Posts by ArtOfCode
Note: for the purposes of this answer, I have assumed no tech remains. If you do have tech surviving, then many of these steps will be easier. There seem to me to be a number of steps that you mus...
As Pavel says, brainwashing is a process. And it's a process that's been done already. 1995, Russia. The Cold War is over. Boris Yeltsin in power. There is some resentment left over from the Cold ...
The Technology We're in the year 2250 on an Earth-like planet. All the space on the earth's surface has been used up by the population of 15 billion, so we're moving into the air. Cities, along wi...
The pupil is black not because it's coloured, but because there's no light coming back out to colour the image you see. A pupil any other colour than black implies light coming back out, which in ...
Collapse. Gravity takes care of this. As soon as you remove the core from the Earth, you have a large void in the middle of it, and a lot of gravity acting straight towards the centre of that void...
Do it over time. On each rocket launch, you can attach a bit of the required resources. Give it some small booster rockets to direct it the right way. When the rocket is at the peak of its parabol...
You can do it most effectively by looking before you get there. Point your big telescope at the sky in the direction of your destination star. Record the image it captures. Repeat step 1 every mo...
I'll do a quick explanation of the impacts of Earth's axial tilt to start off: As Earth orbits the sun, it's tilted at 23.5 degrees. This varies between 21 and 25 degrees, but I'll ignore that bec...
Your biggest problem by far here is going to be getting other people to believe you. I'm assuming this mystical tutor is from the future? Given that, surely he must know that there will be problem...
It is possible but impractical. Double-helix DNA's structure is something like this: $$ \text{B "” (A/C/T/G) : (T/G/A/C) "” B} $$ where B is a backbone molecule, A/C/T/G is adenine/cytosine/thym...
The scales are fairly similar for each component you mention: simply, as you have a greater understanding of all of those fields, you are able to harness more and more energy. The fields you menti...
While uploading human personalities to robots is out of the question, giving robots robot personalities, capabilities and intelligence is not. So: Robotically Controlled Suspended Animation This ...
It's already been done. Two species of moth, the hawkmoth and the tiger moth, use not just sonic but ultrasonic signals to defend themselves from bat attacks. The hawkmoth has only recently been d...
Volcanoes This is the way that comes to mind first. Drop bombs in every volcano you can find, empower full enough to cause an eruption, and detonate them simultaneously. This does obviously hav...
You are going to do a lot of damage. To restate the calculations PipperChip has done: $$ E_k = \frac{1}{2}mv^2 $$ $$ E_k = \frac{1}{2} \times 1.89 \times 10^{27} \times 13000^2 $$ $$ = 1.6 \times ...
I can see a few methods: 1. Cremation This is already a popular method of dealing with your body when you've passed on (at least here in the UK). A furnace doesn't take up much space, and especial...
As user3453518 says, this could happen for a short distance by inertia. I advise you to read his answer; there are some very good points made well in it. I'll add some science to it. The formula f...
There is much the same problem with teleportation. Let's compare the two: Teleportation I am going off what seems to be the most accepted method - it's not the only one. You are taken apart int...
It's a good idea but it will never happen. Becoming one nation is a good idea in terms of interplanetary commerce and diplomacy. If we're multiple nations, then we are pretty likely to have multip...
You can look quite a long way back into the planet's history to answer this. Stars are formed from giant gas clouds called nebulae. When enough material accumulates in the nebula, it collapses und...
You might well be interested in my answer to this question, as it details minimum requirements. In it, I do some calculation to find out that to feed one average human for a year, you need 5110 pot...
Let's have a look at what methods of propulsion could be used. Sailing (wind) Paddle power Steam engines Sailing requires a large sheet of sailcloth attached to a mast. Paddles require big padd...
Air is incredibly light. It's hard to conceive of any materials that are actually lighter than air and sufficiently so to keep lift while under load. However, it might be possible to use balloons ...
Looking at the recent questions on dragons and aviation bureaucracy has got me thinking about some animals I could include in my story. I want these animals to be jet powered. One of the answers o...
tl;dr: Not without killing everything. Let's do some maths and actually figure this out. The specific heat capacity of water is $4.186 \text{ kJkg}^{-1}$. That means it takes 4186 joules of energ...
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