Artificial Gravity

[Gadrin]

Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

My gut tells me yes, though I'm not entirely certain. Starship, no problem, but planet ?

The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

 

[Gadrin]

Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

My gut tells me yes, though I'm not entirely certain. Starship, no problem, but planet ?

The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi Gadrin !

Why not ?
The future is wild

And Traveller grav plates are just common devices.
Anyway, for safe movement we should not forget, that human orientation also depends on visual impressions...

Regards,

TE

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi Gadrin !

Why not ?
The future is wild

And Traveller grav plates are just common devices.
Anyway, for safe movement we should not forget, that human orientation also depends on visual impressions...

Regards,

TE

 

[Malenfant]

Well let's think about it - you have a natural 1g field and an artificial one at 90 degrees to it. The artificial one is created by plates on the wall that simulate a 1g field. But to cancel the natural one out you'd need to either block it somehow or create a 1g acceleration that acts upwards - how are you going to do that if you just have plates oriented at 90 degrees to the natural one? You'd need to have another set of plates either on the opposite side to the natural one to cancel it out, or plates on the floor of the natural one to block it. But I can't see any way that you could negate or cancel an existing field just by having something on one side of it.

 

[Malenfant]

Well let's think about it - you have a natural 1g field and an artificial one at 90 degrees to it. The artificial one is created by plates on the wall that simulate a 1g field. But to cancel the natural one out you'd need to either block it somehow or create a 1g acceleration that acts upwards - how are you going to do that if you just have plates oriented at 90 degrees to the natural one? You'd need to have another set of plates either on the opposite side to the natural one to cancel it out, or plates on the floor of the natural one to block it. But I can't see any way that you could negate or cancel an existing field just by having something on one side of it.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

My gut tells me yes, though I'm not entirely certain. Starship, no problem, but planet ?

The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

I'd say "YES!" to that. Not only would it be an interesting visual effect, but the security aspect could be done pretty easily. It would be expensive, but flash and style is what the elite pay for.

For a few more ideas about using artificial gravity as a tool and an art form, read Larry Niven's book Protector. It has a host of them, most easily translateable to Traveller.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

My gut tells me yes, though I'm not entirely certain. Starship, no problem, but planet ?

The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

I'd say "YES!" to that. Not only would it be an interesting visual effect, but the security aspect could be done pretty easily. It would be expensive, but flash and style is what the elite pay for.

For a few more ideas about using artificial gravity as a tool and an art form, read Larry Niven's book Protector. It has a host of them, most easily translateable to Traveller.

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Guess Mal is right here.
Maybe a vertical g-plates field with a 45 degrees up orientation could do the job.
Around 1,4 g in this direction would be enough to compensate the 1 g downpull and result in a g vector pendicular to the vertical wall....

Regards,

TE

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Guess Mal is right here.
Maybe a vertical g-plates field with a 45 degrees up orientation could do the job.
Around 1,4 g in this direction would be enough to compensate the 1 g downpull and result in a g vector pendicular to the vertical wall....

Regards,

TE

 

[Valarian]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

How about a grav belt on low power. Not enough for actual flight, but enough to give you a boost.

 

[Valarian]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
The idea would be a building that utilizes a planet's normal gravity, but also has walkways where certain individuals (namely security or celebs, etc) could activate a special field, walk up a wall and around/thru a big crowd to a destination. I'm thinking the field could screen out the planetary pull and keep those inside it "normal" in the sense that long hair, articles, luggage, etc, aren't hanging off at wild angles.

How about a grav belt on low power. Not enough for actual flight, but enough to give you a boost.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

Depends on what. Generally speaking, no, because most of the types of paintings you're talking about involve some variant on a Penrose Triangle, which is an impossible object, at least in any remotely normally shaped space.

 

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Gadrin:
Can the artificial gravity in the TU allow builders to do things like an Escher painting ?

Depends on what. Generally speaking, no, because most of the types of paintings you're talking about involve some variant on a Penrose Triangle, which is an impossible object, at least in any remotely normally shaped space.

 

[Piper]

Never underestimate the ingenuity of people with too much time on their hands
link

One way to pull off the Escher stairs trick would be to set the entire stairwell to zero-G then have a separate G field for each set of steps.

Personally, I would judge that so many overlapping fields would be, at least severly disorienting if not impossible due to mutual interference, but it would make an interesting art piece in a high-tech mansion.

 

[Piper]

Never underestimate the ingenuity of people with too much time on their hands
link

One way to pull off the Escher stairs trick would be to set the entire stairwell to zero-G then have a separate G field for each set of steps.

Personally, I would judge that so many overlapping fields would be, at least severly disorienting if not impossible due to mutual interference, but it would make an interesting art piece in a high-tech mansion.

 

[Gadrin]

Originally posted by Valarian:


How about a grav belt on low power. Not enough for actual flight, but enough to give you a boost.

Bingo, that was a 2nd item I was going to get to:

an acrobat's belt, something less than a full-fledged grav belt that let's you fly, rather than something that can cancel out a good portion of your weight so the wearer can do some amazing acrobatics (like Isoportation, or teleporting in place, adjusting their orientation in a eyeblink, etc). It'd take some specialized skills and practice + the technology but I think it could work.

Kinda give a Trinity flavor to a martial artist or something similar, walking the walls for short periods and stalling during other maneuvers. Wear a heat suit, float above a pyrotechnic display and rise with the heat from the fire.

 

[Gadrin]

Originally posted by Valarian:


How about a grav belt on low power. Not enough for actual flight, but enough to give you a boost.

Bingo, that was a 2nd item I was going to get to:

an acrobat's belt, something less than a full-fledged grav belt that let's you fly, rather than something that can cancel out a good portion of your weight so the wearer can do some amazing acrobatics (like Isoportation, or teleporting in place, adjusting their orientation in a eyeblink, etc). It'd take some specialized skills and practice + the technology but I think it could work.

Kinda give a Trinity flavor to a martial artist or something similar, walking the walls for short periods and stalling during other maneuvers. Wear a heat suit, float above a pyrotechnic display and rise with the heat from the fire.

 

[Gadrin]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:


For a few more ideas about using artificial gravity as a tool and an art form, read Larry Niven's book Protector. It has a host of them, most easily translateable to Traveller.

damn, another Niven book that's hard to find.

I wish he had an omnibus of his older work. Guess I'll have to scour www.abebooks.com for that and a few of his others.

 

[Gadrin]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:


For a few more ideas about using artificial gravity as a tool and an art form, read Larry Niven's book Protector. It has a host of them, most easily translateable to Traveller.

damn, another Niven book that's hard to find.

I wish he had an omnibus of his older work. Guess I'll have to scour www.abebooks.com for that and a few of his others.