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From: ccrdave@ucdavis.UUCP (Lord Kahless)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Pern Question
Message-ID: <125@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 01:06:59 EST
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.125
Posted: Tue Apr 23 01:06:59 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Apr-85 05:25:24 EST
References: <2018@sdcc6.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 36

> I was thumbing through the Atlas of Pern when it dawned upon
> me to calculate the size of the planet. Based on the distances
> between time zones, I found that Pern was approximately the 
> size of Saturn's moon Rhea - one _eighth_ the diameter of
> Earth! (half that of the moon)
> 
> Pern must be pretty damn dense if it has gravity anywhere near
> that on Earth (the densest planet in our solar system).
> Perhaps this is why those huge dragons can fly so easily?

I am not familiar with the atlas.  Does it use the map
in the front of the books?  That map can't be to scale.
In "The White Dragon", they say that the Northern continent
could fit in one bay of the Southern continent.  That obviously
can't be true, if that map were to scale.  Benden and Ruatha
are half a world away, according to Dragonflight.  (Page 63,
Del Rey edition) Yet, Benden doesn't appear to be half a world
from Ruatha, barely a third in fact.  If you read carefully,
there are other inconsistencies, like the relationship between
High Reaches and Benden, that make me suspect the cartographers
are in error.  I suspect that that Pern uses a Northern Continent
centric projection for maps, like Mercator's projection which
makes Greenland look far larger than South America.  If you read
carefully, there are other inconsistencies, like the relationship
between High Reaches and Benden, that make me suspect the
cartographers are in error.

Pern's gravity isn't that far from Earth's, according to the
prologue to Dragonflight.  Men can walk confidently.  They can't
even truly do so on the moon.  With 1/36'th of Earth's gravity,
which is about what such a planet's gravity would be, you'd take
off every time you ran.

				Dave van De Kerk
				Loyal to Benden
				Hacker Hall, U.C. Davis