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Q&A

Posts tagged reality-check

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Q&A Would roleplaying as wacky Nazis help my deities maintain their mental health while they're stuck in a bunker?

So, once there was a war between the titans and the gods. In the end, the gods' leader, Anon, found a way to permanently remove the titans from the world, but the victory extracted a terrible price...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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Q&A Is my "flying fish" world plausible?

In the story I'm working on, a rift in space time opened up between our world and a layer of oxygen in a gas giant at some point in the past. Eons earlier, a species of fish symbiotically linked wi...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Cthulu472‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Cthulu472‭

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Q&A How to create 'visible' space-laser-like weapons

Goal: Just imaging a Star Wars X-Wing fight, and you've got the idea. However, I want to know whether something like that is possible without tons of metaphysical hand-waiving and 'just because'. ...

6 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by subrunner‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by subrunner‭

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Q&A Anatomically correct Kryptonian, part 1

Part of the Anatomically Correct series of questions. Due to the nature of Superman having so many different powers, I wanted to focus specifically on one aspect of his character: the ability to...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A Can tiny astronauts reach space?

Imagine a species one foot tall that has a relatively large brain for its size. The species has human like intelligence and in principle the ability to build anything that we could. It lives on a w...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Slarty‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Slarty‭

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Q&A Can Mollusks Develop Bone Independently?

When one thinks of a shelled cephalopod, odds are high that the first thing to come to mind are the ammonites. They were one of evolution's success stories, thriving from 400 to 66 million years a...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A Feasibility of Larry Niven's Wunderland Treatymaker

So it seems that the Nuclear Handgun, Powergun and Absorbic Bomb have all been busted, but this one might be more interesting, Larry Niven's Wunderland Treatymaker. Description of how the weapon (...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by CYCLOPSCORE‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by CYCLOPSCORE‭

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Q&A Are continent wide forest fires possible?

The setting I have in mind is an Earth-similar planet which has most of its landmass covered in forests. A civil conflict on this planet ingnites forests fires, which then spread. I was wondering i...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by nayrmetria‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by nayrmetria‭

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Q&A How would one build a refrigerator to survive a nuke?

It's 2016, but for some reason, the Cold War never ended. You've been inspired by your (for some inexplicable reason) favorite movie, Indiana Jones 4, to start a new business: building refrigerator...

8 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by STARGATEBG‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by STARGATEBG‭

Question reality-check
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Q&A An anatomically correct Jaculus?

Unless I am mistaken, a Jaculus, also called a javelin snake, is a creature found in Roman myth, described as a snake that hurls itself from trees and impales its prey. Its head is usually describe...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Blueblood‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Blueblood‭

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Rigorous Science Neodymium magnets as nanoparticles bonded with atmospheric amide to create a magnetic 'air curtain'?

Amide bonds are extremely stable and their half-life for hydrolysis in neutral aqueous solution is estimated to be seven years. Amides bind to metal ions through the carbonyl oxygen. Neodymium Mag...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Would a warhorse allow its rider to approach a Dragon at all?

Would a horse (trained or otherwise) not be wholly spooked by a Dragon merely flying overhead, even more so trying to enter combat with it or just trying to approach it under any circumstances? Wh...

9 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by SupernalPhantasia‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by SupernalPhantasia‭

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Q&A Would sea levels drop in a Younger Dryas-type event?

I was imagining a sort of post-apocalyptic/collapse setting, where a few centuries of climate catastrophes brought on by climate change cause essentially your general end of the world as we know it...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by ImpirrenRyRy‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by ImpirrenRyRy‭

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Q&A A supercomputer around the sun

I wish to build a sort of Dyson swarm around the sun. Not to transmit energy, but to put supercomputers in each satellite so they can calculate spatial trajectories. The main idea of the project i...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by PatJ‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by PatJ‭

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Q&A Modified stem cells as a resuscitation serum after death by cyanide poisoning?

In large doses, the body's ability to change cyanide into thiocyanate is overwhelmed. Large doses of cyanide prevent cells from using oxygen and eventually these cells die. The heart, respiratory s...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Rigorous Science Can an Unstable Ternary Star System Last Several Hundred Years?

After reading the following question, I know that there are not that many solutions to the 3-body problem, and I know that a ternary system is unstable. The 3 stars all orbit each other in a rotati...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A Scientifically Plausible Reincarnation?

Is it scientifically plausible for reincarnation to exist? When I think of reincarnation I am thinking of the following: Memories, personality, biases, opinions and feelings carry over from one ...

16 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by James‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by James‭

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Q&A Would ablation be an effective way to redirect objects in space?

So I'm writing a story set in the close(ish) future(say 2130), and space debris is starting to be a real problem. Stations in orbit are constantly having to maneuver out of the paths of orbital deb...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Jetscooters‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Jetscooters‭

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Q&A Could burning debris keep burning in space?

To have a fire you need three things: oxygen, heat and flammable material, therefore the cold vacuum of space is the last place you would expect something to burn. I was, however, wondering if a ve...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Nikolaj‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Nikolaj‭

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Q&A Space station debris

What happens to small pieces of debris left floating around inside a derelict space station? My space station had 100 people aboard, and due to sabotage, it decompressed and was abandoned. Inside...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Innovine‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Innovine‭

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Q&A How do spaceship-mounted railguns not destroy the ships firing them?

And I'm not talking about the wimpy 32"‰MJ kind we have in the real world, I'm talking about the superweapon kind. Anyone familiar with Knights of Sidonia and their flagship's Heavy Mass Cannons wi...

11 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

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Q&A Feasibility of coilgun system for sub-luminar interplanetary transport

My story is set within one solar system, which can be assumed to have a similar composition to that of our own: one Class G star, a handful of rocky inner planets and a handful of gas giants on the...

11 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by enpaul‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by enpaul‭

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Q&A Doing chemistry under water?

Aquatic races are usually assumed to be stunted in technological development by the inability to create fire or forge metals. But what about doing chemistry at all? The development of chemistry i...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Logan R. Kearsley‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Logan R. Kearsley‭

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Q&A What star can give an earth-like planet a 1-day year?

I did the orbital period for a planet orbiting a mass = 1 sol with a 24-hour year, it's got a semi-major axis of 1.82 million miles - far and away beyond the Roche limit, still beyond the corona, b...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭

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Q&A Humans born without legs: how would they thrive?

or, Anatomically Correct Weebles A group of behaviorally modern humans was cut off from the rest of the earth-like planet millennia ago. (Myths hold that the separation occurred four to five ka BP...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by PinoBatch‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by PinoBatch‭

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Q&A Is It Possible for a Universally-Executable Virus to be Written in Binary?

In my world, there was a man that wrote a virus in binary code - which in turn infects every computer-based system in the world, as long as it is connected to the internet. Is this even possible? ...

8 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A How plausible is an Alcubierre drive, really?

Like on a scale of one to ten, how plausible are Alcubierre drives in terms of our current understanding of physics? Plausible enough to be considered "hard sci-fi", or are they just another form o...

7 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Z.Schroeder‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Z.Schroeder‭

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Q&A Could a "bouncy planet" work in principle?

Would it be possible to have a planet created by a God - but still obeying the known laws of physics - to have a bouncy surface that would be strong enough to bounce any large incoming matter, like...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Snowshard‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Snowshard‭

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Q&A Perils of having a moon consisting of valuable material

In the 1960s we were disappointed to find that the moon is a pile of dust and rubble with no easily accessible valuable materials. Well, we kind of knew it before that, but we weren't sure. Anyway,...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Solar Bear‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Solar Bear‭

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Q&A Tunnels under the ocean

So I build a city on the ocean floor out of handwavium, Bioshock style, but I want an easier way to get there besides taking a boat to the middle of nowhere and then getting into a submersible. I...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by AndyD273‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by AndyD273‭

Question reality-check mines
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Q&A How to have habitable hollows on a planet

In the world that I am making there are hollows all over the planet, which are massive underground subterranean areas of the planet. Think The Hollow of the Gears Of War series. So far the going th...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by anthony gutierrez‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by anthony gutierrez‭

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Q&A Can two moons orbit each other while orbiting a much larger planet?

Trying to work out mechanics and visuals from one of two moons orbiting a gas giant. My idea is that the moons are tidally locked so they can never see each other's backsides, but this might be ach...

4 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by CatParty88‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by CatParty88‭

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Q&A Would mountains made of diamond erode?

So diamonds are the hardest natural substance, but can be broken/shattered by impacts. If a planet had a large mountain range made of diamond (maybe the size of the Rocky Mountains on Earth), wou...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by cometaryorbit‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by cometaryorbit‭

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Q&A Is there a possible way that humans could experience rapid physical transformation into something more animalistic?

Physical transformation relies on evolution, which typically works n the scale of millions of years and in accordance with environmental needs. However, is there any plausible way maybe through th...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Space_Cadet‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Space_Cadet‭

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Q&A Dietary Requirements of Giant Spiders

Giant Spiders are a traditional element of fantasy worlds. They prey upon most human's primal fears, and are easy to make as evil as possible. (Note: Not to scale) But are they actually plausib...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Danny Reagan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Danny Reagan‭

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Q&A Can a human crew handle cyclic extended high relativistic speed operations?

This question hopes to make a space tug crew's life tolerable. A supply pipeline links two civilizations. Due to the long travel time between the ends, cargo is "thrown" at the other side in unman...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭

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Rigorous Science Solving the biggest problem of relativistic interstellar spacecrafts

In FTL-free universes, interstellar travel is often done by vessels capable of continuous acceleration (the drives themselves are often magitech), which can use the effects of relativistic time dil...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by TheDyingOfLight‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by TheDyingOfLight‭

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Q&A Can a Robotic Eyeball Be Created that Perfectly Replicates Human Vision?

In my world, a "perfect" robotic eyeball has been created. This eyeball is electronic, but it emulates a human eye perfectly. This does not necessarily mean that it has millions of synthetic cones...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭

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Q&A Another Giant Tree Attempt

I want to propose a new method for tree growth to exceed the max of 120 or 130 meters restricted by Earth's gravity. I propose for the tree to rely very little on its base or roots. The living part...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Thalassan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Thalassan‭

Question reality-check flora
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Q&A Is a Heliostationary Receiver realistic?

Advance our technology 200 years, develop very precise celestial navigation controls and very efficient nuclear reactors. Distill to ensure only the most stable elements are used in production, cos...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Vogon Poet‭

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Q&A Consequences of a creature with exposed musculature

In the video game Dino Crisis 3, a recurring boss that the player fights called the Australis (a bio-engineered human-Tyrannosaurus Rex hybrid) that has skin exposing the muscles of its body. An in...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭

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Q&A Can a biological laser exist?

We know that Earth creatures can generate high-voltage electricity (your nearest electric eel can attest to that). We also know that ordinary air at Earth atmospheric pressure can be used as a las...

10 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Shalvenay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Shalvenay‭

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Q&A Could a government control its people using frequencies?

Setting: Earth, in the future, near 2060 or 2100 Technology: a bit more advanced than ours Armies and police forces are already using systems for crowd control. Some devices can generate disco...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Vincent‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Vincent‭

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Q&A How to Justify the Enfield's Long Claws

Here is Carolina Lang's interpretation of one of Britain's heraldic beasts, the enfield: For anyone not familiar with the creature, here's A Book of Creatures' basic description of it: It ha...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Q&A Is Superman a peeping Tom? or Would x-ray vision be biologically reasonable?

Real x-ray vision, the ability to (at least) detect X-rays as a 'visible' light (or any other detection system) seems it would be very problematic. X-Rays are a high energy form of electromagnetic ...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by bowlturner‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by bowlturner‭

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Q&A Would that heat-engine provide power to the colony on Titan?

I have an idea for an energy source for a colony on a cold world with not enough solar power. Is my idea workable, or is it debunked as perpetual motion machine? Here is the set-up and my plan: Sc...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Christmas Snow‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Christmas Snow‭

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Q&A Could this method of moving planets work?

In my last question about methods of deflecting a rogue planet, there was a fascinating answer from Willk. Willk basically suggested that if you knew the location, mass and velocity of objects in ...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Wiggo the Wookie‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Wiggo the Wookie‭

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Q&A Energy manipulating superhero -- how would it work

I want to make a superhero that can control all forms of energy. From what I've heard you can do a lot like, manipulate time and space, open blackholes, teleport, shape shift, and manipulate matter...

4 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Aaron Tuturro‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Aaron Tuturro‭

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Q&A How can a race that relies on echo location to "see" protect against sonic weapons?

I am interested in adding a race that relies on echolocation to sense the world around them in my scfi/fantasy setting. What I'm wondering is, how can a race protect against highly advanced sonic ...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Seraphim‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Seraphim‭

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Q&A Is it possible to surf on molasses?

I recently came into possession of a rather large mass of molasses due to a misunderstood Alexa inquiry and since the restocking fee is outrageous, I plan on using it to answer a nagging question I...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Glen Pierce‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Glen Pierce‭