Ambiguous Name: Ring World Planet

Most examples listed are space stations such as O'Neil cylinders or Stanford Toruses rather than "planets" shaped like giant rings.

In addition the name gets confused with Ring World, which is a work.

Perhaps something like "Cylindrical Space Station"?

I don't see much of a difference between a Stanford Torus and a Niven Ring, except the latter is bigger. That said, I'm not sure how much sense this name makes if you're not familiar with Niven's work?

What about Saturn?

Actually, I think being familiar with Niven's work may give you too narrow an idea of the trope. I was surprised when I actually read the trope. The name makes more sense if you don't have the work in mind.

I don't quite understand how people can think that O'Neil colonies qualify though—there's nothing ring-like about them.

edited 12th Sep '12 1:32:20 PM by Xtifr

Probably because of how it is described: "One of the World Shapes more often found in Science Fiction than in Fantasy, a Ring World Planet is a world that is a world in the shape of a concave cylinder. The horizon curves up, not down, but only in one dimension. The sides of the cylinder will be walls, with or without a "ceiling." These can range in size from a true Dyson Sphere to a cylindrical space station. These variants of worlds usually at least pay some lip service to the known laws of physics, since a spinning ring generates a centrifugal force that could be used instead of gravity."

Oh. I was misremembering, I guess. I stumbled across it a few days ago, while looking for something else, and was vaguely surprised at how broad the definition was, but forgot just how broad.

In that case, I suggest that we either narrow the definition to actual rings of some type, or broaden the name. I never, in a thousand years, would have used this for hollow cylinders.

eta: note that the description says it's limited to worlds with negative curvature in one dimension, but the page images shows a world with negative curvature in two. And clearly fits the name.

edited 12th Sep '12 2:29:29 PM by Xtifr

I kind of doubt there are enough examples of actual rings in fiction to justify narrowing the definition.

If we include ring-shaped space stations, I suspect we'll find a whole bunch—many inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. (And if we don't include ring-spaced space stations, then we need to remove it from the examples.)

Looking at the parent trope, World Shapes, I think we could probably put O'Neil colonies under Hollow World.

Seems like the simplest solution, but obviously not our only option, and not necessarily the best. I'm just tossing out ideas at this point. I don't have any strong opinions yet.

Good point. A rename may be justified no matter what we do.

edited 12th Sep '12 8:33:54 PM by Xtifr

I'm utterly baffled by the discovery that this trope can include O'Neil cylinders - not just because of the "ring world" part, but also because of the "planet" part.

^ Well, the description describes ringworlds as "concave cylinders".

I'm starting a YKTTW for "Cylindrical Space Station"

Clock time!

For some reason this one have been renamed to Centrifugal Gravity.

edited 25th Nov '12 10:48:36 AM by m8e

Reverted.

Oh wait, there's more to this. What a total mess. That was very irresponsible, OP.

edited 25th Nov '12 11:50:37 AM by lu127

Ok, it looks like the OP changed the name of this in YKTTW. I don't have any particular opinion, but are people okay with Centrifugal Gravity or do they want another name?

If all ringworlds exist for artificial gravity, yes. Which I don't know personally - I've invented a space station which is circular but with no artificial gravity.

I suggested some other names in the YKTTW(Rotating Space Habitat and similar). A title like that clearly excludes non-rotating stuff like, but doesn't exclude O'Neill cylinders and other shapes.

I still think that "ring-shaped megastructure" ought to be a trope in its own right, not lumped in with O'Neill cylinders.

There's nowhere near as many examples of ring-shaped "megastructures" (how do you define a megastructure anyways?) as there are of all space station shapes that spin to provide gravity put together.

As it stands I only count seven examples of what I would call "ring-shaped megastructures" on the page. Not counting O'neil cylinders and rings with a diameter of less than a few miles.

edited 25th Nov '12 2:59:19 PM by zarpaulus

I'm going to free up this TRS slot. The name of the existing article is fine, it is just that the definition has drifted. Pulling out the O'Neil-type stations/habitats to its article fixes it.