

If I'm feeling in a particularly nasty mood, I may get to the actual Star Wars-related points.

...However, I may have to suck my brain out of my head just to begin to understand where this guy is coming from.

 

The Genghis fas been unleased!!! tremble in fear.

 

For a long moment I thought that was Mas doing the dishes, which was out of his persona, then remembered that tiny first line up top.

Yeah, unable to get a paperback Destiny's Way for another year I turned to Amazon.com for reviews and saw that one, too. Ahhh . . . someone who shares my dislove for DJ!

But I seriously question the hyperphysics content. Sci fi books of Destiny's Way calibur are for easy reading, not explainable tech. Not all authors have Ben Bova's or Justina Robson's technical proficiency.

If technical science is what you want, read Return to Mars or Silver Screen---the latter is a brainkiller for understanding. A true challenge.

Why don't you just demand hypercommunciations be explained as well? The ability to communicate conversations from one star system to another is one of those "things" we just take for granted.

In conclusion, not everything has to make accurate sense. I, for one, don't really believe Sauron with a transgender change can be Miss Middle-earth of the Year, but it'd sure be fun to see.

 

Arg! Did this guy miss the word fiction completely?

Besides, the Ideal Gas Law only applies to the imaginary "ideal gas".

 

Yeah, what Genghis said!

And in an ongoing series isn't it reasonable to think that every character does not have to receive significant development. The characters that get the development are the relevant ones that need it at that point, not to mention that most people reading DW are going to be familiar in some way with the characters. Nitpicking...if you look for things to criticize than they will appear. Finally, anything is possible in Science Fiction.

 

What's funny is, if the guy that wrote this review were here, he'd probably be one of those in the "Save Our Skywalker" thread complaining about how wimpy and wishy-washy Luke has been in the NJO.

Well, he can thank his buddy Tim Zahn for that. By the end of the HoT duology, Zahn had pretty well cast the mold for the Luke character we're seeing now...

 

Ah . . . so that's what SOS meant on the thread title, Save our Skywalker.

 

Hehe...

Saw the latest bruha here and remembered something buried away in my bookcase. (Purchased mainly because how often can we find Star Wars books on 75% clearance!)

It's called The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos: an astrophysicist's independant examination of space travel, aliens, planest and robots...

Anyways... I'd highly recommed it for a fun, layman's take on science and sci-fi...

 

heh heh, that review funny.

R.

 

Amazon should require IQ tests prior to posting reviews. This person is a dufus of the highest order.

Hey, I wrote that review!

I Jest.

Hmmm, I think that someone should post a review of his review at Amazon. That way, people know to disregard it completly... that is if they don't know already.

~PAd

 

Excuse me!!!!! Zahn delibaretly made Luke weaker than he was so that he wouldn't be a serious threat to his villians. And talk about omnipotent, how about Thrawn. He was so powerful, even without the Force, that it's a miracle he was defeated.

Also, according to a NASA Q&A pamphlet from 1993, temperatures in space depend on where a thermometer is located. That is to say whether it is in sunlight or shade. If in direct sunlight, the temperature can be as high as 250F, and as low as -250F in the shade. This is, of course, for objects in space near the Earth and the moon.

If that doesn't cause us to question what is stated, then add the fact that the atmosphere actually thins the higher we go. Not only that, but the temperatures in the second highest level of the atmosphere (the highest and outermost is the exosphere), the thermoshpere (aka ionoshpere due to the high ion concentration), are about 2200F. This seems to suggest that what little air is at that level would be too hot to allow for freeze.

 

Some people really have to read things thoroughly before they try writing on a subject.

Genghis got enough of the generals right that there isn't any point in saying anything about the abysmal use of thermodynamics in that review.

 

It was only a matter of time... the Genghis has been unleashed.

 

Hey Genghis, what's the formula for calculating the volume of an oblate sphere or ellipsoid?

 

Hey Genghis, what's the formula for calculating the volume of an oblate sphere or ellipsoid?

V = 4/3 * Pi * a^2 * c
(where a == the equatorial radius and c == the polar radius)

 

Early in this thread, Nichos_Marr said:
*Patiently awaits The Genghis*

Genghis12?s first line in this thread:
Amazon should require IQ tests prior to posting reviews.


Yes! This is why we love teh Genghis!

 

As a general guideline, we can assume that only visibly glowing things are losing a lot of overall energy through radiation.

I wish I knew that when I took thermo. Man, the time I could have saved...You could answer almost any question. How much heat was transferred in this process? Zero, it's not glowing. Duh.

But hey, he is a critic, and nobody is really intelligent unless they're insulting something, i guess.

 

Here's another review I noticed long ago, this one of Vernor Vinge's A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY:

I have been an admirer of Vinge's work since The Peace War and A Fire Upon the Deep. It was with eagerness that I purchased A Deepness in the Sky, winner of the 2000 Hugo Award.

Unfortunately, there was a passage in the book about which I feel compelled to express my most strenuous objections. On page 287 of the paperback edition, Qiwi viewed an immersion video in which the antagonist, Tomas Nau, raped her mother while stabbing her with a knife.

Words cannot adequately describe how nauseating I found this image. Especially disturbing was the implication of sexual pleasure derived from the experience. I fail to understand how a book detailing such cruel degradation of a human being, particularly a woman, can win an award. Sad to say, this is not the first book I have read which portrays women as victims in such grotesque terms. Yet I am shocked that the World Science Fiction Society would stoop to such a low level, having maintained a high standard until now.

I am committed to opposing unnecessary violence in the media. In my view, Vinge's otherwise excellent book was ruined by the inclusion of this passage. I was so upset by it, I was unable to continue reading the remainder.

This book has been shredded, and I will never again purchase another of Vinge's books. In addition, if I buy another TOR book, I will first check whether Frenkel was the editor. Writers may generate many things out of their imaginations, but editors should function as the gatekeeper of good taste. Judging by this product, Frenkel seems to feel quite OK about passing on gratuitous violence to unsuspecting readers.

May I suggest a rewrite of that passage? I urge you all to reconsider the long-term effects of your values and actions. Don't promote graphic violence as entertainment. Your mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters could be the next victims of someone else's "amusement."

Words cannot adequately describe how nauseating I found this image.

Isn't that the point?

such cruel degradation of a human being, particularly a woman,

So atrocities are worse when they're committed against women?

I am committed to opposing unnecessary violence in the media.

Isn't that what entertainment is? Violence and conflict? I mean, reading this review, you can see that this person went COMPLETELY overboard. Sheesh. Shredding books? Not reading any books even edited by this editor? Good lord!

 

This guy's rant and analogy in thermodynamics is way off, but his first statement is actually about right - air won't freeze upon exposure to the vacuum of space. I would think that its temperature decreases because its pressure is dropping so dramatically, but it's components can't crystallize.

Genghis, also, I thought that the approximate "temperature" of deep space was more like 5-10 K (about -265 C). Trace gases don't leave much matter to contain heat energy.

 

V = 4/3 * Pi * a^2 * c

Hey, thanks man! You'd be surprised how many college calculus teachers don't know.

 

Kevin,

That's correct. But, he wasn't necessarily talking about "deep space" (the middle of "nothingness) as his main point of his which I was refuting was the near upper-atmospheric conditions.

Which is different than the temperature for deep space. What I gave would be the temperature for something on the "dark side" (away from our sun) of our upper atmosphere.

By "deep space," I can assume you mean that no energy from anything (other stars, etc. light years away) is impacting the area under consideration. That wasn't quite the case for what I or the original critic were discussing.

 

Although I certainly dont agree with the methods of these so called reviewers, I will say that I dont think that DW was all that great.

 

The review of that Vinge novel was hysterical . Wanna bet that after shredding it, this person then burned the shreds, took the ashes 40 miles out into the countryside, and buried them in a deep hole they dug in some field? Then set the field on fire .

Why stop at books edited by the same editor? Why not all books from that publishing company? Or books, period? And hey, there's violence on TV, right? Better stop watching that; movies, too...

I think this person's safest bet is to find some deserted island in the South Pacific, and move there. Altho, then they're bound to see one animal kill and eat another ! Oh no, where will this person find the lack of violence they so desperately seek?

 

We have to remember, as easy as it is to snide or support a viewpoint, it is just someone's opinion on a matter and nothing more.