Chapter 32: Heartfelt Conclusion — Part 7
Author’s Note: Many of you might be curious about what our Party of Nine has discovered about the arch next to their chosen settlement. As was mentioned, George and Jude made careful calculations of the course behavior for travel into the arch using models of the ship, and, combined with information from ChoCho’s Fluid Gravitometer, (a ball bearing and a bowl of water, to those not into giving simple contraptions complicated names), they were able to map the gravitational field of the Arch Base. Above is a basic reconstruction of that map as seen from the side.
It should be noted that the Line of Acquired Gravitation isn’t so strong in nature that it acts as a solid surface. At the base, where the Earth’s gravitational force creates a strange kind of interference pattern, one can generally walk right through it. The yellow line acts more as a pressure field that is strongest when impacted from above, and acts as solid ground when moving horizontal in a direction parallel to the center of the arch, though it will allow objects to ‘fall through’ into the distorted gravity below if they stop moving or travel perpendicular to the true arch center. The exception to the behavior of an object in contact with the Line of Acquired Gravitation is along the True Arch Center, above the area of interference. At that point it is like a soda straw around which all gravity is pulled to the cylindrical surface. Once aligned, all objects under the influence of that gravity will hover along the and be held firm by it no matter what angle or direction they are traveling. There is also a suspected ‘flow’ to the surface of the arch, known as a hypocritical drag, because it always ‘pushes’ an object, from the arch side entered to the opposite side. The more dense an object, the harder this push should be, which is why arches that settle in water will carry that water inland, while water to water arches will fill, and the water will flow much more ‘normally.’ George and Jude have not confirmed, at this time, if all arches exhibit hypocritical drag, or if Tomas was extremely lucky.
One thing not mentioned in the diagram is the scale of the arch base. Though the center of the arch is distorted by the neutralization of gravity as it impacts with the Earth, which in turn distorts the true gravitational line of the arch above, the actual arch near the house in Washington is approximately 50 feet in diameter, and the yellow line represents the setting point of all objects traveling along the arch or the base. The top of the Bowl of this particular arch is roughly 500 feet at its peak, while the outside edge of the arch spans about 1500 feet in circumference. Though the Bowl’s peak seems to fluctuate on any given day by as much as twenty feet, the edge of the bowl where it intercedes with the Earth’s true surface remains constant. One should consider the shape of the Bowl to be somewhat like a Bundt cake mold in shape. That or something like a plunger with a hollow handle.
Of course, you could also totally mess with your own head and try to imagine what Daria must be seeing when she’s looking at the diagram.
