Talk:3259: Tethys
Are the humans there also 12:1? King Pando (talk) 15:55, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
- 12:1 means 12x in dimensions. I think the joke is that the miniature art builders are so obsessed with miniatures that 1:12 scale is their"normal", so 12:1 from their perspective is a normal size from everyone else's perspective.135.180.173.62 16:44, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
My understanding of the gag is that the miniature builders are constructing a 1:12 model of the Moon to go with Tethys's "scale model of Earth."
You mean the american miniature art model builders. The rest of the world will keep waiting for a 1,274.2 km moon 38.25.26.137 19:56, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
A possible subjoke is a misunderstanding of scaling. Tethys' radius/diameter is 1/12 that of Earth's, but its surface area is closer to 3/500. In terms of surface area, Jupiter's moon Io is closest to the 1/12 scale. It is also possible that this commenter doesn't understand scaling, though. 1.170.227.28 02:41, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
- Scaling refers to lengths, i.e., 1:12 scale means the model has 1/12 length, 1/144 area and 1/1728 volume (assuming all dimensions are scaled equally, especially for Earth models sometimes height is exaggerated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoid#/media/File:Geoid_undulation_10k_scale.jpg). --134.102.219.31 09:35, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
I can't see why terraforming (as it's usually understood) or orbital mirrors, etc. would be required. Model builders don't usually build a sky and local microclimate to accompany their models. Certainly a significant amount of topological engineering (which is technically a form of terraforming, but not what is normally meant by the term) would be required to provide a workable substrate to build on, and further modifications may be needed to create an environment where the modelling equipment can work and the model would be protected during/after building, but I don't see any need to recreate the atmosphere, surface conditions, etc. of the Earth. 82.13.184.33 08:29, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
- But if you don't, then pretty much all my 8.3 billion 1:12th-scale humans, that I just bioengineered from scratch to fit this model, are going to die very nasty deaths!
- That is, in ways other than any of the very nasty deaths that they maybe were already going to be modelled to die of. I mean, it'll force me to not make the 1:12th human that represents you die in the way that you're going to die (but in 1:12th the time! ...yeah, it's still just a single dimension, though some of the physics involved gets trickier), but instead I'll have to find a way to make you die just like 'your' model-human does (don't worry, I'll still try to make it a surprise, but I can't promise that it won't drag on for longer when it finally happens to you). Or else it'll make a mockery of the whole thing. And I'm sure you don't want that! 81.179.199.253 14:33, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
- TBH, creating a 1:!2 scale version of me seems a bit cruel in the first place. I've got bad news, though - Wikipedia tells me that Tethys has a mass about 1% of the moon, so even for 1:12 scale people gravity is going to be pretty borked, and I don't imagine they're going to last long anyway. 82.13.184.33 14:55, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
- Agreed, modelling doesn't require the creation of actual trees/rocks/anything in miniature. Just miniature models which *look like* trees/rocks/anything. They don't need to be alive, or even at Earth temperatures, or in air. A small plastic tree fits the brief of a model tree, even if it is placed on a world without air or magnetosphere or very much sunlight. Martin (talk) 05:07, 17 June 2026 (UTC)
Would it be fair to say that there's an extra layer of silliness when we have our own moon at 1/4 scale to earth already? 130.76.187.47 15:02, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
Hmm, no reference to the "sum of all integers equals -1/12" math, with the seemingly infinite number of ships in the line? Obviously that "equality" uses "equals" in a somewhat unexpected way, given the divergent series. But that's part of the reference I expected, too. 2A00:79E1:2E00:4F01:A8F7:3C2:A4A4:C7C3 17:10, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
- The number twelve is s many things, which may or may not use its reciprocal (or negative reciprocal), that I really don't think that the rather peculiar result of ζ(-1) is at all an intended reference here. Not without some more explicit hint that it might be. It's just too much already just a factor in modelmaking (and the coincidence of Tethys's scaling factor compared to Earth), I don't think we need to try to fix anything else (e.g. the nominal subdivision of day- or night-time periods, the number of constellations, etc, etc... eventually this list to include a specific answer from a given application of the Riemann zeta function, but not as anywhere near the most obvious association to make) into the Explanation. 81.179.199.253 19:36, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
