- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Nelo Angelo
I've read a lot of posts arguing over the number of Halos there could be.So I decided to do the geometry and come up with the smallest number you would need, which is nine. That is the very least number of Halos needed in order to completely blanket the galaxy with their blast radius.Why? Here's how...
The effective blast radius of the original ring was 25,000 light years, and assuming all of the "other ones" have the same capabilities, that means every halo would create a blast diameter of 50,000 light years. Since the the radius of the galaxy is 50,000 light years (meaning it's 100,000 light years in diameter) you could place 4 equidistant rings inside the total area of the galaxy without overlapping their blast radii. This however would leave 5 uncovered gaps in the galaxy, 4 along the edges, and one in the center, thus requiring 5 more rings for a total of nine.
You could use eight rings and come very close if you arranged them differently, but you would still have 8 small gaps along the outer edges of the galaxy. Even though the total area from the blast diameter of 4 rings equals that of the entire galaxy, the circular shape would either overlap and create waste, or be wasted outside the limits of the galaxy. Now, I know there are quite a few different questions you could pose such as; Isn't the center of the galaxy devoid of life anyway, meaning you wouldn't need a ring there? or What if the Forerunners knew exactly where to place the rings in order to cover all the life in the galaxy, wouldn't that mean less rings?And who is to say that the Forerunners weren't really flood paranoid and decided to just throw in 30 rings for good measure. Well of course that is why we have Bungie.
Your post is rather intelligetn, in fact, i did the same thing about a week after seeing that cinematic. The one detail you forget is that 343 says "....this galaxy will be quite (QUITE!!!! NOT ALL!!!) devoid of life. The galaxy would not have to be completely devoid of life, only quite devoid. Thus, ur hypothesis about using eight might actually work.
Thats all, farewell