Questions tagged [physics]
For questions regarding the physics relevant to fictitious worlds. General physics may be off-topic.
2,060 questions
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Life on a planet in a binary star system that is orbiting a black hole, how would it work? [closed]
I’m working on a fantasy novel and trying to keep the underlying science internally consistent so obviously i have some questions since im not a science person.
How possible is it for a planet in an ...
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Dust or pellets for a cutting spell?
There exists a certain spell in my world that uses a powerful burst of wind to fire a narrow burst of crystals as hard as diamond at supersonic speed, similar to a shotgun blast but in a fan shape ...
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What is a plausible way to fight global warming in Antarctica (preferably a megaproject)? [closed]
It is A.D 2050 and humanity largely fails to halt global warming. Tsunamis, heat waves, desertification - all very common in this day and age. Now let's say that scientists want to try something more.....
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For my story, I've theorized a manganese-gold super-atom that is supposed to be based on real physics. Can you fact-check the principles?
[Image generated by Gemini]
Essentially, I have a story that has a character with modern-world knowledge in a fantastical setting - and one of his main goals was creating a new material that could ...
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How to justify extremely ammonia-rich worlds?
I've been working on a hard sci-fi novel whose setting heavily revolves around the existence of multicellular ammonia-based life (structurally carbon-based but uses ammonia as a solvent instead of ...
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Assuming that production isn't a problem, what would be the easiest antimatter element to store and contain?
Basically my spacefaring civilization finds a relic left behind by a sufficiently advanced alien civilization, called the Inverter. No one knows how it works and I'm not even going to bother ...
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Could a universe be governed by curvature emerging from electrostatic tension rather than spacetime fabric —and just what would such a law then imply? [closed]
In standard physics, curvature is defined as the bending of spacetime caused by mass-energy. But suppose a different framework existed in which curvature is not a geometric deformation of spacetime ...
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Energy released by the sudden appearance of an alien obelisk?
In the not-too distant future, mysterious obelisks made of unobtainium begin to materialise around the world. They do not fall from space, but appear suddenly; teleporting into seemingly random ...
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Does human biochemistry change enough to cause death in higher-fundamental-causality-speed space?
Imagine a future scenario if you will, through ancient aliens, transapient minds, or phenomia humans have learned how to cause but we don't understand, a bubble of space is created between star x and ...
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Consequences of a no i quantum mechanics+3d time universe on human technology [closed]
I would like to start writing writing, and write in the same sort of framework as a variety of Greg Egan stories, that is, internally consistent frameworks of physics that probably aren't true but ...
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At what speed does the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation become lethal
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Far future humanity has set its sight on widespread inter-galactic colonization. Due to advancements in a variety of technologies, the ability to move at an arbitrarily high fraction of the ...
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Hard sci-fi: Could a Dyson sphere's thermal effects cause Earth's gravity to increase?
I'm writing a hard science fiction story set in the 30th century. I want the physics to be internally consistent even if speculative.
The Scenario:
Humanity builds a Dyson sphere that concentrates ...
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Teleport spell boom [closed]
So there is this teleportation spell. You cast it and disappear from one place and mostly immediately appear in a different place. Now what would the secondary environmental effects of such ...
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How would a Callan-Rubakov based drive work?
I'm trying to write a pulp-style hard(ish, I consider highly theoretical stuff fair game, so...) science fiction story, and I got so ticked off with the Coloumb barrier that I decided to skip right ...
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How to Calculate Habitable Area of an Infinite Plane
If you have an infinite plane with a star (assume the Sun but if you can generalise for any star that would be great) at a height H above the plane (don't worry how it stays there), how would you ...
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