Activity for roryalsop‭

Type	On...	Excerpt	Status	Date
Answer	—	A: How much smarter would bred humans become? You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to proble... (more)	—	about 6 years ago
Answer	—	A: How do you check if a room behind a door aboard a spaceship has an atmosphere/pressure? It would be very easy to have an indicator in the window or door that raises a flag any time the pressure on one side changes. Some sort of membrane perhaps, that would move away from your room if the other room was depressurised. I'm pretty certain something like this is used on aeroplane doors... ... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: The opposite to Worldbuilding: World Destruction I am surprised I didn't see this before (only saw it now because of a link in chat) but I'm even more surprised no-one mentioned my solution, especially in the era of fidget-spinners... Simply add a couple of large engines - I'm thinking Ringworld attitude adjustment engines - on pylons high enough ... (more)	—	about 7 years ago
Answer	—	A: Consequences of Portal-Travel One concept that comes up a lot in this sort of world (think Portal, Neal Asher's Polity series or Niven's Ringworld etc) is momentum. Portal states, "Speedy thing goes in. Speedy thing comes out," allowing interesting effects as momentum is conserved relative to the plane of the portal. In the Pol... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: Tidal forces of tidally locked moon orbiting a gas giant This diagram from ck12.org shows where water ends up on Earth. Yes, this is dramatically simplified, but look at the side away from the moon. The implication here is that you will not only get an ocean on the side facing the moon but also on the opposite side. Interestingly, because of the tidal ... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: What would be the traits of a humanoid being who would live more comfortably in modern society? I'd be tempted to add comments that have a differing assumption to a couple of your points. If the scientist wants to improve humanity in general, step one might be to shorten the lifespan until humanity was in equilibrium. This would need to be in conjunction with contraception, and maybe social ha... (more)	—	about 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: Would a circumbinary planet have a differently colored sky depending on which star was visible? Yes, because: Here on Earth you see a wide range of colours in the sky depending on time of day, cloud cover, dust etc. as the atmosphere absorbs and scatters different frequencies of the generally yellow light from our Sun. If your planet orbits a very blue star you won't expect to see the reds y... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: Possibility of a terrestrial moon orbiting a Jovian planet for the setting of a fantasy world Looking at current Jovian satellites, Europa and Io give you some idea of what you'd need to consider. Starting with the Solar system model: Europa is (as Aaron commented) the most likely candidate, but is probably too small (little under the size of our moon) and too cold - but it probably has a w... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: At what point does sensitive hearing become a hindrance instead of an advantage? (For a predator.) While I think there is a lot to be said for a predator having incredibly sensitive hearing being able to be traumatised or damaged by something like a much louder industrial noise created by humans, I can't see this working unless there was nothing that loud naturally occurring on this planet. So th... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: How large would an orbiting structure have to be to be largely unexplored after 100 years? I think you'd need to add a condition - something like once under the surface, remote drones or fast vehicles can't be used (insert reason of your choice) because otherwise you could very rapidly explore using small drones. So with that out the way you are down to people exploring - and the obvious ... (more)	—	over 8 years ago
Answer	—	A: All the rivers run west A long escarpment is a perfectly normal geological feature here on Earth without the need for a meteor, and in fact plate tectonics can also raise parallel ridges like this. All your model would require is a a tectonic plate edge with a sufficiently straight north-south section where the plate movin... (more)	—	over 9 years ago
Answer	—	A: How would tattoos fare on reptilian scales? The way I would approach this is to modify the cells that produce scales - and have any design as a series of scale shaped pixels. This would mean that the effect would be permanent, as each new scale grown to replace a shed one would retain the colour, unlike simply painting the sales. (more)	—	almost 10 years ago