Sulphur on 20/4/2009 at 20:40
Vivian's miniaturised thingy scientific instrument would work if it didn't clearly break the laws of physics. :erm:
Vivian on 20/4/2009 at 20:56
Why? It would just be a bunch of super-sensitive accelerometers joined together. We already have sufficiently sensitive accelerometers to detect mountain sized masses (if you stand near a mountain, your accelerometer will read the gravity vector as pointing towards the mountain ever so slightly). Take that tech and make it a billion times more sensitive and bobs-yer-fanwank, a useable mass detector. Then set it to look for small, moving gravitational concentrations and you're away. No laws of physics need to be fucked over (although FTL drives are still bullshit, I'm sure).
Sulphur on 20/4/2009 at 21:08
That's the problem, see. Looking at your potential big momma version for spaceships, if it works by 'pinging' stuff, then for it to be useful at near or at speed-of-light travel, the echo would have to travel faster than the speed of light to get there and bounce back before you reach it.
Vivian on 20/4/2009 at 21:47
It wouldn't have to ping anything, it would just have to be very good at detecting and defining gravity around it (a fuck of a long way around it admittedly). Assuming whatever gravity actually is travels faster than light, then it would work in theory.
... maybe the ping is just for effect?
Sulphur on 20/4/2009 at 22:01
Technically, relativity says that the speed of light's the speed limit for just about anything in the universe* including gravity, so I doubt that would work.
But yeah, if it did work, I'd want it to be a machine that went PING! :D
p.s. you do realise my post was meant to be a (rather awful) penis joke and not meant to turn into a serious discussion about physics, right?
*Unless you're delving into the subatomic level, at which point Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics swim by to fuck your general conception of the universe upside down and then some. :weird:
Vivian on 20/4/2009 at 22:07
OK, looks like you're right about that one. But the ping machine could still work.
catbarf on 21/4/2009 at 02:16
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Technically, relativity says that the speed of light's the speed limit for just about anything in the universe* including gravity, so I doubt that would work.
I thought relativity applies to mass and light, but not forces like gravity. I mean, gravity's not affected by the passage of time, so relativity would have no effect on it.
Phatose on 21/4/2009 at 02:59
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Problem with any sort of echo detection is if YOU move the whole thing needs to recalibrate with the static parts of your surroundings. The motion detectors could, theoretically, use microwave or ultrasound echos but they would need some amazing software to filter out the static stuff. And it would have to be amazing as any errors would be very dangerous.
The Aliens motion trackers are almost certainly based on the same principle as the one Ash whipped up in Alien. Which keyed on micro-changes in air pressure.
Stupid? Yeah, maybe. But it's in the script, so whatcha gonna do?
june gloom on 21/4/2009 at 03:32
Complain about it? I mean this is TTLG after all.
Sulphur on 21/4/2009 at 05:50
Quote Posted by catbarf
I thought relativity applies to mass and light, but not forces like gravity. I mean, gravity's not affected by the passage of time, so relativity would have no effect on it.
General relativity has pretty much everything to do with gravity, considering that it rewrote the rules on how we define it post Newtonian theory.
