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AU unit have been updated. (In real life)
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Lojik
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2012-09-26 14:23:50 UTC
http://www.livescience.com/23466-earth-sun-distance-astronomical-unit.html

Believe it or not, an AU was the distance between the sun, and Earth at any given time. They have now defined this as a fixed distance of 149,597,870,700 meters, 149.60 Gm (Gigameters) if you want it shorter.

Should CCP update the game engine? :P

I guess not really, but it is an interesting question for those interesting in picking nits at times I guess P

That said, I never understood using the AU unit in a universe where the origin of the unit is long gone and really have no reference, instead of a more constant value like for instance Gm, or light seconds or minutes (1 AU ~8.3 lightminutes)

6 AU/s which most ships travel at would then be 897.6 Gm/s, or 2994c.
Griffin Omanid
Knights of the Zodiac
#2 - 2012-09-26 14:48:09 UTC  |  Edited by: Griffin Omanid
I think it doesn´t really matters, does it?

For example originally kilometers where intodruced as 1/10000 the distance between aquator and north pole. It was sometime in the 18th century while the french revolution, the revolutionist din´t want a unit which is decided or set by any lord, king or whatever human, like feets and inches were before.

Nowerdays we know with better measurements that the distance between aquator and north pole is a bit more then 10000 km (I think 10024 km), but because of habit we still use the standart meter with the sick S.I. definition as the distance light of a specific wavelength of a specific lamp travels in a defined time.

Proposal T2 BS Class Juggernaut
Lojik
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#3 - 2012-09-26 15:00:43 UTC
Griffin Omanid wrote:
I think it doesn´t really matters, does it?


Which is why I added the I guess not really, line :)

Changing the game engine for something like this is most likely out of the question, there are other things I'd rather see changed first. Lots of them.

If I had to pick something distance related that really should have been done differently, it is the speeds and short distances in game. Anything < 10,000 km and km/s should really have had an extra 0 added to it.

Starships that barely move faster than a 747 at takeoff is a little hard to accept.
Griffin Omanid
Knights of the Zodiac
#4 - 2012-09-26 16:45:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Griffin Omanid
Lojik wrote:
[quote=Griffin Omanid]
Starships that barely move faster than a 747 at takeoff is a little hard to accept.


You know that they are quit heavy and big.

I think a frigate is nearly as big as big transport plane.

Although for the warp engine. Although I study physics I´m not really used to the warp theories (i´m not enough Star Trek junkie for this), but I onced read that the warp theory has something to do with a taylor aproximation of the space (so it is squeezed) but in your warp bubble you still fly at lets say 200 m/s. It is the same as flying with a MWD, you are still flying at 200 m/s, but because of squeezing the space around you, for bystanders you fly at >1000 m/s and be 6-times larger target.

BTT: Maybe AU is not the best value for length in a distant universe, but let´s just keep it because of habit. I´m sure most players either aren´t interested or want to keep it because of habit.

Proposal T2 BS Class Juggernaut
Uris Vitgar
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2012-09-26 16:53:20 UTC
I like the AU because it explains our place in the universe a bit every time you use it. Instead of saying "[meaningless billions] of kilometres", you can say "that thing's 105 times as far away from the sun as we are".