I like this; hopefully the geological work I'm planning will lead to some more Tools.
And I couldn't wait, I wanted to post a couple more experiments.
Project Proposal: Estimating the Mass of The Planet
Objective: Estimate the mass of The Planet.
Expected outcome: Having an estimate of this metric can help us understand the geological makeup of our planet, and of others.
Hypothesis: N/A
Method: Assuming we already know Fgrav for an object at sea level and G, the gravitational constant, take the radius of The Planet we derived earlier, and an imaginary 1 kg weight, and plug them into Fgrav=G*(m1+m2)/d, solving for m2. Rewritten: m2 = G * The Planet's radius * Fgrav - 1 Kilogram
Materials: 1 Researcher, 1 Journal, 1 Pen (quill), 1 Ink Pot.
Project Proposal: Dirt: But What IS Dirt?
Objective: Attempt to discern the geological composition of The Planet.
Expected outcome: Understanding the geology of The Planet will help us discover new minerals, understand how The Planet works, and inform density calculations.
Hypothesis: That The Planet's geology is relatively uniform in a vertical context.
Method: Have several shafts dug, sloping down as steeply as is safe. Catalogue the recovered minerals for later experimentation.
Materials: 1 Researcher, TBD Research Assistants, TBD Miners, TBD Mining Equipment, 1 Journal, 1 Pen (quill), 1 Ink Pot.
Project Proposal: What's The Planet Made Of?
Objective: Attempt to determine the greater geological composition of The Planet.
Expected outcome: Understanding the general composition of our planet will help us understand the nature of planetary bodies, and could lead to some important realizations about the deeper nature of The Planet.
Hypothesis: That The Planet has a relatively uniform density.
Method: From the previous experiment, weigh the recovered minerals. Measure the volume of the mines they were removed from, and calculate the density. Compare it to the estimated density we can derive from the previously calculated size and mass of the planet.
Materials: TBD Scales (huge), 1 Researcher, 1 Journal, 1 Pen (quill), 1 Ink Pot.
I’ll just lump these together into one “survey of the depths”.
The mass of the planet is estimated to be 6.18×10^24 kg. The density is around 3.9, much more than the 2.4 maximum observed in our samples, so it must get denser later on. By the way, gravity here is 0.8 G. I used
this converter and have retconned the planet radius to 7,250.
The mines hit rock soon enough. Rocks we pulled from the mines are mostly bits of quartz and sedimentary rock.
Around forty feet down, however, you encounter a near-uniform layer of yellow sandstone.
Then more various rock.
Then a near-identical layer of sandstone.
Around then both mine and miners give out.