Living on a doughnut

[TheGatesofLogic]

Centrifugal force is the force that the momentum of a mass on a string that you spin around your head exerts on YOU. The force that is exerted inward from the walls of a rotating circle is the centripetal force, thus your statement is invalid as only the centripetal force relates to the tensile strength necessary to hold the ring together.

Sarudak, maybe you missed it but we are trying to avoid a spinning ring, because anything that comes into contact with the ring will have an effect proportional to its initial velocity PLUS the tangential velocity of the ring, in other words: your ring will turn into Swiss cheese and it will probably break the structural integrity of the ring.

[Folrig]

Stationary ring? I missed that too.

But surely whatever mythical substance is holding a ring (the diameter of Earth's orbit) together is strong enough to resist impact. Even if the ring is spinning.

[Sarudak]

But surely whatever mythical substance is holding a ring (the diameter of Earth's orbit) together is strong enough to resist impact. Even if the ring is spinning.

QFT.

Until you come up with some kind of material that can theoreticaly allow the ring to exist there's little point in putting arbitrary limits on it's impact resistance

[Rianaru]

Wouldn't the point be coming up with theoretical limits or something like that purely for casual intellectual pursuit?

[XantyZon]

First off the ring would have to have an an orbital velocity around the sun. If you didn't it would quickly destabilize and fall into the sun. So I don't have to describe it later; orbital velocity is where the forward velocity is balanced with the gravitational pull so the one object is in free fall around the other object. In this case the ring around the sun. To clarify what I meant about increasing velocity of the ring to offset it's mass. I meant it's rotational velocity is grater then it's orbital velocity thus creating a net force pushing outward from the center.

I can understand the confusion between centrifugal force and centripetal force. It's a very common occurrence because the difference between them is merely a frame of reference. Gates you are very close to understanding it and I have faith that you can figure it out. This might help.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... ugal-force

No I do not intend to use the magnetic field to hold the ring in place around the star.

One of my biggest concerns in dealing with a ring is the wobble that will inevitability occur. If you put six small stars in orbit around the sun/ring system, in the Lagrange points of each other. Then they could act as a stabilizing force for the ring.



Quick explanation of Lagrange points. http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/observatory_l2.html