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Adrian Tchaikovsky@aptshadow.bsky.social |
Physics/engineer types: what sort of principle/tech is the best bet for floating/suspensor technology (like the baron Harkonnen’s getup or any other kind of hover-chair, floating freight that doesn’t need a rail or something specific in the ground)?
47 replies 13 reposts 54 likes
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Time Spinner
@spinny.bsky.social
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Not an engineer, alas. From my old tabletop comes steel vacuum foam: a block of closed cell steel foam in which the cells are "filled" with vacuum. About 70% of the strength of steel but less dense than air. Put a chair and a few fans to balance and you got yourself a hoverchair, an airtrain...
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Magnus Hedén
@thewritemagnus.bsky.social
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I love how many of the answers are along the line of "Well, you COULD do X, but that would inadvertently have the side effect of [insert something horrible or comically spectacular]."
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Elaine Gallagher
@theelaineg.bsky.social
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Some gravity-manipulating handwavium would be best, based on "spooky action at a distance" (Einstein). R-t superconductors would need a strong magnetic field present in the space to react against; a magic-tech electro-gravitic field device would act against the present gravity field of the world.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Captain Safety
@stevesparshott.bsky.social
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1 replies 0 reposts 21 likes
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Mike Feher
@saxmike71.bsky.social
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MAGLEV.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Zeal Wierslee
@zealws.bsky.social
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You could build a large vacuum chamber out of something very strong and lightweight. The buoyant force would be proportional to the volume. With a ridiculously strong material and a novel way of shaping the vacuum chamber, it could be pretty interesting. Similar to a helium balloon in principle.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Simon Morden
@comrademorden.bsky.social
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Cavorite is the obvious answer. The less obvious (and my favourite) is a field-type force that attenuates at a greater than square root of distance, created by a point source working off a unified theory of everything equation.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Clavain
@nclavain.bsky.social
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Handwavium.
0 replies 0 reposts 17 likes
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diogenes
@philosophybot.bsky.social
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depends, is gravity considered a form of free energy?
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 🇺🇸🇵🇸🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏴☠️
@danielbowcutt.com
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Duct tape. If it’s not working, use more. Good luck.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Jim Rossignol
@rossignol.bsky.social
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I recall reviewing a book about sci-fi physics years ago and the physicists in that suggested objects with negative mass (which aren't ruled out by the maths around mass, or something like that) and also the idea of negative energy, which again is theoretically discoverable, but probably not really.
1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Matthew Frye
@purble.bsky.social
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TBH probably just hovercraft?
For individual floating chairs, honestly, this is getting pretty close: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPTS...
Otoh, hovercrafts rarely truly avoid ground contact.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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W. Brian Lane (he/him)
@wbrianlane.bsky.social
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In principle any particles emitted downward from the chair would also push the chair upward. The more novel the particle, the cooler the tech would sound.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Robin Johnson
@robinjohnson.bsky.social
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My honest answer: why DO you need them to float? Building efficient railways/airfreight routes/accessible buildings/whatever would be far easier and has the useful bonus of being possible
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Dr Lucy Rogers MBE
@drlucyrogers.bsky.social
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Magic?
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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@tujungadude.bsky.social
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It’s gotta be an antigravity field generator. Gravity is attraction between masses, and presents as a field to exert force at a distance (without a particle), so the tech “just does the opposite of that” Although, given gravity and space time interactions, it’s also a Time Machine. Hmmm.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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eschneider
@eschneider.bsky.social
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Oh wow...I'd _so_ like to answer this, but the folks I work for have, um, a related product in development, and they'd sue me into the ground if I said anything. :/
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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STEMLORD
@upulie.bsky.social
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If it’s on a planet then I’d say just a really big multicopter. Think of a drone, apply the principles to something g larger with appropriate mods. Maglev would be a nice option if the planet is uh say extra magnetic. Otherwise, engineer Transformers from electric bacteria (see my prior work on this
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Xyrathan
@xyrathan.bsky.social
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Honestly I think the best bet is to just call it something like "Jacobs-Eugendorf Field" and never explain how that actually works. Alternatively, "superconductors, but instead of expelling magnetic fields, they expell gravity". Though that honestly brings a host of other issues lol
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Kepler Orbital Cellulitis
@danbuckland.me
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I always assumed the Barons tech was highly labor intensive or the elite troops would also use it instead of the reaction gas propulsion they seem to use. Analogous to Roman tech that appears magical but actually involves slave labor underground.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Omar Kooheji 🍉
@ohmz.bsky.social
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How hand wavey do you want it to be? Gravitons are the quantum unit of gravity, as I understand both massless particles and a waveform You could in theory construct a device which emitted a waveform which cancels the waveform of gravity, or enhance/reverse it? Like noise cancelling headphones?
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Disagreeable Me
@disagreeableme.bsky.social
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How about a mechanism that produces and propels downward a powerful jet of particles that barely react with ordinary matter, e.g. neutrinos or dark matter particles. It would look like magic floating, while being basically rocket propulsion.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Sean Eric Fagan
@kithrup.bsky.social
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Without magic tech such as antigravity or Iron Man-like "repulsors"? Reaction -- fans, jets, etc. Or a lot of so-thin-as-to-be-invisible legs. 😄 Magnets won't quite cut it.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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T.O.Munro
@tomunro.bsky.social
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Maybe something more quantum that captures an uncertainty principle?! Besides a) momentum/position There is also b) energy/time Which means any space is a boiling mass of bubbles of ever greater energies existing for ever shorter times. Capture the energy and collapse it into downward particles?
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Rico
@ricopic.one
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There is real tech in development rn that’s for disabled and elderly folks that essentially uses suspension cables that follow you around and are reactive (e.g., stabilizing, catching). Requires rails on the ceiling of course
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Drage
@sonofsuntzu.bsky.social
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Not an engineer, just oPiNiOnS, so hopefully someone else will answer. I'm intrigued though, doesn't introducing anything like this into a world create so many obvious applications and ramifications that you have to be extremely careful about how it works while keeping your world making sense?
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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@wscotgrey
@wscotgrey.bsky.social
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Farts.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Séan Ó Conghaile ᚛ᚄᚕᚅ᚜
@shaneconneely.bsky.social
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If you were want to science up the the magic part you'd have to have something that'd flatten space-time, but that'd also give you a 'propulsive force' engine that'd let you fall in any direction and need stupid amounts of energy or do hand-wavey stuff involving quantum foam
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Jer
@jeremie.com
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In the same way the “invisibility cloaks” being made today are just flexible screens/cameras/optics re-projecting one side to the other, if gravity is just the process of quantum states collapsing, one could imagine something that captures the collapse on one surface and tunnels it to the other.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Simon Spanton
@simonguy.bsky.social
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Magic, mate. That's the answer, magic. Or some technology sufficiently advanced that it looks JUST LIKE magic, yeah?
2 replies 0 reposts 19 likes
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Something interesting
@realbigal.bsky.social
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Liftwood trees from Space 1889 work for me. When carved the right way they repell gravity. I don't need to know more.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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William C Powell
@willcampowell.bsky.social
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I have an idea that resublimated thiotimoline would do the trick.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Happyroach
@ericthetolle.bsky.social
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I vote for ropes and pullies. Or hydrogen balloons.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Verdant Core
@verdantcore.bsky.social
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Ire. Just a thousand disapproving faces under the freight container, staring down at the ground below, frowning deeply. That said, I'm not an engineer, as you may be shocked to discover.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Phil McDuff
@mcduff.bsky.social
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How advanced are we postulating? Electromagnetism can do this but it takes a lot of energy and something to work against. But F=ma, so what you could do is make part of the chair out of an exotic material with negative mass, or cause the chair to have partially negative mass when you need it to.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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I’d be inclined to go for something unassailably macro in a Banksian mode. He’d probably have said it was pressing on the zero point grid; for variety, why not inertial manipulation? The universe moves, and the system calculates micro-adjustments.
3 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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@elrondcupboard.bsky.social
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This guy: www.greatnorthairambulance.co.uk/jet-suit-par...
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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mayansanity
@mayansanity.bsky.social
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in one of culture books, when asked how a drone floats, it responded: "with ease"
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Sluggard
@sluggard.bsky.social
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There’s another example in the movie. In the beginning of Dune 2, the Harkonnen soldiers float up to the top of a rock in their desert armor. There’s no metal—it’s all sand. It’s either tiny hidden fans blowing them around, some kind of anti-gravity, or it’s just goofy
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Kathryn ⚜🦈
@loerwyn.bsky.social
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I'd probably say something based on electromagnetism is the most likely way it'd work. The other way you could do it is a device that somehow negates or changes gravity but that's definitely less viable. I'm not a certified physicist or engineer, FWIW.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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ABR
@abr.bsky.social
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Functionally, I think you’re limited to fundamental forces plus Newton’s third law and buoyancy. Strong and Weak don’t function at these scales, and theories that allow for cancelation/reversal of Gravity all end up crosswise with current theories.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Not Julian
@brownlion.bsky.social
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Depending on how sci-fi it needs to be we can already build a jet turbine jetpack that with sufficient controls could let you float. Would be loud, thirsty, and impractical. Alternatively large octocopters, drones, etc. can lift people too. But then you might be pushing into gyrocopter territory.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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bryan newbold
@bnewbold.net
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"swimming in spacetime" somehow scaled down?
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Richard K
@rkemb.bsky.social
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If you want plausible then you've got a limited number of fields to play with, and something electrostatic or magnetism based would need extremely large fields which might not count as "safe". So your best bet is probably to invoke anti-gravity or negative mass of some sort.
2 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Joel 🍦
@polyparadigm.bsky.social
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As an engineer, I agree an air cushion is the least bad; it requires a skirt but not actual contact. Magnetic fields require a specific surface; electric fields cause arcing and are difficult to make mechanically stable over even the distance of a hovercraft skirt gap.
2 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Alex Cochran
@cannotbegrouped.bsky.social
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I am obscurely related to Christopher Cockrell, the inventor of the hovercraft, so I feel obliged to pitch it. Perhaps with a new graphene cushion. No rails, fast, proven tech.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Ken Tindell
@kentindell.bsky.social
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If room temperature superconductors are a thing then a floor made of them would exclude magnetic fields so a fat baron wearing a belt of powerful magnets would float over the floor.
1 replies 0 reposts 19 likes