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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: nubbles526 on February 10, 2008, 02:53:23 am

Title: Floating people?
Post by: nubbles526 on February 10, 2008, 02:53:23 am
How the hell do they keep the crew and staff of the Bastion or Aquitane to stay on their feets? I think they have some sort of magnets attached to their shoes or something...
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: NGTM-1R on February 10, 2008, 02:57:04 am
GTA/GTVA have artifical gravity tech. :V: has said as much before.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 10, 2008, 03:06:04 am
Yeah. The same kind they have on Star Trek and Star Wars. Just believe it and don't think too much about it.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on February 10, 2008, 03:16:55 am
Someone add a "gravity generator" subsystem to Terran and Vasudan vessels. When it's destroyed :lol:...
Pity that you can't take a look inside ships.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: nubbles526 on February 10, 2008, 03:25:56 am
Well, can be done is PCS quite easily ;)

But I am very curious. Remember there was a cutscene where the GTA marines went inside the Azarel? Well, I remember that activated something...and I wonder if they use that for inside Cap Ships.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on February 10, 2008, 03:38:38 am
It's quite clear that GTVA vessels use artificial gravity. Lots of things are lying on the ground, especially in the Bastion main hall.
But it's possible that we use only a part of the Earth gravity: that small crane doesn't look like it could lift an Ursa at normal gravity levels.
The Shivans don't use gravity, and that's why those marines needed magnetic boots. "We" could be using them as well in the capships, to compensate for the reduced gravity levels.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: nubbles526 on February 10, 2008, 06:32:51 am
It's quite clear that GTVA vessels use artificial gravity. Lots of things are lying on the ground, especially in the Bastion main hall.
But it's possible that we use only a part of the Earth gravity: that small crane doesn't look like it could lift an Ursa at normal gravity levels.
The Shivans don't use gravity, and that's why those marines needed magnetic boots. "We" could be using them as well in the capships, to compensate for the reduced gravity levels.

You really ARE a FreeSpace Freak :P

The shivans looked cool in the Hallfight.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Mobius on February 10, 2008, 06:38:58 am
...or in the Aquitaine's main hall. Look at the spacecraft on the left and the crane that moves to take it away...

And do support ships use a magnetical system to reload?
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Woolie Wool on February 10, 2008, 03:30:38 pm
It's quite clear that GTVA vessels use artificial gravity. Lots of things are lying on the ground, especially in the Bastion main hall.
But it's possible that we use only a part of the Earth gravity: that small crane doesn't look like it could lift an Ursa at normal gravity levels.
The Shivans don't use gravity, and that's why those marines needed magnetic boots. "We" could be using them as well in the capships, to compensate for the reduced gravity levels.
The Azrael transport clearly did have some artificial gravity. The Shivans landed on the floor when they jumped, and the marines fell when the Shivans kill them. It must've had something like 1/4 Earth gravity.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: admiral_wolf on February 10, 2008, 06:10:16 pm
Don't big ships when they are moving generate their own gravity field due to inertia, or is this comicbook/cartoon physics coming back to haunt me?

As for support ships, I noticed on the Centaurs, they have a sort of black and yellow alternating circle pattern on both the upper and lower docking area.  Could it be possible that the Centaurs have a magnetic locking system when docking with fighters/bombers, and the circle patterns being doors?  That could possbly be the explanation behind the slight delay I've noticed with the being told rearming is complete on the HUD, and the Centaur pilot telling you that you are free to go.

With regards to m'learned friend's Shivan theory.  It is believed that the Shivans were wearing some sort of exo-skeleton body armour.  This may/may not have included some sort of mechanism for keeping our spidery friends on the floor instead of floating around rather stupidly in Zero-G.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: blowfish on February 10, 2008, 08:11:17 pm
Don't big ships when they are moving generate their own gravity field due to inertia, or is this comicbook/cartoon physics coming back to haunt me?

Must be.  Only rotating objects will generate gravity.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Flipside on February 10, 2008, 08:45:32 pm
I've always wondered, in low gravity situations, wouldn't the magnetic boots be as much to stop the gun recoil sending you into the wall behind you as to facilitate moving?
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Snail on February 10, 2008, 08:48:31 pm
And do support ships use a magnetical system to reload?

A magnetic stasis field IIRC.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: ns161 on February 10, 2008, 08:48:43 pm
Well if the ship was moving and you were suspended in space (i.e. NOT moving) the ship would move around you and you'd eventually be slammed up against whatever surface finally connected with you

 But that it's really gravity, its just...the ship moving around you.  But weight is related to acceleration.

The reason a person feels "heavier" in a car that's accelerating is because weight is directly related to that acceleration (im thinking back to high school physics here but I think the equation is w=m*a [weight = mass*acceleration]).  But that isn't really gravity and it wouldn't be useful at all since you'd be constantly changing whatever surface you were "standing" on why what direction the ship moved.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: blowfish on February 10, 2008, 08:50:45 pm
w=m*a [weight = mass*acceleration]

No, force = mass*acceleration.  There's a difference.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Nuke on February 10, 2008, 10:33:50 pm
How the hell do they keep the crew and staff of the Bastion or Aquitane to stay on their feets? I think they have some sort of magnets attached to their shoes or something...

magnetic fields in the floor and alot of steel buttons on the uniforms?
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: WMCoolmon on February 10, 2008, 10:50:10 pm
Not to mention unhealthy amounts of iron in their diets.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: General Battuta on February 11, 2008, 12:14:56 am
Don't big ships when they are moving generate their own gravity field due to inertia, or is this comicbook/cartoon physics coming back to haunt me?

Must be.  Only rotating objects will generate gravity.

Nope, he's right: all objects under acceleration generate gravity, since gravity and acceleration are identical and indistinguishable. A ship under constant velocity would not produce gravity; acceleration is required.

However, Freespace ships use artificial gravity, as others here have demonstrated. Acceleration, whether rotation (i.e. stuff spinning) or translation, is not required.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: karajorma on February 11, 2008, 02:24:43 am
Can we stop talking about rotating objects generating gravity please? They really don't. They generate a force on an object due to conservation of momentum but it's most certainly not gravity.

w=m*a [weight = mass*acceleration]

No, force = mass*acceleration.  There's a difference.

His equation is correct. Your weight is the result of mass multiplied by any accelerations you might be experiencing. That's why you measure weight in newtons (the SI unit for force) rather than kilograms in scientific situations.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: WMCoolmon on February 11, 2008, 02:27:51 am
Slugs ftl.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: Wanderer on February 11, 2008, 02:45:38 am
But that isn't really gravity and it wouldn't be useful at all since you'd be constantly changing whatever surface you were "standing" on why what direction the ship moved.
One shouldnt forget the possibilities that this offers.. Like the good oldie anti-boarding tactic known as 'gravity pong'. Especially when combined with rapid accelerations and killing the artificial gravity...
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on February 11, 2008, 09:41:48 am
It's quite clear that GTVA vessels use artificial gravity. Lots of things are lying on the ground, especially in the Bastion main hall.
But it's possible that we use only a part of the Earth gravity: that small crane doesn't look like it could lift an Ursa at normal gravity levels.
The Shivans don't use gravity, and that's why those marines needed magnetic boots. "We" could be using them as well in the capships, to compensate for the reduced gravity levels.
The Azrael transport clearly did have some artificial gravity. The Shivans landed on the floor when they jumped, and the marines fell when the Shivans kill them. It must've had something like 1/4 Earth gravity.
The FSRefBible says otherwise.

Quote from: FSRefBible
Emerging from the dark end of the corridor come 3 Shivans.  They are huge, easily towering over the soldiers.  They move both by jumping/walking and grabbing onto the ceiling, unhampered by the zero-g.
The Shivans obviously had magnetic "feet".
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: General Battuta on February 11, 2008, 10:06:09 am
Can we stop talking about rotating objects generating gravity please? They really don't. They generate a force on an object due to conservation of momentum but it's most certainly not gravity.

Interestingly, it is gravity. One of the tenets of general relativity is that no observer, by means of any reference frame, can distinguish acceleration from a gravitational field.

This applies to rotating objects as well, since the acceleration is radial. It's commonly said that centrifugal force is an illusion, and in the Newtonian sense it's a fictitious force, but when you translate the laws of physics from the closest available inertial frame into a rotationally accelerated reference frame, centrifugal acceleration 'appears' as sort of a phantom force.

And since it is an acceleration, and acceleration=gravity, it is for all intents and purposes gravity.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: karajorma on February 11, 2008, 10:54:16 am
Yeah I know you can't actually tell the difference if you are inside the rotating object. However someone outside the object would observe the effect very differently. A rotating uniform sphere is no different from a non-rotating one from a gravitational point of view. If the wheel was actually generating gravity an observer outside the sphere would experience an increased attraction towards it though.

I presume that if we ever figure out how to detect gravitons then you would be able to tell the difference.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: nubbles526 on February 11, 2008, 11:31:12 am
His equation is correct. Your weight is the result of mass multiplied by any accelerations you might be experiencing. That's why you measure weight in newtons (the SI unit for force) rather than kilograms in scientific situations.

Very good kara! You have got a A++ or 10/10 for the Phyiscs ;)


However, Freespace ships use artificial gravity, as others here have demonstrated. Acceleration, whether rotation (i.e. stuff spinning) or translation, is not required.

So the physics in FS is different from what Mr. Newton said.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: General Battuta on February 11, 2008, 12:19:39 pm
Yeah I know you can't actually tell the difference if you are inside the rotating object. However someone outside the object would observe the effect very differently. A rotating uniform sphere is no different from a non-rotating one from a gravitational point of view. If the wheel was actually generating gravity an observer outside the sphere would experience an increased attraction towards it though.

I presume that if we ever figure out how to detect gravitons then you would be able to tell the difference.

Ah, okay, that makes lots of sense.

As for the graviton things, I honestly have no idea how to reconcile the quantum model of gravity with the relativistic one...which is good, because I don't think anyone does. (Well, there are ideas, just no confirmed ones.)

So the physics in FS is different from what Mr. Newton said.

Uh. How does that follow? As Kara suggested, they've probably got graviton generators or somesuch technobabble. It doesn't suggest any deviation from the current model of physics (beyond, er, the ability to make gravity generators.)
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on February 11, 2008, 01:01:17 pm
Everything has a gravitational attraction to everything else therefor there is no zero gravity just low gravity.  If you died inside a ship and were floating near a wall you would be pulled toward that wall; although very slowly, unless the wall had a huge mass or something on the other side of it did.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: General Battuta on February 11, 2008, 01:04:01 pm
The attraction is, however, exceptionally weak, and it's not enough to explain being able to walk around on a ship.
Title: Re: Floating people?
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on February 11, 2008, 01:09:50 pm
Yep you would not be able to walk with that sort of gravity nor would you just fall to a wall or the ground any time soon. 

Now assuming those are gravity boots the force from being hit could be enough to knock the pilot to the ground.  Question is would he bounce.