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Q&A

General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.

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What are the Names of the Earth-Sun L4 and L5 Regions?

The Earth-Moon Lagrange points have names: L1, L2, and L3 are Libration Points, the L4 and L5 points are the Kordylewski Clouds. The Jupiter-Sun L4 is named the Greeks, and the Jupiter-Sun L5 is n...

0 answers  ·  posted 19d ago by James McLellan‭

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Does 5th Gas Giant Have a Name?

I recently learned that it's believed that the solar system once had one more gas giant, which was ejected by Jupiter some time in the past. https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/Fifth_Giant Doe...

0 answers  ·  posted 19d ago by James McLellan‭

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Determining a Practical Bridge Design for a Wide River and Heavy Traffic

Hello everyone, I am thinking yet again about infrastructure. (my calendar project recently asked about... well, that's outside my expertise, I'll get back to that eventually) And I am thinking of...

0 answers  ·  posted 8m ago by Bianca_Railway‭

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What Would a Femtometer Scale Utility Fog Be Useful For?

Utility fog is a swarm robotics concept in which a mesh of robots barely larger than a grain of pollen (5 micrometer ( $10^{-6} $ m ) bodies and 50 micrometer arms) are dodecahedrons (12 sided pol...

0 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  edited 7mo ago by James McLellan‭

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How to reduce tornados in the US Great Plains?

How could I modify an alternate Earth to have less tornados in the American Great Plains area known as Tornado Alley? Maybe make the Rockies lower? Introduce an east-west range of mountains or high...

1 answer  ·  posted 9mo ago by Aaron‭  ·  last activity 9mo ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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What are the Ground Effects of the South Atlantic Anomaly?

I was recently introduced to the South Atlantic Anomaly. As I understand, for satellites and space craft, this is a natural feature that can wreck space craft by taking even computers designed fo...

0 answers  ·  posted 12mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  edited 12mo ago by James McLellan‭

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How Could Golf Change in a Low-Gravity Environment?

Low gravity golf was invented by Alan Shepard in 1971 when he hit two golf balls 40 yards on the moon. Surprisingly, this version of the sport with little atmosphere and much lower gravity, is the...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  edited 6mo ago by James McLellan‭

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Could there be a way for a solar system to be very precise, so that the lunar calendar and solar calendar align?

I know that this is a bit silly, but I want to make a calendar for my world and I'm really worried about having to do leap years and such to ensure continuing accuracy. Inaccuracy isn't an option,...

3 answers  ·  posted 7d ago by Bianca_Railway‭  ·  last activity 4d ago by dsr‭

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Price's Law Sanity Check

Price's Law is a hypothesis that in an organization, or across an industry, roughly half the productive output is being generated by a number of people equal to the square root of those participati...

1 answer  ·  posted 10mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  last activity 9mo ago by dsr‭

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Considerations for Recreational Solar Sailing?

I was investigating a few ideas on recreational solar sailing, and came up with some interesting things - The primary equation in solar sailing is $ F = {{2 R S A} \over {c}} \sin^2{\theta} $ Whe...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by James McLellan‭

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How can Single Vision lenses slow myopia for adults too? [closed]

These WorldFamous companies advertise that their lenses can control myopia for kids, NOT adults. But none of these lenses are approved by FDA. How can they work for adults too? Essilor Stellest ...

0 answers  ·  posted 11mo ago by TextKit‭  ·  closed 11mo ago by Canina‭

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What are Some House Games for Free Fall? [closed]

Living in space can be boring. What are some good home games for people living and working in free fall? I thought of a few - Bocce : in this variant the size of the jack and the player balls i...

0 answers  ·  posted 6mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  closed 6mo ago by Canina‭

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How Would the Sport of Wrestling Change in a Microgravity Environment?

How would competitive wrestling change in a microgravity environment?

2 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  last activity 7mo ago by trichoplax‭

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PVA glue curing process

What happens when PVA glue sets? I am curious about the white PVA glue that is commonly used for bonding wood and paper. Although an Internet search find lots of articles they mostly seem to be ne...

1 answer  ·  posted 8mo ago by chris-barry‭  ·  last activity 7mo ago by James McLellan‭

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Meaning of Non-Locality?

Theory If I am understanding this history of this correctly, in the 1920s the mathematical process of converting measurements with a certain amount of measurement error into numbers, then doing yo...

0 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  edited 7mo ago by James McLellan‭

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Discussion of Aerogel Orbital Rings [closed]

Orbital rings are a proposed megastructure intended to dramatically reduce the cost to enter or exit a planetary gravity well. The ring is a solid structure, belting around the planet like a hula h...

0 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by James McLellan‭  ·  closed 7mo ago by Canina‭

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Are heat waves a symptom of 'rebound effect' after climate change deceleration during COVID-19 lockdowns?

During the summer of 2022 Europe has had several heat waves. As described in 2022 European heat waves: Climatologists linked the extreme heat to the impact of climate change, and experts predict...

0 answers  ·  posted 9mo ago by fedorqui‭  ·  edited 9mo ago by fedorqui‭

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Could grow lights on a massive scale replace 100% of sunlight for 100% of the growing season?

In a world where pollution and population have drastically reduced the effectiveness of sunlight to grow food, would light-panels be capable of completely replacing the sun? The problem I'm trying...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by JBH‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by KalleMP‭

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Making a hair cream without using any lipids/oils

Making a hair cream without using any lipids/oils, is it possible? What will be a fundamental composition of such a cream that it is easy to wash from the hands?

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  edited 2y ago by deleted user

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Could a high-pressure, low oxygen atmosphere reduce fire risk while still being breathable?

Years ago I read a letter in a magazine suggesting a method for reducing the fire risk in an enclosed environment such as a space shuttle. The idea was to reduce the oxygen concentration to the po...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Pastychomper‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by dsr‭

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The more horizontal a building (on planet earth) is, the more years it can survive a collapse?

The question may seem stupid but for someone with both a fear of heights and a collapse anxiety can choose renting/buying an apartment in a very horizontally wide building and a very vertically wid...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Could a laser using a "light capacitor" rather than a battery work?

The way this would work is by creating lasers & pumping them into a chamber where it can't escape. The power for the lasers to be created is made either with a generator or by charging using an...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by pootis‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Creatine supplementation as enhancing the natural production of Carnosine and vice versa

I understand that both Creatine and Carnosine are amino acid derivates abundant in Animalia muscle tissue and are both occasionally taken by non-aerobic exercisers to enhance performance. The huma...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by Pastychomper‭

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Is the combination of water and medical skin laser dangerous?

Many physicians apply numbing agent creams/ointments such as Lidocaine+Prilocaine or Benzocaine+Lidocaine+Tetracaine (BLT) preparations topically some 30 minutes before laser hair removal treatment...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Human elytra flying off a cliff

I imagined a person who's scapulae is overly developed and extruding outside the shoulder girdle like an elitra or fixed plane wings. They can be moved by shrugging the shoulders or rotated by rai...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Rhea‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by dsr‭

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High-Energy Exhaust Shielding for Far-Future Drive

Imagine a far-future spacecraft drive that accelerates its reaction mass to a small fraction the speed of light (say, 1,000 km/s). Say the mass flow rate to the drive were 1kg/s, and say the reacti...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Josh Hyatt‭  ·  last activity 12mo ago by James McLellan‭

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Is the Caspian Sea becoming smaller since the industrial revolution?

It might be that between year 0 to the industrial revolution (say 18th to common era), the Caspian sea significantly larger than it is today. If so, is there some graphical illustration as part of...

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  edited 2y ago by deleted user

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Was the total amount of water on earth ever significantly different?

Is it plausible to assume that the total amount of water (edit: water molecules) on planet earth was, in different periods of earth's history, significantly lower or significantly higher, or rather...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

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What is the best apex predator to thin the zombie herds? [duplicate]

A global epidemic of H1Z2 virus has rendered 95% of the population into zombies. The zombies have lost most of their frontal and temporal lobes so the following capabilities are either severely de...

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Green‭  ·  closed as duplicate 2y ago by Canina‭

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Scientific solution to bureaucracy-applied-to-humans [closed]

I distinguish human-identification from bureaucracy-applied-to-humans: There was a period in human history in which no state existed so no bureaucracy-applied-to-humans existed and humans identi...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  closed 1y ago by Canina‭

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Natural ways to acquire gravity and heat for a colony on earth's moon

Is a colony on earth's moon must be deeply underground to ensure more natural gravity (by getting closer to its core) as well as more natural heat? By natural heat I mean "without the need of arti...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  edited 2y ago by deleted user

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Why buy tech from the future?

The Demonstration You're a rich, successful CEO/capitalist working in the electronics business. Your R&D division is exceptional and routinely fabs state of the art processors at bleeding edg...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Green‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Jordan‭

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Is it realistic to see satellites moving across the sky centuries after humans stopped space activity?

After an age of highly developed technology, including many different satellites in various Earth orbits, humanity loses the technology needed to control those satellites. After many centuries, how...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by deleted user

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+2 −2
A single beam laser treatment to both remove hair and flatten a scar

In all my reading about laser treatments I always found laser treatments which can be applied either for hair removal or for scar flattening (or other unique uses) but I never came across a laser t...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by JBH‭

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+0 −1
How does radiotherapy destroys proximal (subcutaneous) fat cells? [closed]

From my prior research I understand that there are several ways to remove or destroy proximal (subcutaneous) fat cells: Liposuction (primarily removal) Cryolipolysis (primarily destruction by f...

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  edited 2y ago by deleted user

81%
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Why would a race constantly deafened by ambient noises still hear?

In a story that I'm writing, there is a giant waterfall which flows down a cliff face. The waterfall is extraordinarily large, and the torrents of water which flow over the side are deafening. Beh...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by DonielF‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by ajekb78‭

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If the poles ice would melt, would it be critical for human survival to try to bring it back?

If humanity will cause natural dissolution of all ice in planet earth's poles and the sea level would indeed rise tremendously all over the world --- would it be justified to try to "reverse" the s...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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How would utility fluids move and stay together?

The concept of utility fogs is actually pretty old. The idea is a swarm of fairly small micromachines (about 100 micrometers in length) that would be able to mimic most materials and objects. Each...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Mr. Mistoffelees‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Canina‭

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Cons of Antimatter Weaponry

In the story I'm creating, a major weapon type of humanity will be Antimatter based weaponry. This is a fairly new technology, as antimatter production facilities have just reached the size and cap...

6 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Dawnfire‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Dawnfire‭

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Keratin biosynthesis and human hair straightness/smoothness

Some people straighten their head-hair with what's named: Keratin straightening Keratin smoothening Keratin rebonding Keratin treatment It is an external hair straightening procedure in wh...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

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Digging Depressions in seafloor to create artificial islands in nearby areas

Should digging Depressions in seafloor to create artificial islands in nearby areas be sustainable And by the way, was it widely done somewhere in this planet already?

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by deleted user  ·  last activity 1y ago by Pastychomper‭

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Could life similar to life on earth exist and evolve in a large enough region of timespace?

Is it possible for a planetary system to form and support life similar to earth-life inside a region of 'timespace' (which is the space within a black-hole), assuming that there is enough space/tim...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Ichthys King‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Ichthys King‭

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Competently Mobile Photosynthetic Animal?

I have an idea for a land based mobile organism that moves and uses photosynthesis for its primary means of energy generation. Can a motile organism conceivably get enough energy from photosyntheti...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Cazadorro‭  ·  edited 3y ago by Cazadorro‭

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Wings going from locomotive purposes in juveniles to sexual purposes in adults, plausible?

So I thought about how my dragon-like species would get it's wings between the arms and legs and I figured that this would be the evolutionary path for such a creature: Hexapodal ancestor -> Q...

0 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by caters‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Lundin‭

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An alternative way to rotate or in this case rolltate

As far as we know Earth and every other planet in the solar system rotate around their axes. Whether it be Uranus which rotates on its side or Mercury which rotates perfectly straight, all planets ...

5 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Nanoshadow‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Matthew‭

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Plausibility of "multi-type transmissible animal cell tumor" to form more complex structures.

There's apparently a type of transmissible cancer that came from new world dogs thousands of years ago, the Canine transmissible venereal tumor. As I understand, this self replicating surviving ca...

2 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Cazadorro‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by sox‭

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A good discerning visual feature for female lizardfolk

So, when it comes to humanoid races, this has been a problem for me for quite some time. Sure, mammals (werewolves, gnolls, minotaurs, centaurs) are a no-brainer. I even decided to give tengu somet...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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To carry a person in its palm (like King Kong) how much pressure and at what speed would a kaiju need to apply?

Assume my kaiju is around 200 feet tall, weighs around 4,000 US tonnes and resembles a large lobster with two giant claws for its front legs and long spindly limbs with tiny pincers on the ends for...

2 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Luke Duffy‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Luke Duffy‭

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Detection systems and trigger mechanism in a pre-electronic world?

I am building a setting that is essentially steampunk,being exact it would be pneumatic punk. What electronics and electronic equivalent exists, are primitive and extremely expensive. Thus the majo...

5 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Trismegistus‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Trismegistus‭

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Creature that increases its own lifespan by killing other animals

An intelligent creature who's natural life span is around 50 years in which they need to feed to not die of starvation after which they naturally die. But killing other beings of their own species...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Kay‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Kay‭

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