Activity for Slarty
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: How large would be the habitable area in a tidally locked planet? It would depend on the eccentricity of the orbit and the size of the orbit. So there are a number of orbital possibilities to consider. The problem even more complex because of a number of other variables such as the location of continental land masses and ocean currents which greatly effect the dist... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
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What is the tallest mountain possible in any gravitational environment? In world building it is often interesting to consider extreme landscapes "“ how tall can a mountain be on Earth for example. But what is the tallest mountain possible in any gravitational environment? Formation of the mountain may be unlikely in the extreme, but it must be at least theoretically pos... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
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Roughly how long could an 'Oumuamua type object get? Roughly how long could an 'Oumuamua type object get if created naturally or if created artificially using fused rock? What would be the limiting factor governing the length of such objects? Oumaumau was a strange elongated object that entered the Solar System in 2017. It is believed to have formed f... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
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How quickly could a rogue Earth return to habitability after a deep freeze? Background A large star makes a relatively close approach to a solar system like our own and the orbits of many of the planets are badly perturbed. A planet similar to Earth is in the wrong place at the wrong time and receives a particularly strong gravitational pull from the passing star that flings... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
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How to construct an Earth-like world with very high wind speeds I want to create a world where humans can live outside (perhaps with some protective clothing) but where very high winds exist in almost all potentially habitable areas making life outside impossible except in a few very sheltered spots such as large craters. How can a habitable world with approxima... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
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How extreme can a habitable tidaly locked world be? I want to create a tidally locked world with a habitable (broadly Earth like atmosphere and biome that humans could breathe and live in) band stretching around the terminator pole to pole. There would then be a hot hemisphere sunward and a cold hemisphere on the dark side. I would like to give this ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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What sort of world would help prevent an intelligent species from discovering evolution? I'm working on a first contact story set in the near future where an advanced alien species arrives at Earth and reveals itself to humanity, but is utterly baffled by the diversity of life that it finds on Earth. What kind of world and evolutionary development history could possibly lead to an advan... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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How do the Martians prevent salinization of their canal network In a previous question I asked if a world similar to that envisioned in the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs / H G Wells could exist? And if so would canals be a practical way to make the planet habitable over the long term? One of the potential issues identified with such a scenario was the prospect of... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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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 world very similar to ours. Would such a species find it easier or harder than Homo sapiens to explore s... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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How to improve the speed of ancient mariners My world is set in ancient times on a planet similar to Earth, but with a different civilization and different geography (and lots of canals). I need to find a way of giving the inhabitants better mobility at sea and on canals. Wind is not reliable enough as it may not blow and when it does blow it ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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How to form a huge natural plateau with a slope? I need a huge natural plateau to form but with a slope. There can be some variation, a few hills or even mountains here and there, but the ground needs to be mostly gently sloping north to south. It needs to be a huge plateau preferably 1000-2000+ miles on a side. The greater the size and slope the ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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What are the most important factors in determining how fast technology progresses? What are the most important factors in determining how fast technology progresses? And roughly how fast might that be under optimal circumstances? Innovations have to be dreamed up, but there must be other more basic restrictions on progress. In the scenario below I'm looking for the most important... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
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Can the event horizon of a black hole be distorted or destabilized by an extreme spin rate Assuming that there is a means of increasing the spin rate of an existing black hole, what would happen to the shape of the event horizon as the spin rate was increased? In extremis what would eventually happen at very high spin rates? Could an extreme relativistic spin rate destabilise a black hole ... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Planetary tidal locking causing asymetrical water distribution Imagine a planet of roughly the same size as Earth with the same amount of land, the same atmosphere and the same proportion of water (other planetary parameters may vary from Earth like) that has suddenly become gravitational locked so that one side always faces the sun. Is there any scenario in wh... (more) |
— | about 5 years ago |
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Largest artificial planet How large could a solid planet be (in theory) without becoming a star or black hole? Too much in the way of light elements would lead to thermonuclear ignition, but too many heavy elements would eventually cause gravitational collapse. Similar questions have been asked before, but in this case assum... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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Is there dry land on Earth if the moon orbits just above its Roche limit? Imagine an Earth-like world in all respects except that the Moon is much much closer. I think I'm right to say if the Moon were very close that tidal forces would slowly rob it of momentum and it would probably eventually hit the Earth destroying both. Although theoretically the Moon should be disru... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to stop a massive canal system from silting up? Based on the desert world from this question I need to transport around 500 cubic kilometres of water / year across a desert. Using this calculator. this can be achieved if the main feeder canal is 15m deep, 3200m wide and has a 1mm/km gradient. This gives a flow of around 0.366 m/s and provides the ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Roughly how much water would my desert civilization need every year? In my desert canal world all water is supplied from the poles to the temperate zones via a canal network. I want to work out the amount of water that that is needed, so that I can work out the dimensions of the canals and the flow rate in the canals. The total population living on the canal network ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How fast a current can ancient water way travel overcome? This question has similarities to this one but concerns canal travel in more ancient times and is aimed at finding an approximate speed of flow not variables. Background Assume an Earth-like world but with much less water. Desert conditions prevail over most of the surface and most of the water ther... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Can a 25 mile high volcano form naturally on a desiccated desert earth planet? The enormous shield volcano that this question was based on was held up by magic or God. It presented some very interesting conditions for alternate worlds so I thought I would develop that train of thought to see if something similar could actually exist without the intervention of Gods or magic. A... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to get an extreme temperature range between equator and poles without tidal locking How can I arrange for a planet to have a much greater temperature range between the poles and the equator without it being tidally locked? Edit: By "much greater" I mean the temperature at the poles in my fictional world should be 20 degree Celsius colder than the poles in our real world. And the te... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What methods might an ancient civilization use to desalinate sea water? Following on from my previous question here concerning the ancient civilization I have called the Androy and their struggle to survive terrible drought conditions on their planet. After years of struggling with having to dig deeper into an aquifer to extract water from underground the Androy encount... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What methods might an ancient civilization take to extract fresh water from great depth? I previously asked What measures might an ancient civilization take to protect itself from extreme heat? The answers gave some useful suggestions as to how cities could be adapted. For convenience in the next question I will call these people the "Androy". The principle Androy city is now suitably ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What measures might an ancient civilization take to protect itself from extreme heat? An ancient human like civilization exists on a planet like our own but warmer, with more deserts and smaller oceans. Climate change is forcing the daytime temperature slowly upwards. What measures might such a civilization take to protect itself from the increasing heat and roughly what sort of tempe... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to extract an object from 200 miles below the surface of the planet Mercury? In Stephen Baxter's science fiction Novel Ultima humans discover mysterious "kernels" which allow high speed space propulsion units to be built. The problem is that these kernels are only to be found 200 miles below the surface of Mercury. How (in outline) could these kernels be plausibly retrieved... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Would a Roman civilization be willing and capable of building large scale sea defences against a serious but unrealised flood threat? Scenario The straits of Gibraltar never quite opened and the entire Mediterranean basin is dry land apart from a few large salt water lakes at the lowest points 5% by area. The Europe "“ Africa land bridge has been slowly eroded and is now just 2 kilometres wide and no more than 10 meters high at any... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What level of technology would be necessary to allow a worldwide system of massive canals be built? Following up on my Martian canals theme from this question and assuming the canals can be constructed, I would now like to ask what level of technology is required to do that. The basic problem The Martians need very long and very large canals. Ideally 2000m wide, 100m deep and several thousand km l... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What would produce the most uneven but earthlike planetary surface? What planetary parameters such as plate tectonics and volcanism etc would best encourage the most uneven planetary surface on an earth like planet? I want a world to be covered in very uneven terrain, the more precipitous the better over 90% of its surface whilst still providing a good place for hum... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Would a steam powered plane be able to cross the Atlantic ocean? In a world where the development of internal combustion engines had been seriously delayed (for whatever reason), would it have been possible to power heavier than air aircraft by steam propulsion? And would this have been a practical proposition? For example would they have been able to cross the At... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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What planetary conditions would make flight easiest for both lighter than air and heavier than air craft? What planetary conditions would make flight easiest for both lighter than air and heavier than air craft together? The planet is earth like and habitable, but the conditions can be adjusted to suit within those constraints. The atmosphere should be capable of sustaining human life. By easiest I mea... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Is it possible for a planet to have a liquid ring? Is it possible for a planet to have a liquid ring rather than a ring made of solid particles? If it is, how long would it be stable for? If not, is there any other configuration of a liquid that could form a ring such as droplets or a mist etc? Else what happens to liquids in orbit (especially liqui... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Could the Romans have colonised the New World? The question of whether the Romans could have crossed the Atlantic in a storm has already been answered and the answer seems to be: yes but unlikely. Could the Romans have crossed the Atlantic in a storm Following on from this question I would like to ask if the Romans could have crossed the Atlant... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Could a large plateau surrounded by continuous waterfalls form? Could a structure similar to that shown in the image below inspired by Roger Dean's "Close to the edge" actually exist in nature? If not could it be constructed artificially and if so how? Assume the two bodies of water obscured by the mountain on the right terminate in waterfalls and that the waterf... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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How to form a world with steep sided very high plateaus and very deep depressions I need to create a world with some very high plateaus and some very deep depressions. The sides of these structures should be very steep and unclimbable. They need to provide an obstacle sufficient to ensure that the the plateaus and depressions are only accessible from the surface by air transport. ... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |
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Could canals solve H G Wells Martians water shortage problems? Could a world similar to that envisioned in the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs / H G exist? And if so would canals be a practical way to make the planet habitable over the long term? For current purposes such a world would have gravity and atmosphere suitable for human life, but would have limited su... (more) |
— | over 6 years ago |