Theoretical Sci-fi Physics.

[Hilary_155]

Howdy.

I never could use pre-made worlds. I want to create a GURPS traveller type universe where the starships are based on some plausible sci-fi physics that ceate.

I had a few ideas to start. I would like input from other creative people out there.

My first premise (in the time-line) is that the superconducting super collider creates a *new* particle. Normally, these particles exist at a ninety degree phased rotation compared to our universe. This means they exist in hyperspace. They also are created in particle/anti-particle pairs so only virtual ones exist here in our universe.

So this SSC manages to create a free (unpaired) normal (exists in our space) one of these particles (or many of them given some time). And we find out that if we put this particle in a torus chamber and accelerate it around and around it produces a bending of space at right angles to this plane. In other words, it creates a gravitational field. Depending upon whether the particle is type up or down (spin) or is rotated clockwise or counterclockwise (not sure yet what will produce specific effects) the force of gravity could be positive, negative or flat.

This effect would work visually similar to how electric and magenetic fields are related.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...mag/magcur.gif

The gravitation force is at right angles to the rotational plane.

So now we have a way into space that does not require massive amounts of rocket fuel. This is the number one requirement of any civilization that wants to conquer/explore their own solar system

The initial set up could make use of artificially created positive, negative or flat space (space-time). If only positive gravity can be made (positively curved space), then the device would be placed at the top of the ship and the ship is drawn upward toward itself. I think this would look silly but it is a theoretical result given the parameters I started with. Negative gravity would result in a field that is pushed away from (and would likewise push against) all positively bent space. The ship would be pushed form the earth out into space. This would also have the effect of pushing dust and other mass away from itself. The third possibility is that the new particle creates a field that makes space flat. It would nullify the force of gravity around the ship. While this by itself is not a way into space, if you put a few 2H2+LOX rockets on the ship, it could lazily blast its way into space not having to fight the force of gravitational attraction to the earth.

This are the three possible methods I have come up with for early space exploration for my civilization. Combinations of two or more could also be used. At first I wanted to use the Higgs Boson as the *new* particle, but it is supposed to have an integer spin number and be its own anti-particle. I am not sure I can make that work. However, since the Higgs Boson is supposed to be responsible for mass and gravity, it would make sense if this were it.

I welcome any ideas, concepts, critiques, thoughts, analyses, tweeks and/or related topics.

Thank you.

[freetrav]

Originally Posted by Hilary_155

I never could use pre-made worlds. I want to create a GURPS traveller type universe where the starships are based on some plausible sci-fi physics that ceate.

I think there are a few letters missing in that last word... and maybe a few words as well...

Originally Posted by Hilary_155

I had a few ideas to start. I would like input from other creative people out there.

The best advice I can give you is "don't overspecify". If you go into too much detail about how your magic works, you will overlook some of the implications of it, and your players (if you're GMing) or readers (if you're writing) will spot them instantly, and use them (or complain about you not using them) to trivially solve a problem where it's the worst thing that could happen for the overall plot.

You want a space drive that doesn't require you to carry 90% fuel and 10% payload? Fine. Declare that you have one, without going into detail about how it works.

In general, for 'hard' science fiction, you're allowed one absolutely inexplicable tech handwave, maybe two if your non-explanation seems like it could be a reasonable extrapolation from what we currently know. For the most part, the two are going to be a faster-than-light space drive and gravity manipulation. Add a third, like psionics, and you're stretching things a bit, into "space opera". A fourth loses you disgusted readers, who will call it "space fantasy".

But the thing is, in gaming and writing, you don't want to focus on the tech - you want to focus on the people. People who are pretty ordinary and understandable, in extraordinary situations, rising to the occasion. Because that's what stories are about, and what you're doing is telling a story.

You might also want to pay a visit to Baen's Bar, http://bar.baen.com, and ask about worldbuilding in any of the groups that are "author conferences". In most of them, the authors do participate routinely, and in most cases will be happy to give you advice on worldbuilding based on their own experiences. Should you choose to follow up on this, I strongly urge you to visit "Sarah's Diner", where Sarah A. Hoyt (Darkship Thieves) will readily discuss writing in all its aspects.

[malloyd]

Yeah, I think so too. Don't waste much effort on your imaginary physics - by definition you can't plug all the holes that make that nonsense, and the more ink you spill on it the more chance nitpickers are going to find a really big hole that blows up your plot. There's a reason screenplays are notorious for inserting [TECH] instead of actual words at points those things come up. What words go there don't actually matter to the story, filling them in with something that isn't too ridiculous is nice in terms of not ticking off the more technically educated part of your audience, but it can wait until the last edit, and editing the story so you don't need to fill them in the first place is often better.

Pick the consequences and limits you want the superscience to have - those do matter. But they go in your notes so you can keep them consistent, and *not* in the story/adventure unless and until they are going to become critical to the plot. How the superscience "actually" works doesn't matter at all unless it's the pivotal point of the short story. And yes I mean that length, if you are writing a novel where that's the pivotal point, start over with something else and save it for the companion from after your series is wildly successful, or at least the later volumes.

Edit - to clarify that a little, think about writing a story that involves an airplane. Nobody writes the details of the physics into a successful story. You may get a reference to the Wright Brothers working them out (the important bit is the colorful biography), or to the risks of vortexes to following another plane too closely or the uselessness of the control surfaces at supersonic speeds (some of those consequences). Nowhere will anybody mention irrotational circulation or compressible flow or boundary layers or Reynolds numbers.... At most you might get a sentence or two about the Bernoulli effect (which is actually wrong). Those are the sorts of detail you need to aim for.

[Hilary_155]

I do not plan to have the physics come into play for the majority of the campaign. I simply need a background for myself or else my mind cannot progress forward.

The authors of "The Mote in God's Eye" started with some plausible physics for their star drive and built their world around the limitations which that particular mode of travel presented. The book was heralded as an unqualified success.

I want to take a similar approach with my Traveller type world. Some of the players know enough science/physics that the flavor added from starting with 'plausible sci-fi physics' would be appreciated. But the main reason is my thinking process requires it before I can gear up toward GMing.

So I welcome ideas for how stuff works in a high tech space campaign.

***

I was thinking about matter. The elements are made up of up and down quarks plus electrons. It is plausible that the nucleons can be 'doped' by shooting some new magik particles at them and turning some of the neutrons and protons into quark bags containing other flavors of quarks? Or are they universally believed to be totally unstable?

This could explain bonded superdense. It is made up of heavier versions of the known elements.

[Hilary_155]

With regard to gravity plating in a ship as well as anti-gravity...

Is it assumed that this artificial gravity follows the inverse squared law? Is the pull stronger on your feet than on your head? Does it extend outside the ship? Do the ships collect dust gravitationally held to their hulls?

Power plants: Is it plausible to make electric by passing the plasma (hydrogen -orthohydrogen or parahydrogen-) created in a fusion reaction through magnetic coils on its way out of the ship? I am assuming that only a fraction of the hydrogen is actually fused into Deuterium, Tritium or Helium, the rest gets super heated and expelled from the fusion chamber along a linear bank of magnets.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Hilary_155

With regard to gravity plating in a ship as well as anti-gravity...

Is it assumed that this artificial gravity follows the inverse squared law? Is the pull stronger on your feet than on your head?

Usually not. Note that this isn't unrealistic for gravity plating - the gravity of a flat sheet doesn't fall off as the inverse square, for an infinite plane it's actually constant, independent of distance above the plane, for a finite disc near the z axis, it goes approximately as 1/z

Does it extend outside the ship? Do the ships collect dust gravitationally held to their hulls?

Rarely, the problem with gravity fields strong enough that stretch outside the ship is they end up perturbing planets, or otherwise complicating the universe. And if you are going to make them sharply discontinuous so they don't do this, it might as well be at the boundary of the hull.

Power plants: Is it plausible to make electric by passing the plasma created in a fusion reaction through magnetic coils on its way out of the ship?

Sure. This is a pretty standard scheme for building a generator around a plasma working fluid. The key word is "magnetohydrodynamic" (typically abbreviated MHD). It works, though of course all the ones built so far use ridiculously high temperature combustion gases rather than a fusion plasma.

I am assuming that only a fraction of the hydrogen is actually fused into Deuterium, Tritium or Helium, the rest gets super heated and expelled from the fusion chamber along a linear bank of magnets.

This is a pretty standard dodge for explaining why anybody's fusion plants use noticable amounts of fuel - i.e. so you can build a plot around needing to refuel. Though if you stress it too hard, you'll need to explain why you don't vent the exhaust into a cooling chamber and recycle the unfused hydrogen.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by Hilary_155

With regard to gravity plating in a ship as well as anti-gravity...

Is it assumed that this artificial gravity follows the inverse squared law? Is the pull stronger on your feet than on your head? Does it extend outside the ship? Do the ships collect dust gravitationally held to their hulls?

I don't know about the "official" explanation, but the only way for any artificial gravity plate tech to make sense or me is that it has to be generating a pseudoforce, like centrifugal force. i.e. you have one set of plates at the 'bottom' of the ship, and however it works, it only affects what is enclosed by the hull of the ship. Once you leave the ship (specifically the confines of the enclosed hull, which presumably has a 'grid' that generates the pseudoforce within it), you don't feel the artificial gravity anymore.

Otherwise you have a ship radiating a g-field of 1g that affects everything (spaceships, asteroids, planets, etc) within a rather large distance, which is not a good thing. ;)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

I don't know about the "official" explanation, but the only way for any artificial gravity plate tech to make sense or me is that it has to be generating a pseudoforce, like centrifugal force.

Not really. A simple system consisting of an (extremely large) positive energy density in the floor, and an (equally large) negative energy density in the ceiling, wouldn't do much outside of the ship, and would generate a gravity field inside the ship. Such a field would not typically have an inverse square effect, it would be similar to the electric field between two charged plates.

[Frankymole]

From vague memories of reading the official explanation decades ago, it's something to do with gravitons (quanta of gravity) though I'm not sure how they're generated or attenuate. This may be from the DGP Q&S endorsed by GDW and thus canon at the time.

There was a drop-off though, so the field attenuated more rapidly beyond a few metres from the plates. Perhaps it was an interference pattern of the same kind of 'vacuum energy' manipulation that M-drives use.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

I don't know about the "official" explanation, but the only way for any artificial gravity plate tech to make sense or me is that it has to be generating a pseudoforce, like centrifugal force. i.e. you have one set of plates at the 'bottom' of the ship, and however it works, it only affects what is enclosed by the hull of the ship. Once you leave the ship (specifically the confines of the enclosed hull, which presumably has a 'grid' that generates the pseudoforce within it), you don't feel the artificial gravity anymore.

Otherwise you have a ship radiating a g-field of 1g that affects everything (spaceships, asteroids, planets, etc) within a rather large distance, which is not a good thing. ;)

I've always preferred it to be a flow of weakly interacting low energy particles from a an emitter to a collector, in a manner not dissimilar to an electric arc. The particle flow being naturally attracted to the emitter, and pulling everything in the direction of flow. This allows for an almost-no-fall-off-at-all situation except around the edges, where emitter flow may arc out and back a bit...