Ring-World...

[Exitium]

For some reason, I had the sudden urge to discuss to others about a Ring-World, or a Dyson Sphere Type III. Has anybody else heard of these, and if so, who thinks they exist or even subject to exist?

Well, if you want a definition, a Ring-World is basically a long band that runs around the sun near Earth's exact orbit around the sun. It rotates to create gravity, and day/night is created through, "Shadow Squares" that collect energy. It's quite intersting, I always envision them being as wide as the sun's diameter. But the true reason I brought this up is because I may write a story about one. Any thoughts to this?

[Polar_Andromeda]

The term "ring world" reminded me that, somewhere in my library, I had a book by that name. So I went and found it and am gonna read it tonight to see if I can learn anything about ring worlds, as I also find them interesting.

Your vision of them being as wide as the sun's diameter (about 864,000 miles) seems to fit this description I found inside the book: "...Ringworld, a million-mile [which is close to the size of the sun's diameter] wide ring of solid matter that circles a sun much like Earth's, they [the main characters] discover a world with oceans that could swallow Jupiter and mountains the size of Earth itself..."

Theoretically speaking, what substance(s) are they made of and is Earth the only planet w/ its own ring world?

[Deekman]

Larry Niven wrote his first Ringworld novel in 1971.
On the Star Trek Next Generation episode where they brought Scotty
out of a 75 year stay in a transport buffer dealt with a Dyson Sphere.
There was a great article in Astronomy magazine last summer about
Civilization types
Type I being a civilization which can harness the power of its own planet.
(utilising the heat from the planet's core)
Type II being one which has harnessed the energy of it's sun
by use of the Dyson Sphere.
Type III being one where entire galaxies have been harnessed.
More on the subject here!

[theBlackman]

There is a series by Larry Niven on RINGWORLD. And a follow up called the INTEGERAL TREE.

Probably the one you found Polar_Andromeda. In the same vein, you might look into the RAMA series, The Garden Of Rama, etc.
EDIT: Fast fingers there Deek!

[Deekman]

I loved Arthur C. Clarke's Rama books. (with Gentry Lee)
Amazing series.
Morgan Freeman is working on adapting them to the big screen.
There was a Rama PC game. And in fact it was published by EIDOS,
and there used to be a forum here for it. I never played it myself.

[Exitium]

Speaking of Arthur C. Clarke, I have read all of his space odessey series (And read both of the books), and did check out the Rendevous with Rama (But wasn't able to read it). I have currently read, however, the book Manta's Gift and I am reading The Icarus Hunt. Both by the renouned Star Wars author Timothy Zahn. Damn, I wish I had Zahn as a last name...

And I am going to check out Ring-World next chance I get.

Theoretically speaking, what substance(s) are they made of and is Earth the only planet w/ its own ring world?

I can answer that. All you need is a machine that can easily break down substances to their individual elements and seperate them into containers. Then it's just a simple matter of spraying them back on with a laser into a new compound. This idea was best known in the game Homeworld, and was called Nanolathing in Total Annihilation. In StarTopia, however, matter can be turned into pure energy. Although I fail to see how this would work...

And the main work that inspired me to write the upcoming piece of fiction I will deem, "Orbis: Confidenter, Liber Libri I", can be found here. Excellent work too.

And yes, it is a Latin title...