Using a "disintegrator" to make square corners?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the concept of using a "disintegrator" to create perfectly square corners in construction, as inspired by fictional works. Participants explore how such a device might function theoretically to achieve precise geometric shapes in building structures.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions how a disintegrator could create perfectly straight corners and suggests seeking reasonable and unreasonable ideas.
  • Another participant proposes that a disintegrator with a fixed range could consistently produce perfect corners.
  • A follow-up comment raises the issue of how to handle the area where two walls and the floor meet, suggesting that regular corners could be achieved by maintaining a set distance from the wall.
  • A different participant introduces the idea of "microfocusing the beam" and mentions the use of a collimating lens to achieve tight corners, contingent on having an effective ranging system.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants present multiple competing views on how a disintegrator might function, with no consensus reached on a definitive method or solution.

Contextual Notes

Assumptions about the technology and its capabilities remain unspecified, and the discussion does not resolve the practical implications of the proposed ideas.

Noisy Rhysling
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St. Anne of Mcaffrey tells us that the original colonists on P.E.R.N. used some kind of disintegrator to make the rooms and such for the original holds and weyrs. I picture the corners as being razor straight and a perfect cube where walls meet floor. What I don't get is how such a machine might do that. Any reasonable suggests? Any unreasonable ones? I'm stuck. ...---...
 
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I saw the same thing in One Froggy Evening.

Just have your disintegrator have a fixed range. Perfect corners, every time.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
I saw the same thing in One Froggy Evening.

Just have your disintegrator have a fixed range. Perfect corners, every time.
What about when two walls and the floor meet? that "half a cube" area.

I think you could regular corners by just having it a set distance from the wall on its side?
 
Shy person says "microfocusing the beam." Given a ranging system that would work. Collimating lens to get the corners tight.
 

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