[NR] To Measure - Chapter 726

Peter laughs, “Well, how about we catch up while waiting for dinner?”

And since there isn’t much else to do, that is exactly how they spend the ten or so minutes it takes for the meal to finish cooking. A few more stories are told as they eat, but when everything is cleared away Peter gets down to why he swung by.

Or rather, with a cheeky grin, Peter first asks, “So, why do You think I’m here?”

Rosha shrugs, “I’m still digesting our lessons, so not that. Though I wouldn’t say no to your checking on my forms.”

Courtney points at Rosha, “She’s the only deep connection we have with you specifically.” She turns to Jason, “Did you have anything on the go with Gregor?”

Jason shrugs, “Nothing in particular that could be done out here. Though maybe he figured something out?”

Peter smacks his knee and laughs, “Oh sure, my husband has more than a few things he would love to test on you. Except yeah, can’t really do them out here. Couldn’t even do them with the equipment as even this shallow, the Deep Wilds would screw with things.”

Rosha, “Wait! Why would it screw with things? Sure, getting farther out and I can feel my magic fighting me, I think? But here? Manipulating Mana doesn’t seem to have changed.”

Peter shrugs, “Oh, even if you go to the greatest depth I’ve ever reached, your magic should work perfectly fine. You might feel a bit of resistance, but it is more like walking through tall grass. It won’t stop you.”

Rosha, “Cool, good to know I guess? So why can’t you do the tests here?”

Courtney sighed, “Rosha. Rosha, Rosha, Rosha.”

She puts her hand on Rosha’s shoulder, “Please, think back to our time in that nebula with a black hole. Why were the scientists so angry at you for bringing their delivery of precision equipment too close to the gravity field?”

Rosha tilts her head to the side, “They were pretty mad. It was something about the machines being thrown out of alignment? Still don’t really get that as the lights all stayed green. My sensors didn’t even pick up any oddities.”

Courtney sighs, “The details are what is important. I’m pretty certain that back then, I informed you they couldn’t use the equipment anymore and why? The fact that after a certain point, measuring things from two points is too imprecise. You need a probe measuring one point and do everything from there as reference?

“I’m sure this is a similar situation. The Mana in the Deep Wilds, even when you can’t feel the difference, is not the same. Gregor’s stuff would get different results here than they would back in his workshop.”

Peter laughs, “Not sure all you were referring to, but it sounds like you said things better than I can! Because yeah, that’s the gist of it. He would get different readings here.”

Rosha shrugs, “Well, good thing I don’t need to measure anything that way. My brain just doesn’t get it. Like, why is one point better than two?”

Jason, “I don’t know about the science of it, but I can think of examples that might explain?”

Courtney shrugs, “Give it a go.”

Jason, “So, you have a measuring tape and you need to measure the height of something. To get it right, you hook the end of the tape on the far side and pull it over to the other side where you check the height.

“That’s two points being used. The end being hooked and the other end where you’re eyeballing it. To get even more precise, you then add another hook at your end so you can cinch it up a little and get quite accurate.

“But what if instead of a wood post or some such, it was actually some really pliable material. So much so that even that little bit of cinching deforms the material enough to make the measurement unreliable. Then to get an accurate measurement, you need some way to measure the length without connecting the two sides and making it snug.

“For that, you’d use something like a marked wheel. Start on one side, and gently roll it to the other, noting how many rotations and where it ends up. That is using a single point, where the wheel touched the material, to measure things. And the reason you need this for super precise measurements is because at that scale, basically every material has more give than you would expect.”

Rosha frowns, “Okay, I think I at least see where you’re coming from. Though couldn’t you simply use one of those laser ruler tools?”

Jason smiles, “That’s the same thing, just more high-tech. You are measuring the distance from a single point of reference. Though I guess for completeness, you also want a single point of reference because as I said, at that scale everything has more give than you’d expect. So using a single point to measure from, you’re getting the same amount of deflection, the same give. I’m sure there’s more to it, but that was my understanding of things.”

Courtney raises an eyebrow, “Where would you have even come across that? You weren’t playing any of the sci-fi games.”

Off to the side, Peter is shaking his head. The others might suspect this is because as a local, he isn’t hearing the stranger parts of what they’re saying. Though the reality is that he is hearing and understanding a lot more than they suspect and definitely more than the System would prefer him to.

Jason mostly ignores this, though has his own thoughts on it and instead directly answers Courtney. “Well, for one, we live in a giant building with a fusion reactor at the bottom. I wanted to know just a wee bit more than not and a lot of the measurements they do are on that scale. At least, they are for the most critical parts, which aren’t literally in the reaction chamber.

“Besides that, there is a similar thing in cultivation. Though more metaphysical. Basically, your personal Dao can only ever be measured against yourself. To try and measure it against others is a good way to get things wrong. They can help guide you, but in the end, how you understand things is what is important. Oh, and I think the high end of any detailed system devolves into that sort of thing. Science, Cultivation, or Magic.”