Posts tagged reality-check
Foreword: I'm aware of the limitations of the square-cube law involved in sizing an animal up, as these limitations have been relentlessly stressed in every discussion of realistic fantasy creature...
I had an idea of a concept a while ago. If a planet that for some reason or another had only one giant continent like Pangea, but bigger, for more distinct habitats and giant lakes assuring isola...
Following my mutant thread, I'd like some insight on one of them. I wrote this first generation highly powerful mutant whose ability revolves around metal. (Context, skippable if you're only here...
Huldra are forest creatures from Scandinavian folklore, best known for their seductive natures. They are frequently depicted as beautiful women, with the additional traits of a cow-like tail and oc...
Slimes are seen as merely base-level enemies which don't really challenge the heroic main character, the Chosen One. My question is how to make slimes incredibly powerful without using magic. The...
Many people know that our blood is red because it is iron based. Many people also know that blood is blue or green if it is copper based. I'm wondering what color blood would be if it was let's say...
On Blue Planet 2: The Deep (at least, that is the title in the US version), there is discussion of crabs that grow bacteria on themselves as a food source. In the show, they kind of looked like the...
My world is far away exoplanet with water and some oxygene, but without life or plants, which means without coal and organic materials inside. High tech people from Earth come there and made some ...
Note: this takes place in a world populated by humanoid bears, where the population density in Siberia is much higher. The northern part of Russia is taken up by a country called Medwedia. As said...
This question is about a fictional scenario where an evil suicidal scientist has built a high-energy weapon somewhere on earth. His intention is to shoot a beam of some form of energy (or high-ener...
Set at the present day Earth, the daylight on average is ten times as bright as today, approximately 111,000 lux at noon for example and subject to geographic and the air quality etc. I am looking ...
Something in orbit around an inhabited planet blasts it with a hefty dose of gamma rays/x-rays/something else, killing everyone within a relatively short time frame (hours or days) but leaving no o...
I am considering the possibility of having massive cephalopods evolving on my world and having them fill the niche of whales. I've heard about how whales have evolved to increase in size for the p...
I've designed an alien race of bipedal humanoids with digitigrade legs. This race's advanced scientific progress means that they use traditionally human-associated technology, or similar (such as ...
I am asking specifically because I was recently doing a Doctor Who marathon and saw the apalapucia episode and thought "I wonder if that's possible?" So here I am. Is it possible to have a planet w...
The Orville has Mochlans, an (almost) all-male species. They reproduce in some unexplained method that produces a fertilized egg. The issue here is that if one of the mates lays an egg and the oth...
I want to create a planet with a deep gravity well, say about 12G at the surface. At first I wanted the planet to have either no atmosphere or a very thin one. But I want this to be as close to rea...
I want to create to create a ship that does NOT rely on rotational gravity to have a constant downward force on everything. The people built a g-force generator that does NOT induce gravity, just a...
On Earth, we experience seasons because of our planet's axial tilt. It is a common misconception that the seasons are instead caused by our planet's distance from the sun changing as it orbits....
I want this planet to be very earth-like on all aspects except for its size and the day-night cycle. The circumference is three times greater than the earth's circumference. The day-night cycle las...
You have a material that greatly enhances electric and magnetic sources or electro-magnetism in general. In this world, the material, is known to be a naturally occurring liquid found in geologic...
I travel back in time to the Big Bang in my time machine. I am equipped with all the present day equipment I need. I locate the infinitesimal 'point' where the Universe would come into existence an...
The Hegemony wishes to organise not only terrestrial games within the inner colonies, but has also wished to establish major sporting events for the other colonies in low gravity environments on to...
Scenario: Deadly virus wiped out 80 - 90% world population and it did it pretty quickly (in 2 months) Although it is plausible that among these 10 - 20% of survivors will be people who actually kn...
Tech level: modern - like Atmospheric pressure at local sea level: Oxygen ~30 kPa Nitrogen ~180 kPa (So roughly counting 1.5 times more oxygen, 2.25 times more nitrogen) Technically speaking ...
Mind control is a favourite tool of science fiction writers, it allows us to make certain characters do things that they would normally never do without the hassle of explanation. But hard science ...
In building an sentient alien that is unique among the sea of humanoids, I aspire to explore quadrupeds. For a quick visual reference, this is what I have: proportions are definitely off, but in ...
I am trying to make an original character who is blind and hunts with bow and arrow from a flying mount. (Obviously, no existing animal can fly while bearing the weight of a human, so let's assum...
What would be the best way to launch space craft/get into space from a northern latitude? Canada, Scandinavia, UK, Russia, Alaska, those sorts of places. I understand that being closer to the equat...
My fantasy world is medievalesque in technology. While healing magic exists, most centaurs do not have realistic access to it. Centaurs are your archetypal human torso, horse body. How long would i...
This question draws on an old idea but it is different. The original question is, "If everyone in the world jumps at the same time, will the Earth move?" My question is,"If everyone in one hemis...
How likely would a habitable world be that orbits a gas giant that itself is orbiting a larger gas giant? Assuming one exists, what are the likely conditions?
You all probably know what a starfish is. When a starfish is ripped in half, if each half has part of the central disk, then it can regrow into two starfish. Worms can do something similar, if they...
Around 100 million years ago, the Solar System was instantaneously encased in a massless, magical sphere centered about the Sun. The boundary is about 10,000 AU (.158 ly) in radius and behaves abno...
To put this title into context, there are actually two basic kinds of angiosperms on Earth, showing here: These differences in characteristics serve their own adaptations to survive and thrive. ...
In my story I've devised lore where Greenland becomes a US territory, and they begin populating the region. It initially just served as the hub for numerous military bases and airbases, but eventua...
I've been toying with an idea of a epic space fantasy where a certain area of the milky way is controlled by decedents of humanity that are born, live & die in spaceships, said "ngees" as the "...
I was watching futurama yesterday and the Le Palm D'Orbit struck me as a fun concept. How would you go about building a orbital restaurant like the Le Palm? What kinda shape would allow the space n...
For my world I would need a really large swamp (or similar kind of wetland). It should be about 200km in diameter, which should be quite possible given a large enough flat terrain and enough rain. ...
Permanent ice caps are formed when the rate at which water falling under the form of snow is higher than the rate at which the water is removed from a certain region either by evaporation or outflo...
The Aurora company has unveiled the new Interplanetary Airliner (usually simplified to space shuttle) offering both affordable and comfortable space travel to the middle and upper classes of the He...
Now, taking out the cost to produce/collect it, assume somehow we perfected a formula or find a natural source (because that is currently very prohibitive), how feasible would be to use antimatter ...
Huge numbers of genetically modified flying insects (purpose not disclosed here but it relates to affecting the whole of humanity) are to be dropped into the Earth's atmosphere from space so that t...
My current ongoing project, about which I've asked many questions, is about a world in which evolutionarily plausible legendary and folkloric creatures roam the Earth. One such creature is the sea ...
Researchers are developing increasingly powerful Artificial Intelligence machines capable of taking over the world. As a precautionary measure, scientists install a self awareness kill switch. In t...
With specific attention to national electricity power grids. Some pertinent details needed to answer the question might be. What parts of the power grid get damaged by such an event How do they...
Thinking about the question about Arcologies I was wondering using known science and even a little speculated science would it be possible to safely land a large space ship on a planet similar in s...
Let's say that one day scientists discover proof of demonic possession when scanning the minds of patients with unexplained mental illness. My goal is to write a realistic scenario using current-...
Let's say two super-intelligent, self-improving AIs have, for whatever reason, decided "THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!", and are now trying to kill/delete each other. How would they conceivably go about do...
So, in my story, in a prelude to an epic aquatic fight scene, my main character gets chased by a great white shark. He swims as fast as he can but he can't escape. Just to clarify, he's wearing one...
