Alien (do a Freeza impression here): We have [insert, high end, energy tech, here]. What have you got *Monkey* ? Human (do a Hank Hill impression here): Rocks and rock throwing accessories.
Human: "The latent energy in an object is equal to its mass multiplied by the speed of light squared." Alien: "And? That's standard basic science. What's so significant about it?" Human: "It means that lasers are just really fast, light rocks." Alien: *_Mind Explodes_*
Now that the Dirtlings have a new best friend with much higher technology, it should only be a few years until they develop the singularity cannon. Now that's a rock thrower!
Consider we throw moon sized rocks at notable percentages of light speed with basically chemical propellant engines, imagine what we could do if we had gravity maniuplation to help us, that "notable percentages of" quickly gets removed. Give us a few years and we'll start yeeting stars.
Kilgans: your end is Here Aliens:the end has come Com Channels:*aggitated monkey screaching* Computer: *proximity Warning, multiple large asterioid on colision course*
"When I joined the Corps, we didn't have fancy smancy tanks. We had sticks! Two sticks and a rock for the whole platoon. And we had to share the rock." - Sergeant Johnson from Halo 2 Anniversary
There are several things the story glossed over, yet I know with absolute certainty; - The dirtlings knew about the 40 minutes of overkill and didn’t care. We brought an hour’s worth of rockets and we’re going to deliver an hour’s worth of Yeet. - The biggest rock had a giant face haphazardly splash-painted on the front and a comical name on the back. My best guesses range from ‘The First Law’ to ‘Girthy Berty’. This was absolutey a valuable use of the scientists’ time. - The only people giggling more than the guys that strapped on the steering thrusters were the people who broke the handle on the lever labeled ‘throttle’. - That dreadnaught will someday be returned to the Kilgans.
"What is it with you and large rocks?!" she snapped. "You two hadn't even met, and she's already picked up the largest rock physically possible." "I dunno," I shrugged. "When I think Juraian Tree, I think gravity fields and curvey lasers and lighthawk wings. Not stuffing stars into pocket dimensions to use as a cudgel. I mean, it's still 'screw physics, I'm a god-tree', but I imagine esoteric stuff. Not dumbells in a metaphorical purse. Never underestimate the classics, I guess..."
@@OfficerHotpants judging from the references to Jurian trees, light hawk wing, and others. I'm guessing it's from one of the Tenchi anime series, don't ask what one I'm not sure. lol
Maxium 6. If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it. Maxium 11 Everything is air-droppable at least once. And Maxium 24. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun.
Just remember, a nuke is just a rock being compressed, or two rocks being smacked together, forcefully enough that it's atoms break. So yes, human's most powerful weapon to date is just more rocks.
I'll argue that "Dirt" isn't a proper translation of "Earth" or "Terra". Well, it's a proper literal translation, but not the intended meaning of the name. I think the intended meaning of the name is "Land", aka, what we walk and live on. Of course given the quality of translation in this story, the aliens might not have two different words that distinguish between "dirt" and "land".
Yeah, translations between languages and cultures could account for Earth/Earthling becoming Dirt/Dirtling (fiction/writing is fun). Earth: life supporting soil (you can grow stuff in it) Dirt: dead earth (does not support life) Terra: modified form of terrain, or land, though in sci-fi a species simile for Human (ie: Terran) Interesting point: if you leave soil exposed to the sun long enough it will become dirt. This is due to the organisms in the soil drying out and dying. Mulch in gardening is an ablative cover used to protect exposed soil.
Throughout the entire storm of slung rocks, I guarantee SO MANY puns involving the words rock, stone, and every name for every kind of rock and stone they could think of, happened. And were broadcast on all frequencies for all to hear.
so manny giggles... I love this. Thank you for reading it to us... to me... :D My husband reads the daily devotional to me and mom in the mornings, and I love it. My dad used to read Tarzan to us when I was a child. I read to my daughter when she was small. It's a comfort thing. Thank you so much. You put so much feeling and life into these works.
Greetings, Mentlegent! For the Rhythm that is Algo Reminds me of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" where the Lunar insurgents threw rocks at Earth. Or the Krogan rebellions in Mass Effect, where they used the same tactic on the Turians.
The Dirtlings love their rocks. They have a very special relationship. And they are guite good at throwing them. To quote a certain sgt. Johnson "We had sticks. Two stick and a rock for the entire platoon! And we had to share the rock! "
As soon as I heard the size of the enemy ship, I knew that the rocks would be big and fast. Because when you make yourself THAT big of a target you're practically begging to be shot at with mass drivers. Accelerating them up to 10% of c is pretty damn impressive for a race that is still using chemical engines for realspace movement, though. Xenos: "How do you throw rocks that fast?" Humans: "Well, you know the FTL drives everyone has? Turns out if you invert the fields and only turn it on for a picosecond it para-accelerates the mass caught in the fields. We found that out the hard way when some techs got drunk and kind of broke into a yard they were working at. Fortunately it was aimed away from anything important, but we're really going to miss Deimos." Xenos: "Deimos?" Humans: "The moon that was pulverized when it was in the way. Thankfully no one was on it at the time. It left a lovely ring around Mars, though. Anyway, after that we realized it would make a really great gun." Xenos: "...Gun?" Humans: "Oh my friend, let us introduce you to the concept of 'more dakka'." Later: Xenos: "A beautiful friendship indeed."
If the aliens think our obsession with rocks is weird, just wait until they find out how scary we can be when we find out someone has shiny yellow rocks...
And if i may repeat a statement made about another story discussin our love of rocks. Line from story " yeah they even tricked rocks into thinking for them by applying electricty. " Line from comments " we did not trick them. We attached jumper cables to their little rock testicles untill they gave us the answers we wanted "
Reminds me of the story of were we through Earth at some 5th dimensional beings that killed all humans that weren't on Earth. They said that no rock we could through could effect them and we took that personally.
Without bending space time the infinite energy required to throw rocks at the speed of light would also create an infinite explosion and doom is all. We have a max limit on rock throwing
Throwing rocks ? Why not ? We are pretty good at throwing rocks. Big rocks can do a LOT of damage, and a mere laser or beam weapon is of no use against a big rock coming at you at relativistic speed. And, if that rock is big enough... Well, there is no stopping it before it's get stopped by something much bigger.
well, since all things fall at the same speed, if they had anti gravity of repulsing, then, it probably wouldn't help much that you have momentum, atleast not frm mass. See, gravity effects all mass in a way where it falls at the same rate. I massive object will fall just as quick, and be slowed, I imagine as much. Basically, all the mass is effected y the force of accekleration at the same time. the only thing that would help is speed, but. in fact, too much speed means more mass at realatavistic speeds, but it won't slow much in a fraction of a second.more mass means means the same amount of slowing due to gravity though, so speed means little effect. After all, if an objec tis exposed to earth's gravity for a fraction of a second, it won't be effected much. A bit, but not much. At hundredth of a second, it would move .0981 meters towards earth. percentages of the speed of light means passing thourhg the feild of gravity quite rapidly it takes eight minutes for light to go from the sun to earth, and some seconds from earth to the moon in 1.3 seconds. So, a full gee for a second at full speed and at ten percent, well gravity falls off with distance, but a meter or so. interms of velocity, you are talking about a gee of force out how ever much force a ten percent light speed object, which will have more energy than it's original mass times velocity due to relativity giving it more mass. however, since we are using anti grav as a force, it would loose 9.8 meters/second at rarth's gravity.
Yup, it would be slowed but it would only be slowed in accordance to what it's acceleration would be if it were falling toward an object of equal mass to the dread ship, since it's traveling at 10% the speed of light the de-acceleration is so minimal that it would impact it long before it could slow down enough to be rendered harmless and reverse direction
And a particle beam would be moving closer to c than the relativistic rocks in this story. And since both would lose velocity at the same rate, the more massive but slower rock should be better repelled by the gravity field than the faster but less massive particle beam because the rock would reach zero velocity first. Especially since as noted above, the slower rock would spend more time under the gravity's influence than the faster particle beam. Except as noted in this story, the rocks ARE NOT on dumb ballistic projectiles, but have their own drives built in that keep adding velocity and thus can fight through the gravity repulsion field.
Think about it this way how much would 2G accelerate something in a few hundred miles? Gravity decreases with distance so theres a limit to how far out high acceleration is present. Not a significant percentage of light speed and the rock had 10%c.
Gravity will indeed have just as much effect on larger objects, but the more mass something has the more it resists changes in it's velocity. So no, several kilometre asteroids wouldn't reverse before hitting the ship just as fast as, say, a baseball sized rock would.
we would like better FTL tecnology please.......................ok fine yes we were going to use it to throw faster rocks but pretty please :) we wont throw them at you
Kilgan Dreadship: "Nooo! You can't just use rocks to defeat the most powerful battlestation of all time!"
Imperial Endor Garrison: "First time?"
Be glad they did not use planet sized rocks.
If brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough of it 🤣
ref: Isaac Arthur
Humans: "Yeet"
Alien: "that... did nothing"
Human: "oh .. well then " *inhales* "YA YEET!"
Allien: "That .... actually worked"
Ah good old yeetus deletus size rocks moving at ya yeet speed.
Ooga booga fuck the xenos
Xenos: "You just throw rocks?"
Human: "Hold my beer"
Ah I see the humans use the asteroid belt well. I bet they used railguns then engines for faster speed and homing.
Alien (do a Freeza impression here): We have [insert, high end, energy tech, here]. What have you got *Monkey* ?
Human (do a Hank Hill impression here): Rocks and rock throwing accessories.
I See Rock
I Luv me rock
I throw at enemy
Simple as
Human: "The latent energy in an object is equal to its mass multiplied by the speed of light squared."
Alien: "And? That's standard basic science. What's so significant about it?"
Human: "It means that lasers are just really fast, light rocks."
Alien: *_Mind Explodes_*
Frakking Eldar should shut up
Hank Hill side eyes you with a slingshot
@@MymMars I was thinking more along the line of trebuchet, but we could put propane tank in it too.
Now that the Dirtlings have a new best friend with much higher technology, it should only be a few years until they develop the singularity cannon. Now that's a rock thrower!
Consider we throw moon sized rocks at notable percentages of light speed with basically chemical propellant engines, imagine what we could do if we had gravity maniuplation to help us, that "notable percentages of" quickly gets removed. Give us a few years and we'll start yeeting stars.
@@cgi2002 Or throwing smaller rocks at the speed of light. or even "hyperspace ramming"
WITH OUR NEW FRIENDS WE SHALL BUILD THE MEANS OF THROWING DEATH STARS!!!!!!!!!
Or throw rocks heated to solar temperatures ala the Casaba Howitzer.
@@cgi2002 "We started throwing the big glowy rocks!"
Kilgans: your end is Here
Aliens:the end has come
Com Channels:*aggitated monkey screaching*
Computer: *proximity Warning, multiple large asterioid on colision course*
planitoids*
@@Tommy-pv1vh semantics😂
People say the home species have no natural defence. I say the homo species evolved an ever more finely tuned throwing arm, and rocks are everywhere.
I imagined a literally bunch of angry chimpanzee shrieks coming out of the vox :D
"When I joined the Corps, we didn't have fancy smancy tanks. We had sticks! Two sticks and a rock for the whole platoon. And we had to share the rock." - Sergeant Johnson from Halo 2 Anniversary
I'm not sure what rock your talking about sarge... but I think it's my turn to use it
There are several things the story glossed over, yet I know with absolute certainty;
- The dirtlings knew about the 40 minutes of overkill and didn’t care. We brought an hour’s worth of rockets and we’re going to deliver an hour’s worth of Yeet.
- The biggest rock had a giant face haphazardly splash-painted on the front and a comical name on the back. My best guesses range from ‘The First Law’ to ‘Girthy Berty’. This was absolutey a valuable use of the scientists’ time.
- The only people giggling more than the guys that strapped on the steering thrusters were the people who broke the handle on the lever labeled ‘throttle’.
- That dreadnaught will someday be returned to the Kilgans.
for the message, I like to imagine giant bold italics reading :SIR! ISAAC NETON SENDS HIS REGAURDS !
@@wittwashere You mean Rockards?
As thrown scrap. Reuse recycle repurpose ... rinse and repeat ... ad infinitum
"We will we will ROCK YOU." Gen. F Mercury Sol Fleet.
That's no moon!
Oh!...
wait a minute...
maybe it was a moon!
That's not a moon!
YEET
THIS is a moon!
YEET
And this is
YEET
Oh, and so is this.
YEETYEETYEET
When you max out the first skill in the game.
"If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger rock!" - unknown human seconds before a cataclysmic explosion
Thank you for the video. To be fair, we are quite good at throwing rocks.
So good, all of our military history, revolves around finding better ways to throw them *faster*
"What is it with you and large rocks?!" she snapped. "You two hadn't even met, and she's already picked up the largest rock physically possible."
"I dunno," I shrugged. "When I think Juraian Tree, I think gravity fields and curvey lasers and lighthawk wings. Not stuffing stars into pocket dimensions to use as a cudgel. I mean, it's still 'screw physics, I'm a god-tree', but I imagine esoteric stuff. Not dumbells in a metaphorical purse. Never underestimate the classics, I guess..."
@@OfficerHotpants judging from the references to Jurian trees, light hawk wing, and others. I'm guessing it's from one of the Tenchi anime series, don't ask what one I'm not sure. lol
Definitely Tenchi.
If brute force does not work your not using enough of it
Maxium 6. If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it.
Maxium 11 Everything is air-droppable at least once.
And
Maxium 24. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun.
Humans are Space Dwarfs
BROTHERS OF THE MINE REJOICE! SING! SING! SING! WITH ME!
Raise your pick and raise your voice!
Rock and Stone, Brotha'.
@@cassiswyrm8121 sing sing sing with me
Down and down into the deep
Who knows what we’ll find beneath, diamonds, rubies, gold, and ore.
@@atigerclaw Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
Just remember, a nuke is just a rock being compressed, or two rocks being smacked together, forcefully enough that it's atoms break. So yes, human's most powerful weapon to date is just more rocks.
It's rocks, all the way down.
@@GuukanKitsune Literally
I'll argue that "Dirt" isn't a proper translation of "Earth" or "Terra". Well, it's a proper literal translation, but not the intended meaning of the name. I think the intended meaning of the name is "Land", aka, what we walk and live on.
Of course given the quality of translation in this story, the aliens might not have two different words that distinguish between "dirt" and "land".
It always gives me a picture of dark fertile soil. Dirt can be any kind of collection of pebbles and dust but soil is more specific.
in swedish we call Earth=Jorden Jord=Dirt
Better name is Tellus Mater=mother earth=Gaia
Yeah, translations between languages and cultures could account for Earth/Earthling becoming Dirt/Dirtling (fiction/writing is fun).
Earth: life supporting soil (you can grow stuff in it)
Dirt: dead earth (does not support life)
Terra: modified form of terrain, or land, though in sci-fi a species simile for Human (ie: Terran)
Interesting point: if you leave soil exposed to the sun long enough it will become dirt. This is due to the organisms in the soil drying out and dying. Mulch in gardening is an ablative cover used to protect exposed soil.
Same with rocks like not all things are rocks lol
What is funny a better name would aquaterra. There is only 30% that is land.
The invaders we’re even nice enough to gravity assist the final tracking and acceleration before impact.
And if bigger rocks somehow don't solve the problem, you just need to use bigger rocks that explode into dmall suns!
Well, when you think about it, Planets are just large circular rocks.
Planets are just large circular rocks.
Spherical you mean, right?
...
Spherical you mean, right?
@@TRAILLER Yes. XD
@@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim Large planet sized buzzsaw: *disappear*
@@TRAILLER You know, that's a good idea!
"what is a dragon, but a bigger swallow?" Suddenly comes to mind.
Thanks for reading this delightful story. HFY community and Agro have a special relationship too!
Humanity outmatched and outnumbered, cocking an interstellar shotgun, just as we like it.
Not just bigger rock. Faster rock as well.
Throughout the entire storm of slung rocks, I guarantee SO MANY puns involving the words rock, stone, and every name for every kind of rock and stone they could think of, happened. And were broadcast on all frequencies for all to hear.
Where is the rock and roll broadcast?
so manny giggles... I love this. Thank you for reading it to us... to me... :D
My husband reads the daily devotional to me and mom in the mornings, and I love it.
My dad used to read Tarzan to us when I was a child.
I read to my daughter when she was small.
It's a comfort thing.
Thank you so much.
You put so much feeling and life into these works.
Greetings, Mentlegent!
For the Rhythm that is Algo
Reminds me of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" where the Lunar insurgents threw rocks at Earth. Or the Krogan rebellions in Mass Effect, where they used the same tactic on the Turians.
Mike understood the value of a KEW strike.
damn. the dreadship got beat by rocks. they definitely felt that one in their ego.
I adore the portrayal of us as little helpful but dangerous rock hoarders.
Grug throw rock.
Rock work.
Grug spread rock throwing to the entirety of future humanity.
Humanity prospers for eons.
Yea, small moons moving at around .1c would overcome just about any gravity well short of a star.
For the Author(s), for the narrator Agro Squirrel, for the algorithm !!!
This gives me father Jack Hackett vibes, "I LUV MOI BRICK"
Should have put the dirtlings in charge of jamming, "we will rock you" on all channels.
I know right can not have a rock fight with out rock music 🎶
I have a fairly good feeling that the author of that story watches Isaac Arthur if brute Force isn't working then you're not using enough of it.
This is one of my favorite so far. GOOOO Dirtlings!
The Dirtlings love their rocks.
They have a very special relationship.
And they are guite good at throwing them.
To quote a certain sgt. Johnson "We had sticks. Two stick and a rock for the entire platoon! And we had to share the rock! "
As soon as I heard the size of the enemy ship, I knew that the rocks would be big and fast. Because when you make yourself THAT big of a target you're practically begging to be shot at with mass drivers.
Accelerating them up to 10% of c is pretty damn impressive for a race that is still using chemical engines for realspace movement, though.
Xenos: "How do you throw rocks that fast?"
Humans: "Well, you know the FTL drives everyone has? Turns out if you invert the fields and only turn it on for a picosecond it para-accelerates the mass caught in the fields. We found that out the hard way when some techs got drunk and kind of broke into a yard they were working at. Fortunately it was aimed away from anything important, but we're really going to miss Deimos."
Xenos: "Deimos?"
Humans: "The moon that was pulverized when it was in the way. Thankfully no one was on it at the time. It left a lovely ring around Mars, though. Anyway, after that we realized it would make a really great gun."
Xenos: "...Gun?"
Humans: "Oh my friend, let us introduce you to the concept of 'more dakka'."
Later: Xenos: "A beautiful friendship indeed."
Throughout the vast nothingness of space, Vrond heard a faint voice, a gargling of a voice almost: *"RRRRRRRRROCK 'IIIIIIIIMMMMMMMM"*
We broke the rock speed record!
If the aliens think our obsession with rocks is weird, just wait until they find out how scary we can be when we find out someone has shiny yellow rocks...
This needs to be a book and this is somewhere in the first third of the book. Book one of at least four
We also love sticks, big sticks to hit and poke things with.
Sticks are just long, narrow rocks with a very high carbon to metal ratio.
To be fair, we throw rocks *really* well
Dirtling war cry was recorded as "let's rock"
Monkey throw rock!
Monkey break!
Almighty YEET
i am here for the misunderstanding sand all their glorious hilarity
Thanks for the story 🙂☺️
Rock rock rock!
Humans: If violence was not your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it. Throw a moon at them next.
Throw the small planet we found in the belt next if that does not work.
For the Algorithm, For the Author(s), For the Disembodied Voice!
Bless the Squerril
Bless the Author
Glorious Dakka, mwahaha
Obvious battle song
We Will Rock You! At earthquake volume.
Monkey throw rock
Monkey break.
THE ASTEROID BELT IS WHERE THE ROCKS ARE
...rock.
Rock...
RoCK?
ROCK!?
Fast rock
Klef is now on special offer.
We got the biggest rocks of them all
For the Dirt!
keeper going
And if i may repeat a statement made about another story discussin our love of rocks.
Line from story
" yeah they even tricked rocks into thinking for them by applying electricty. "
Line from comments
" we did not trick them. We attached jumper cables to their little rock testicles untill they gave us the answers we wanted "
very funny, thanks man!
This will be a good one
to be fair we are REALLY good at throwing rocks....
Ooohh another favorite
I kinda like the name dirtlings it's fitting
Rock Smash!
neat
Yelp,if at first you don't succeed, throw bigger rocks! For the algorithm.
For Al Gor'ithym, witness me noisy and loud.
Reminds me of the story of were we through Earth at some 5th dimensional beings that killed all humans that weren't on Earth. They said that no rock we could through could effect them and we took that personally.
5th dimensional being meet the rock of eternity!
Monkey throw rock, monkey break!
"Dirtlings" is such a stupid title, I love it.
See this peak human: Hit it with best rock you can make or pick up.
For the algorithm
I feel that we have seen this here before. Is it just me?
this is a new one, theres just many ways to write 'monke yeet stone'
Without bending space time the infinite energy required to throw rocks at the speed of light would also create an infinite explosion and doom is all. We have a max limit on rock throwing
We will rock you
If sentient singularity orbs cannot puncture a hull, ram it from lights peed with your over engineered warship.
🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠
TL;DR: "rocks"
Throwing rocks ? Why not ? We are pretty good at throwing rocks. Big rocks can do a LOT of damage, and a mere laser or beam weapon is of no use against a big rock coming at you at relativistic speed. And, if that rock is big enough... Well, there is no stopping it before it's get stopped by something much bigger.
Moon fall was always a human fear.
Did you hear in "nature of predators" the humans made a moon fall out of orbit as a distraction?!?!?!
Rock is friend.
Rock is music.
Rock is life
Rock is (your) death
read more
well, since all things fall at the same speed, if they had anti gravity of repulsing, then, it probably wouldn't help much that you have momentum, atleast not frm mass. See, gravity effects all mass in a way where it falls at the same rate. I massive object will fall just as quick, and be slowed, I imagine as much.
Basically, all the mass is effected y the force of accekleration at the same time.
the only thing that would help is speed, but. in fact, too much speed means more mass at realatavistic speeds, but it won't slow much in a fraction of a second.more mass means means the same amount of slowing due to gravity though, so speed means little effect. After all, if an objec tis exposed to earth's gravity for a fraction of a second, it won't be effected much. A bit, but not much.
At hundredth of a second, it would move .0981 meters towards earth.
percentages of the speed of light means passing thourhg the feild of gravity quite rapidly it takes eight minutes for light to go from the sun to earth, and some seconds from earth to the moon in 1.3 seconds. So, a full gee for a second at full speed and at ten percent, well gravity falls off with distance, but a meter or so. interms of velocity, you are talking about a gee of force out how ever much force a ten percent light speed object, which will have more energy than it's original mass times velocity due to relativity giving it more mass. however, since we are using anti grav as a force, it would loose 9.8 meters/second at rarth's gravity.
Yup, it would be slowed but it would only be slowed in accordance to what it's acceleration would be if it were falling toward an object of equal mass to the dread ship, since it's traveling at 10% the speed of light the de-acceleration is so minimal that it would impact it long before it could slow down enough to be rendered harmless and reverse direction
*g
And a particle beam would be moving closer to c than the relativistic rocks in this story. And since both would lose velocity at the same rate, the more massive but slower rock should be better repelled by the gravity field than the faster but less massive particle beam because the rock would reach zero velocity first. Especially since as noted above, the slower rock would spend more time under the gravity's influence than the faster particle beam.
Except as noted in this story, the rocks ARE NOT on dumb ballistic projectiles, but have their own drives built in that keep adding velocity and thus can fight through the gravity repulsion field.
Think about it this way how much would 2G accelerate something in a few hundred miles? Gravity decreases with distance so theres a limit to how far out high acceleration is present. Not a significant percentage of light speed and the rock had 10%c.
Gravity will indeed have just as much effect on larger objects, but the more mass something has the more it resists changes in it's velocity. So no, several kilometre asteroids wouldn't reverse before hitting the ship just as fast as, say, a baseball sized rock would.
we would like better FTL tecnology please.......................ok fine yes we were going to use it to throw faster rocks but pretty please :) we wont throw them at you
What if we take one drive...attach it to another drive....then attach the combined drives to a rock?
@@christopherkortum5535 **MAXIMUM ROCK**
Break the rock speed record with making the rock ram at maximum FTL then have it set to over load near impact.
Unta enta ronk
1249 views
like 429
157th, 13 January 2023
F.A.S.
For the algorithm