We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction.
For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.
Another one would be slow light so slow you can deflect it with a lightsaber
Cymek said:
We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction.
For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.
yes
mailbopx —> mythbusters.
We want to see them try it.
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction.
For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.yes
inertia?
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:
Cymek said:
We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction.
For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.yes
inertia?
Not as we know it.
But it would be easy to set up equations that required objects to absorb a certain amount of an applied force before they started accelerating. That’s not how stuff works (afawk), but there is no fundamental reason why stuff couldn’t work that way.
The Rev Dodgson said:
roughbarked said:
diddly-squat said:yes
inertia?
Not as we know it.
But it would be easy to set up equations that required objects to absorb a certain amount of an applied force before they started accelerating. That’s not how stuff works (afawk), but there is no fundamental reason why stuff couldn’t work that way.
Physics in fiction also seem to be isolated, were you can have slow light from laser weapons but sunlight act normal
The Rev Dodgson said:
That’s not how stuff works (afawk), but there is no fundamental reason why stuff couldn’t work that way.
Actually I withdraw that statement. At the quantum level there is a minimum level of interaction below which there is no effect.
>We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe
Does the physics generate the math (possibility of too), or is math compution an artifact and product of minds (things that do computation) for example, and if it is a product of minds and such machines (things that perform processes) then isn’t it still a product of physics (the physics of the world).
The question, as I understand it, is “could we create mathematical equations to model the physical behaviors we see in fictional literature and/or media”
The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes’.
>The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes’.
Being transported through a worm hole to another dimension or time? Has to be a hole in the equation somewhere?
/* But it would be easy to set up equations that required objects to absorb a certain amount of an applied force before they started accelerating. That’s not how stuff works (afawk), but there is no fundamental reason why stuff couldn’t work that way. */
¿‘r’u kidding me? Did’u read the subject of thread, “physics from friction”, have’un’t seen mu_static before?
/* the quantum level there is a minimum level of interaction below which there is no effect. */
The effect is probabilistic, I’m not sure we need QM stuff to play it.
Read Terry Pratchett’s books.
Lots of alternate physics there.
transition said:
>The answer to this question is an unequivocal ‘yes’.Being transported through a worm hole to another dimension or time? Has to be a hole in the equation somewhere?
why… if it’s fictional physics then we can make it work however we want…
SCIENCE said:
/* But it would be easy to set up equations that required objects to absorb a certain amount of an applied force before they started accelerating. That’s not how stuff works (afawk), but there is no fundamental reason why stuff couldn’t work that way. */¿‘r’u kidding me? Did’u read the subject of thread, “physics from friction”, have’un’t seen mu_static before?
I thought it said faction, not friction.
But I probably should have said momentum, rather than force.
> We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction. For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.
First off, the mathematical side of the physics in some of the fiction books by Greg Egan (but not all) is phenomenal. In “The Clockwork Rocket” a new relativity is invented with the metric s^2=x^2+y^2+z^2+c^2t^2. Note the use of +c^2 instead of Einstein’s -c^2. Mathematical consequences include a speed of light that varies with wavelength, a universe that is finite in extent, as well as extremely interesting changes to the laws of thermodynamics.
The “momentary pause before falling” idea is an interesting one. Suppose gravity travels at a speed v_g smaller than the speed of light, let’s say that it 1% of the speed of light. Then gravity requires 4.25 seconds to get from the centre of the Earth to the person falling off the cliff. Would that suffice to get a 4.25 second delay between leaving the edge of a cliff and falling downwards? No, as it happens it wouldn’t.
However …
Let’s suppose that physics is such that gravity is quantised and hence transmitted by means of gravitons (in much the same way that electromagnetic forces are transmitted by photons, the inverse square law of gravity would be preserved). Further suppose that those gravitons have a very large energy. Then a person’s momentum would be conserved after leaving the cliff face and there would be no falling until a graviton was exchanged – and in that case a person leaving the cliff not only could, but always would pause before falling. Not surprisingly, general relativity would no longer work, but special relativity and quantum mechanics would both still work. There are subtleties involved in making gravity an attractive rather than repulsive force, and the heavy graviton would have cosmological consequences, but yes, it is actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula for that physics.
mollwollfumble said:
> We have mathematical formulas to explain the physics in our universe, could you create mathematical formulas for physics in fiction. For example the people fall off a cliff and pause momentarily before falling, is it actual possible to create a plausible mathematical formula to explain this.First off, the mathematical side of the physics in some of the fiction books by Greg Egan (but not all) is phenomenal. In “The Clockwork Rocket” a new relativity is invented with the metric s^2=x^2+y^2+z^2+c^2t^2. Note the use of +c^2 instead of Einstein’s -c^2. Mathematical consequences include a speed of light that varies with wavelength, a universe that is finite in extent, as well as extremely interesting changes to the laws of thermodynamics.
Thanks for that, molly. I hadn’t realised that Egan had released a new series.
For the physics of The Clockwork Rocket see:
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html
> Further suppose that those gravitons have a very large energy.
In the case of a human travelling forward for an average of 1 second from the edge of a cliff before starting to fall, a graviton would have to have a momentum of what? Perhaps 1700 kg m/s. That’s a lot of momentum, at a speed near c it would have to have an energy of about 5.7 milligrams, about the entire energy contained in the weight of a small fly.
Another problem would be that since the graviton only affects a small part of the human body, the body itself would have very large internal stresses at all times – perhaps that’s why cartoon characters are stretched lengthwise when they fall – a perfectly elastic body would be a great help.
If a human being travels forward for an average of 1 second from the edge of a cliff before starting to fall. A bullet, being lighter, would travel horizontally for about 1000 seconds before dropping out of the sky. Come to think of it, you see that in cartoons, too.
>why… if it’s fictional physics then we can make it work however we want…
like shift some proposition into ‘it’, a word substitution
> A bullet, being lighter, would travel horizontally for about 1000 seconds
Oops, confusing grains and grams, about 20,000 seconds.