1. Ender’s World Technology
Presented by: Stephen Sywak, PE; and Ethan Hurdus
ENDERCON 2002 through July 2004

2. Arriving at the Battle School

3. A Brief Introduction
 This presentation contains ideas and images of the Battle School and Battle
Rooms, some information on Space Station physics, and other supporting
information for the technology hinted at in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
and Ender’s Shadow books.
 Ethan Hurdus and I originally created this presentation for Endercon 2002. I
have added a number of changes as I’ve collected and developed more ideas.
 I’ve also added “notes” to the slides, since I won’t be there to explain myself
the first few times you view this.
 The line art is the work of Darian Robbins, and is used with his permission.
 Thank you for your consideration; please feel free to contact me:
– Stephen Sywak
– Sywaks@asme.org
– (845) 534-5733 (Home)
– (845) 353-6400 x350 (Work)

4. Welcome to the Battle School
 Development
 General Layout
 Physics
 Analogues
 Location
 Battle Rooms

5. Designing a Space Station
As an engineer, I typically start a design with “Design Constraints”
given to me by my client. For this presentation, Ethan and I assumed
Orson Scott Card to be our client, and used both Ender’s Game (EG)
and Ender’s Shadow (ES) as our initial design constraints.
Like any design project, adhering to the design constraints is an
important goal, but one that’s not always possible to meet. Certain
design requirements inevitably conflict, and one must use engineering
judgement to fill in the gaps.

6. Design Constraints (EG)
• The school was of course wheel-based, rotating such that "centrifugal force" provides a
sense of gravity.
• There are nine battlerooms
• The battlerooms "all have the same entrance. The whole center of the battle school, the
hub of the wheel, is battlerooms. They don't rotate with the rest of the station. That's how
they do the nullo, the no-gravity - it just holds still. No spin, no down." (p.79, paperback
Special Complete Edition)
• "But they can set it up so that any one of the rooms is at the battleroom entrance corridor
that we all use. Once you're inside, they move it along and another battleroom's in
position." (p.80, paperback Special Complete Edition)
• There is "gravity" in the corridor immediately outside the battleroom.
• "Hooks" demonstrate some measure of gravity control.
• Stationary stars also imply gravity control
• The game room "way above the decks where the boys lived and worked." (p.45,
paperback Special Complete Edition) has lower gravity. => Implies rigid, rotating wheel
structure (as opposed to, say, differential deck rotation speeds for constant "gravity")

7. Design Constraints (ES)
•A "parallel system of corridors on either side of the student area" exists.
•Stationis not one but three parallel wheels cross-linked at many points. (Other wheel
uses: teacher and staff quarters, life support, communications with the Fleet.) (p.126
hardback First Edition).
•One wheel is "the student wheel."
•"The students had access to four decks, plus the gym below A-Deck and the
battleroom above D-Deck. There were actually nine decks, however, two below A-Deck
and three above D." (p.126 hardback First Edition)
•"pictures of the station show only the one wheel" (p.135 hardback First Edition)
•"Judging from the amount of time it took Dimak to get to their barracks the rare times
that a quarrel demanded his attention, Bean assumed that his quarters were on
another deck. And because Dimak always arrived breathing a little heavily, Bean also
assumed it was a deck below their own level, not above." (p.150 hardback First
Edition)
•Battlerooms have separate air systems.
•There is a "battleroom control center"
•No Coriolis Effect or "centrifugal" forces at the edges of the battlerooms. => Means
manipulated gravity if battlerooms rigidly attached but along the hub. Could also mean
free-floating battlerooms.
•A 100 meter dead-line just reaches from one wall of the battleroom to the other.

8. Initial In-Line Concepts
One has to start somewhere. I started here.

9. In-Line Concepts (Rendered)

10. Sketches
After discussions with various people, including Ethan, the “final design” started to take shape.

11. Current Battle School
This is what it became.
Even though Ender’s Shadow strongly implies three rotating rings, I
have found that the design works better with two, and the amount of
real estate available with two multi-floored habitat modules is more
than sufficient for the support of the Battle School (both as an
educational institution and as an orbiting military outpost)

12. Battle School – Plan View
Docking ports are a little large, and un-defined.
Doors over 300m long are not practical, certainly
not if they’re trying to maintain a pressure
differential across them!
I added fighter bays because this is, after all, a
military asset. My assumption was that sooner or
later it might need some defending. Darian
Robbins took it even further after our discussions,
and added larger gun emplacements on the four
corners, top & bottom.

13. Battle School – Side Elevation
The Battle Room Groups do not rotate, neither does the horizontal core.
The “actual” Battle School would need to be covered with heavy
radiation shielding—probably some sort of “concrete” mixture made
from crushed asteroids or lunar regolith.

14. Battle School – Front Elevation
Note the Battle Rooms’ corners in the central stationary core; it allows the viewer to visually “place” the battle rooms in the station

15. Battle School
Darian Robbins’ artwork.
Note the gun emplacements on both sides of the stationary central platform.
One of the issues we discussed was “just how far-seeing would the fictional designers
be—would they understand the non-directionality of space (like Ender), or do we
assume that they are also limited to planar thinking (like everyone else)?” And, if the
latter, how do we represent that as a failure of the fictional designers’, and not a
shortcoming of the film’s production design crew?

16. Barracks Door
Darian Robbins’ drawing of Bean.
Dragon Army T-Shirts and jackets are available at the concession stand.

17. Barracks
Darian Robbins
Others have pictured it as more old-style military barracks (with the
bunk beds jutting out from the center of the room), and less like the
berths on a sleeper car.

18. Battle School Physics
 Rotation provides simulated Gravity
 Just what are Coriolis Forces?
 Moving from Rotating to Non-Rotating Sections
 Jumping across the Battle Room
This section discusses the various physical laws that come into play
with a Space Station that uses a rotating ring to provide artificial
gravity.

19. Crew’s Quarters Rotation
This is the one video that’s causing me problems in this
presentation. In a full-up copy of PowerPoint, you will
see the two crew’s quarters rings revolving in sync.

20. Centrifugal, Centripetal, whatever…
Centripetal Force Calculations:
Note that "1G" equals 32.174 ft/sec^2, or 9.81 m/sec^2
ACENT Centripetal Acceleration
r radius A number of parameters are involved in developing appropriate speeds and
w Angular (rotational) velocity distances for a centrifugal habitat. The “radius” discussed here was initially
selected based on the geometry of the Battle School as I started placing the
2*pi() radians = 360° Battle Rooms, corridors, and access-ways. As it turned out, the numbers fall
within a “comfort zone” for centrifugal habitats, developed over many years of
ACENT = r*w^2
research based on earth-based centrifugal experiments. You can read a little
w = sqrt(A/r) more about this in the PDF file of my presentation paper, located on this disk.
TO DEVELOP 1-G
Value Units Value Units Value Units Value Units
ACENT 9.81 m/s^2
r 162.50 m
w 0.25 radians/s 14.08 degrees/s 2.35 rpm 25.57 sec/rev
I've modeled the Battle School with crew's quarters at nominally 162.75m out from the center of the ship.
I’ve included the spreadsheets in the “Bonus Features
section. If you really want, you can change the numbers
(Acent and r) and play around with them.

21. Other Locations, Other Forces
R1 5.00 m <-----Very close to the center of rotation of the Rings (actually, this radius is within the stationary core)
V1 1.23 m/s 4.03 ft/s 2.75 mph
ACENT1 0.30 m/s^2 0.03 G
R2 10.00 m
V2 2.46 m/s 8.05 ft/s 5.49 mph
ACENT2 0.60 m/s^2 0.06 G
R3 76.25 m <-----Roughly at the "Battle Gate" height of a Battle Room
V3 18.72 m/s 61.42 ft/s 41.88 mph
ACENT3 4.60 m/s^2 0.47 G
R4 112.50 m <-----Roughly at the "Practice Gate" and "Teacher's Gate" height of a Battle Room
V4 27.62 m/s 90.62 ft/s 61.79 mph
ACENT4 6.78 m/s^2 0.69 G
R5 162.75 m <-----Crew's Quarters nominal radius from center
V5 39.96 m/s 131.09 ft/s 89.38 mph
ACENT5 9.81 m/s^2 1.00 G
At various distances from the center of the Battle School,
R6 166.00 m <----Gymnasium level people will experience different strengths of artificial gravity.
V6 40.76 m/s 133.71 ft/s 91.17 mph OSC recognized this, and placed the gymnasium level
ACENT6 10.01 m/s^2 1.02 G outboard of the main habitation area, so that people would
experience stronger gravity (they would weigh more) in the
gym. Towards the center of the habitation rings, gravity would
be lower. The rotational speed is not shown on this sheet
because everything is rotating together at the same speed of
2.35 rpm, as shown on the previous page.

22. Coriolis Forces
ACORR Coriolis Acceleration (acts perpendicularly to the radius, parallel to the direction of the angular velocity vector)
VR Radial Velocity (towards or away from the hub)
ACORR=2*VR*w
Note: this value does not rely on your radius, or distance for the hub; it is the same everywhere on board ship.
The forces you'd feel from the Coriolis Effect:
Value Units Value Units
VR1 1.00 m/s 3.28 ft/s <---------Climbing an inter-deck ladder, for instance
ACORR1 0.49 m/s^2 0.05 G <---------If you weighed 100 lbs, you would see a side load of: 5.01 pounds
VR2 4.00 m/s 13.12 ft/s <---------Taking an elevator
ACORR2 1.96 m/s^2 0.20 G <---------If you weighed 100 lbs, you would see a side load of: 20.02 pounds
Take a ball on a string, and swing it around over your head. If you pull on the string, shortening the length between your
hand and the ball (the radius of the swing), the ball will swing faster due to the “Law of Conservation of Momentum.”
This is the same effect that causes a spinning ice skater to spin faster as he/she draws their arms in.
But what happens if you somehow prevent the speed from changing as you reduce the radius? This happens as you move
up a ladder-way or elevator shaft in a rotating space station. Since the only thing that can change the velocity of an object
is an applied force, (Newton’s first law), there must be a force to oppose the otherwise required change in velocity. This
is the Coriolis Force.
Since first making this presentation, I have designed and had built a 22 ft diameter turntable which can run at 6 rpm. It
creates 0.14 G at its perimeter, and that is sufficient to throw off well-trained acrobatic performers. It is installed at the
NY NY Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, for the Cirque du Soleil show “Zumanity.” After they threw a few peope, they
reduced the speed to about 1-2 rpm.

23. Why Rotate?
 Assumption: Certain technologies are horribly
expensive to create & maintain
 Assumption: Failure of a high-technology cannot
lead to catastrophic failure of the Battle School
 These technologies would be:
– Bugger Gravity
– Force Fields
 Therefore: Artificial gravity must be created
through “traditional” means—rotating the living
quarters

24. Jumping the Gap (Part I)
 The rings rotate to provide artificial gravity
 The core remains stationary to provide zero-G for the Battle Rooms, and to permit safe docking
for other ships.
 Here’s the question, then: How do you get from a habitation ring rotating at over 2 rpm to a
non-rotating central core?
– Even as you move towards the center of the Station, let’s say at the level of the battle-gate entrances, the
relative speed is still over 40 mph!
 Do you use a series of moving sidewalks?
– Because of limitations in how fast people can walk, you’d need about 21 different sidewalks, all running in
parallel. At 1m width each, that’s a lot of floor space! Plus, as you start to slow down, you lose gravity,
and it starts to get silly.
 What about a central drum that brings you in sync with one or the other elements?
– The module has to go in the center of the ship to join the moving and non-moving elements
– As such, it becomes a dangerous bottleneck in the event of a failure
 Hence…the “Subway System”
– There’s an added bonus, from the story’s point of view: One of the major themes from Ender’s Game is
how the ability to change one’s perceptions is critical to growth and to success—the movement from the
rotating rings to the stationary core via the subway system is all about “changing perceptions.”

25. …the “Subway System” ?
 As Ethan and I developed the design of the Battle
School, I realized that we needed something to
move people and supplies across a gap that had a
relative speed of about 40 mph between the
opposing sides.
 The answer was: a subway car!
 Each side of the gap is a “station,” and the car
moves people between stations. The thing is, you
see the other station pass you by every 25 seconds
or so.
 The following pictures explain it better...

26. Jumping the Gap (Development)
Early development work; drawing by
Ethan Hurdus

27. Detail from the ASCE Conference

28. Jumping the Gap (Animation 1)
Double-Click to get it started

29. Jumping the Gap (Animation 2)
Double-Click to get it started
(From ASCE presentation)

30. Jumping the Gap (Animation 3)
Double-Click to get it started
(From ASCE presentation)

31. More Detail…
Drawing from ASCE presentation

32. And More Detail Yet…
Stacking the subway tunnels
(Drawing from ASCE presentation)

33. Narrative
For the purpose of this discussion, a station occupant would start out in the 1G
Habitation Ring; the rotating part of the space station. Upon arriving at the “Subway
Station” area, he or she would press the call button for the car. Through the windows in
the platform door, and through windows to the left and right of the door along a common
wall, the far side of the space station can be seen moving past at about 31m/s (70mph).
Every 20 seconds, the subway car—stationed at the far wall—swings by. In 20-second
vignettes, the subway car is seen to slow down from its 31m/s speed, until it has come
to a full stop aligned with the nearby platform door. The car hasn’t really slowed down,
though: it has sped up from 0m/s to 31m/s in about 30 seconds (roughly 10% G uniform
tangential acceleration), until it has synchronized with the rotating section of the station.
The alignment mechanism extends the locking pins into the receiver slots in the car.
These pins keep the car aligned to the entry door, with the tracks below moving by at
31m/s. With the locking pins engaged, a failure in the induction drive system will not
cause a danger to the passengers or equipment transferring into the car. A friction drive
failure would not be so forgiving, since it could lock the car to the rack.
An airtight seal is made between the car and the platform. The entry doors open—first the
platform doors, then the matching doors on the car itself. A slight vertical movement is
noticeable in the car. The tracks are part of the stationary core, and the slightest
eccentricity in the huge bearings joining the fixed core to the revolving ring, or in the
track itself, shows up right here—as a subtle vertical oscillation.
The passenger enters the car, the doors close, the seal is broken, the alignment pins
retract, and the car starts to pull away from the Habitat Ring Station. The passenger
feels acceleration as they start to move, but in reality they are decelerating. The Habitat
Ring Station is moving at 31m/s with respect to the stationary core; the car is slowing
down to synchronize with the core. As it slows down, the car also starts to lose the
centripetally imposed artificial gravity. In the 30 seconds it takes to go from the Habitat
Ring reference to the Utility Core reference, the passenger has also gone from 1G to

34. Moving through the Battle Rooms
Do an energy balance analysis: The potential energy at the top of your jump equals the kinetic energy at the start.
That will give us our initial velocity. Since the Battle-room has no gravity, and the frictional losses against the air are
to be considered negligible, that velocity is pretty good for much of the distance across the room.
Height * Mass * Gc = (1/2) * Mass * Velocity^2
This becomes: Velocity = sqrt(2*Height * Gc)
H 1.00 m (also: 3.28 ft )
Gc 9.80 m/s^2
Velocity 4.43 m/s (also: 14.53 ft/sec )
The time to traverse a room is: Time = Distance/Velocity
Distance 75.00 m 100.00 m
Time 16.94 seconds 22.59 seconds
Engineering analysis includes methods of comparing kinetic (dynamic)
energies to potential (height-gained) energies; I used this to derive the speed of
a student across the Battle Room vs. the height they could likely jump in 1G.
People can run, on average, about 8-9 ft/sec (2.5 m/sec)

35. Battle Rooms
 Size (100m vs. 75m)
 Configuration
 Handholds
 Stars & Grids
 Flash Suits

36. Size Selection: 75m vs. 100m
Moments after I first called it as 100m on a side, I have
always felt that 75m on a side was far more manageable.
All the drawings in this presentation assume the Battle
Rooms are 75m on a side.
The physical amount of air of a 75m cube is less than
half that of a 100m cube. The air pressure forces are
also about half (just a little more, actually). The stresses
in the walls (which directly relates to the amount and cost
of structure you’ll need to “make it work”) are also
substantially reduced with a 75m cube.

37. Entering a 75m Battle Room
These guys are just “banging around”—there are no “intelligent agents” at work here. The
“pawns” are about 4.5 feet (1.4m) tall.

38. Cutaway View
This is what you’d get if you extracted the Battle Rooms, as a group, from their home in the
non-rotating portion of the Battle School. The connected “hoops” are actually the corridors.

39. Access
Battle Gate
Practice Gate
Teacher’s
Gate

40. Interior 1

41. Interior 2

42. The Enemy’s Gate
An interesting question: I’ve placed a handhold just below the entry door. Outside, in the
adjoining hallway, that’s where the floor is located. Would the “real” designers of the
Battle School (and Battle Rooms) have omitted that handhold as unnecessary, based on the
assumption that they “didn’t quite get” the whole Zero-Gee orientation perception that
made Ender so different? I believe the novels omit this handhold.

43. Orientation
Need I say it? The Enemy’s Gate is, of course, “down.” Your gate would be “up.”
Note the lower “Practice Gate” for orientation.

44. Handholds
If for no other reason, the handholds are needed to give the viewer a sense of scale and
orientation; otherwise you have a huge, plain “field” behind the players.

45. Recessed Handhold (detail)
After having first read “Ender’s Game,” I searched out Frescopictures.com on the Internet, and started
posting my ideas about the Battle Rooms and the Battle School technologies. One of the first things
to go was the raised hand-holds, which I considered as “too dangerous.” In addition, raised
handholds would interfere with some of the more interesting maneuvers, such as “sliding the wall.”

46. Flash Suit

47. Analogues
 The Givens:
• >1000 Crewmembers
• Months between contact/re-stocking
• Exists as its own small “city”
 The Analogues:
• Aircraft Carriers
• Submarines
• International Space Station (well, not quite the same size crew…)

48. Location, Location, Location
 Page 19, Author’s Definitive Edition:
– “I’m director of primary training at the Battle School in
the belt” (Colonel Hyram Graff)
 However….
– Trips to the Battle School are relatively quick
– No IPL Satellite transfer required
– Therefore: Battle School is in (low) Earth Orbit
 Author now claims to have been referring to a
“Belt of space stations in Earth Orbit…”
This is an inside joke. Not many actually get it.

49. Other Technologies
 Ansible  Shuttles
 Bugger Gravity  Deep Space Ships
 Null-G  Simulator
 Force Fields  Desks
 Ecstatic Fields  Zero-Point Energy
 Dr. Device  Inertialess drives
This is some of the other research and development I did to flesh out the possible physical
reality behind “Ender’s Game.” Click on the underlined item to go directly to that page

50. Ansible Technology
For those of you who need a quick refresher, the Ansible is the piece of communications
equipment that the International Fleet (I.F.) uses to communicate with its invasion force
en route to the Bugger homeworlds. It is, in essence, a specialized radio that bypasses
the Einsteinian limit of the speed of light. It would miss the point to say that the
transmissions travel “faster than light,” as that implies that there could still be some delay
between transmitter and receiver. There is no delay; communication is instantaneous. If
you’re heavy into “Star Trek,” it’s pretty much the equivalent of “Subspace Radio.” The word
“Ansible” was actually invented by Ursula K. Le Guin in 1966 in her novel Rocannon's
World.
Since the “Philotic Web” site is the Lake Woebegone of the Internet (all of us here are
above average), I almost don’t need to tell you that we should not limit ourselves to
thinking of “radio” transmissions as being purely in the audio spectrum. Low bandwidth
radio is, if you want to look at it this way, basically Morse code. Improve the bandwidth
by increasing the radio frequency, and you get low-grade audio. Increase the frequency
even more, and you get high grade audio (think of the shift from AM to FM-from kilohertz
to megahertz; yes, they encode the information differently, but the increased bandwidth
of FM allows this). Increase the frequency even more than that and you get the
capability to transmit Video signals, then digital video, then…who knows what! Somewhere
along that continuum is the bandwidth of the Ansible. The Ansible can carry multi-band
audio, plus an active database of hundreds of thousands of ships. It can’t carry video,
but is probably in the mid-FM range of data carrying capability.
I just happened to have this description lying around on the Philotic Web site
Goodness! If I can take a whole paragraph telling you things I think you already know,
what’s going to happen when I think I’m breaking new ground!? In a few moments, you’ll
wish you never asked. Hold on tight.
I have found two references to Faster-Than Light communications that bear on the

51. Bugger (Formic) Gravity
What is Bugger Gravity? I am proposing the “standard”
sci-fi artificial gravity for this one: planar gravity. Planar,
in that it has a uniform effect across a planar (or, if you
wanted, wrapped) area. If you think about all the sci-fi
movies with artificial gravity, this is what they have.
Think of the backlighting panel behind your laptop
screen. Now, have it emit "Gravitons" instead of
"Photons." It all boils down to proposing a science that
has control over gravitons (a legitimately proposed sub-
atomic particle) in the same way we currently have
control over photons (flashlights, LASERS, backlighting
panels, etc.)

52. Electrical Artificial Gravity
Apparently, a University of Alabama scientist is looking to use High-Temperature Superconductors, and the
Bose-Einstein condensate form of matter to manipulate gravity. The article is from a 1999 Popular Mechanics
article (but, then again, so are articles about carbon nanotube space elevators). It would be, as I described
before, Planar Gravity manipulation! Unfortunately, I can find no further articles to indicate if they have been
successful.
TAMING GRAVITY
BY JIM WILSON
Ever since electricity was tamed in the 19th century, the idea of manipulating gravity by
altering an electromagnetic field has been the subject of intriguing experiments and
occasional bursts of irrational exuberance. Physicists insist that because gravity is a
basic force of nature, constructing an antigravity machine is theoretically impossible. But
recently, and not without some reluctance, they have begun to consider another
possibility. Several highly respected physicists say it might be possible to construct a
force-field machine that acts on all matter in a way that is similar to gravity. Strictly
speaking, it wouldn't be an antigravity machine. But by exerting an attractive or repulsive
force on all matter, it would be the functional equivalent of the impossible machine.
While an operational device is at least five years in the future, developers of what can be
loosely termed a force-field machine say it has cleared major theoretical hurdles. To
demonstrate their claim, they invited POPULAR MECHANICS to visit their Huntsville,
Ala., laboratory to see the most important component of their proof-of-concept
demonstrator. It is a 12-in.-dia. high-temperature superconducting disc (HTSD). When
the force-field machine is complete, a bowling ball placed anywhere above this disc,
which resembles a clutch plate, will stay exactly where you left it.
Click the title for another article on the internet, and on my blurb for the referenced article itself.
I have included the Popular Mechanics gravity is PDF file on thatdisk.
Everyone knows that article as a the glue this keeps our feet on the ground and the
planets on their orbits. It operates on every single molecule and atom in our bodies.
Physicists define gravity as the attractive force between two masses. They also say it is

53. Moving in Zero-G
These movies are included for reference as to how people really move around in Zero_G.
IMAX, of course, also has some excellent footage on the same topic.
Click on the image to run it, if it doesn’t start automatically.

54. Moving in Zero-G (2)

55. Moving in Zero-G (3)

56. Moving in Zero-G (4)

57. Dr. Device (image)
I’ve always imagined the effect of the Molecular Disruption Device (the “Little Doctor”) to
look similar to early thermonuclear fusion detonations.

58. Low Earth Orbit Shuttles
The upper-left-hand image is that of the “National AeroSpace Plane” (NASP). It’s always
been my favorite—not to mention that it also looks a lot like the “Pan Am Clipper” from
2001.

59. Simulator
Darian Robbins’ concept of the Simulators on Eros. Personally, I’ve always envisioned them as the students
lying in hang-glider type sling supports (or something more mechanically oriented), in a darkened chamber,
with images projected all around them—since this would “justify” all the time spent in the Battle Rooms.

60. Desqs
 They’re already here;
Bill Gates calls them
“Tablet PC’s”
 Sharp Electronics has
an autostereoscopic
(no special glasses
needed) 3D display
for laptops
 The hybrid can’t be
too far behind…

61. Filming
 CG vs. Real
 Vomit Comet
 Laser Pistols

62. Computer Graphics
A lot of discussion has gone on regarding what will be
CG, and what will be live action. In the past, I have
made a long-winded presentation about how CG is now
“ready for its close up,” but recent films like “The
Matrix”, and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogies pretty
much make the case for me.
Plus, considering my unique audience for this “special
edition” presentation, I don’t think I need to teach
anyone here how best to use CG today.
Of course, if I’m wrong, and you want to call and talk
about it…

63. Vomit Comet
As you can tell from the attached graph, there is only about 25 seconds of filming time
available per loop. You’re also dealing with some serious G-forces before and after your
Zero-G phase. There may be some benefit to doing initial pre-visualization & motion
capture in Zero-G, but something tells me you don’t want a bunch of kids up there…

64. Laser Pistols
In the real world, you can't really see laser beams. Well, maybe when the air is all full of dust, or
fog, or other suspended particulate matter; but not in clear air. And the Battle Room will be filled
with clean air. So, therefore; you will not be able to see the beams coming from the pistols. In
fact, OSC talks about this when Ender and Alai first use the pistols in the Battle Room. He
describes the point of light appearing, but not the beam of light.
So, how do we get our audience to see the beams? You know they want to. And probably need
to.
The answer is "special filters" in the viewing windows, and perhaps in the helmet faceplates as
well. Let's say that these filters (and faceplates) are made of a special polycarbonate (Lexan, for
instance) that indicates the trace of the laser beam through empty air.
There IS a Lexan somewhat like this. Look at those special clear yellow and green LEGO pieces
you have, the ones where the edges appear to illuminate from light impinging on the adjacent flat
surface (I think the manufacturer of this plastic is MOBAY--not the pop musician, though).
But, does this magic faceplate plastic really exist? No. Will our valiant young soldiers appreciate
this great technological advance, allowing them to see the battle in progress? Yes! Can this
special, nonexistent plastic be cut into filters to be placed in front of the camera lens so that our
audience will also be able to see what the heck is going on? Will they buy into this premise? YES!
So, the face masks of the suits could be of a material which "magically" reveals the beams of light
in transit. And, if not the face masks, then at least the viewglass for the teachers & observers. If
the student's viewglass is so treated, then the laser beams may be infrared or visible (but, to be
honest, once we have all decided that the spots and beams are to be visible to the students, the
teachers and the audience, the type of light is immaterial--no pun intended). If the students are
not to be allowed to see the beams, and the teachers are, is the audience to be subjected to a

65. Music inspired by Ender’s
Game
 Ender’s Game, by Ashcan Painters
– You’ll recognize the story. The group (unfortunately now
defunct) has apologized in advance for the phrase “games of
buggery.”
 Ender Will Save Us All, by Dashboard Confessional
– Listen closely—you’ll hear nothing whatsoever about the story.
Apparently, it’s a song of lost friendship between the lead singer
(Chris Ender Carrabba) and a close friend. At times, all they had
in common was a love for Ender’s Game.
Please click on the title to listen to the music. I’ve also
included the songs in the “Bonus Features” subdirectory.

66. Scientific Papers
The attached paper, by the author, was presented at an
American Society of Civil Engineers conference in March,
2004, titled:
Earth and Space: Engineering, Construction and Operations
in Hazardous Environments
The paper is titled:
“A Novel approach to Intra-station Transfers Between Large
Centripetal Habitation Wheels and Stationary Utility Cores”
Please note that the paper is now © ASCE, and cannot otherwise be distributed.