[Spoon]

Don't blame me just cause some Sci-Fi use redicolous numbers that don't add up.

Don't give me that. Shields. Don't. Work. Ever. Write it down, engrave it upon the tombstones of every scifi author. There is no possible physical mechanism that can make them work that we have yet discovered. So they're magical plot devices.

The. World. Is. Flat. Write it down, engrave it upon the tombstones of every explorer.

[TrashMan]

Forgive me if I trust a guy who works with anti-matter on a daily basis  in the most prestigious science laboratory in the world more than I trust your assesment.

[Snail]

Forgive me if I trust a guy who works with anti-matter on a daily basis  in the most prestigious science laboratory in the world more than I trust your assesment.

When you put it that way, yeah... But when you factor in that there are loads of other leading physicists who disagree, then no.

[TrashMan]

Show me one who will claim that shields are 100% impossible in any way, shape or form.

[The E]

Forgive me if I trust a guy who works with anti-matter on a daily basis  in the most prestigious science laboratory in the world more than I trust your assesment.

There are a lot of steps between "Let's design a device that emulates Earth's magnetosphere in order to protect a spaceship from solar radiation" (which is totally awesome in and of itself) and "This shield will dissipate/deflect/whatever several megajoules of energy or this amount of kinetic energy". So far, there are no mathematical models for such shields or how they would work.

Show me one who will claim that shields are 100% impossible in any way, shape or form.

I will say that shield systems, as commonly portrayed in SF, are impossible, given our current understanding of physics. I just know that you will point to this statement and say "A HA! CURRENT understanding! You may never know what we might discover in the future!", to which I will preemptively retort: Please stick to the real world. You know, the one without handwavium in it. Please show me a model of how a kinetic shield can work. Or one that can protect you rom the radiation pulse of a nuke.

[Killer Whale]

a reinforced iron sphere twenty metres thick surrounding your ship will surely create a stop point for the majority of stuff that comes at you. Now just make it transparent and lighter.

[azile0]

a reinforced iron sphere twenty metres thick surrounding your ship will surely create a stop point for the majority of stuff that comes at you. Now just make it transparent and lighter.

Using that thesis, take a very thin piece of very resistant metal (different types for different roles) and sustain it in some kind of magnet-hold. In space, you'd simply need to keep it from crashing into your ship. As yet, we have no technology to disperse energy, but if there was a way to redirect it, say, instead of just having the laser 'bzzt' on your shield, the energy passes through and is released on the other side.

[General Battuta]

a reinforced iron sphere twenty metres thick surrounding your ship will surely create a stop point for the majority of stuff that comes at you. Now just make it transparent and lighter.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Now keep it centered around your ship, prevent the interior from heating, and work out a way to maintain any maneuverability.

[Killer Whale]

Exactly! I think we're onto somthing here 

[General Battuta]

Okay, maybe I should've put some sarcasm tags on my post. I was pointing out why it's silly.

[Dilmah G]

I think KW was being sarcastic as well Battuta.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

His post doesn't look like it...

[Killer Whale]

It was sarcastic, I may be wrong, but I consider myself a good inferer on Killer Whale's intentions especially in this instance.

[TrashMan]

There are a lot of steps between "Let's design a device that emulates Earth's magnetosphere in order to protect a spaceship from solar radiation" (which is totally awesome in and of itself) and "This shield will dissipate/deflect/whatever several megajoules of energy or this amount of kinetic energy". So far, there are no mathematical models for such shields or how they would work.

What makes you think a shield would have to stop both? Why not just one? what makes you think it has to outright stop it? How about muffling it (damage reduction)? Does it have to a be a sphere with constant output?

Sci-Fi has very different "shields" and I'd reckon a lot of people have a different idea about what makes a shield a shield. And this is even without getting into the semantics of what constitutes as a shield in the first place....

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Actually, TrashMan, I think the shield system in FS2 is more of a damage muffler. 90% of the time, it blocks off all damage, but there are that 10% of cases where it greatly reduces, but doesn't completely nullify, damage.

[Killer Whale]

how about warping the outsides of the shields around through the fighter so that the opposite faces of the fighter are at the same point, meaning the left side of the shield is at the same point as the right side with the fighter itself contained within the area which cannot actually be entered. Meaning that this shield is actually a field around the fighter which prevent any attack to enter the field seamlessly but also creates the field in which the fighter resides to cease to exist to the duration at which the field is activated, but there is not a certainty that the field will deactivate after a given period of time, making that part of wrinkled space-time disappear forever. But it would be immune to any normal sort of attack.

[The E]

how about warping the outsides of the shields around through the fighter so that the opposite faces of the fighter are at the same point, meaning the left side of the shield is at the same point as the right side with the fighter itself contained within the area which cannot actually be entered. Meaning that this shield is actually a field around the fighter which prevent any attack to enter the field seamlessly but also creates the field in which the fighter resides to cease to exist to the duration at which the field is activated, but there is not a certainty that the field will deactivate after a given period of time, making that part of wrinkled space-time disappear forever. But it would be immune to any normal sort of attack.

I didn't understand a word of that.

What makes you think a shield would have to stop both? Why not just one? what makes you think it has to outright stop it? How about muffling it (damage reduction)? Does it have to a be a sphere with constant output?

Sci-Fi has very different "shields" and I'd reckon a lot of people have a different idea about what makes a shield a shield. And this is even without getting into the semantics of what constitutes as a shield in the first place....

Fine. Let's define a shield as a device that is capable of producing a force field that somehow decreases the efficiency of weapons fired through it. Is it possible to do that, for either radiation based damage (Like lasers), or weapons based on kinetic energy? Are there concepts for such devices, based on real-world physics? To reiterate, please show me a model of how a kinetic shield can work, without using magic technology^*. Or one that can protect you from the radiation pulse of a nuke. Or getting hit by a weapon like this. Or all of that. I'm not picky.

^* Magic being defined as according to the saying "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

[Killer Whale]

It was meant to be complecated, basically a wormhole covering the fighter so that any shots travels through the wormhole rather than hitting the fighter.
Less basically. Consider a piece of paper with this drawing on it.

Now, what is the shortest distance from shield to shield? Why, a straight line of course! Incorrect. Turn the piece of paper on it's side.

Now bend the piece of paper so that the lines marking the shield are touching.

Now the shield has a very small size and the distance between one side of the shield and the other is zero, both sides of the shield inhabit the same spot. Now consider this 3 dimensionally, but you bend space time around the ship to cause this safety field around the ship.

Now you see that the weapons will travel towards the ship, hit the shield, and pass through the other side of the ship harmlessly. Unfortunately this wrinkle of space time may be immovable, impossible to make, requiring huge amounts of energy, unstable or any number of things. If it was stable, then the shield would last as a wrinkle in space time and the ship would be hidden from the universe, possibly disappearing forever with ship and crew. This may also mean any number of unpleasant or wonderful objects may be hidden throughout the universe in these wrinkles of space time. As no light could enter this field the fighter would be in darkness, unless it had flashlights, but then it wouldn't see anything. This also means the fighter would be invisible, but the fighter couldn't see it's enemy. Now imagine if that fighter opened fire. What an earth would happen to the bolts of energy? Perhaps they would escape the field and appear to originate from nowhere. This would actually be a cool story if I could be bothered writing about it or could in fact write. And yes, That was a couple of minutes of paint to make those pictures.

[Snail]

It was meant to be complecated, basically a wormhole covering the fighter so that any shots travels through the wormhole rather than hitting the fighter.
Less basically. In progress.

[The E]

It was meant to be complecated, basically a wormhole covering the fighter so that any shots travels through the wormhole rather than hitting the fighter.
Less basically. In progress.

Ooookaaaay. And wormholes are generated how, exactly? Especially the extremely selective kind needed to let harmless light and radar pulses in, but stop weapons fire, while at the same time allowing the fighter to strike back with his own weapons? You know, the things that make this actually usable?

David Weber introduced shields that worked like that in "In Fury Born", but also noted that in most cases they were next to useless, since the ship that's protected by the shield has no idea what is going on outside the shield bubble, and has no way of influencing events outside the shield.