I hate to duck into these techno debates, but I have a few questions and/or
comments about this one involving the force field generator.
>I propose that a black globe reduces any factor of "g" (the gravitational
>constant) from external bodies, to zero. This makes any black globe
>maintain its proper motion with respect to the universe at large. Thus this
>Vargr black globe would not be staying in Tuglikki 0904 but would be
>travelling at some velocity (probably large) depending on the proper motion
>of the star system it is in, depending on the proper motion of the galaxy,
>and depending on the proper motion of the galactic cluster!
Ummm, proper motion relative to what frame of reference? I vaguely
recall something from freshman physics that there is no universal frame
of reference...proper motion is always relative to _something_, and
I vaguely recall that this something can be picked arbitrarily. There
shouldn't be a universe at large frame of reference then, right?
Maybe I'm wrong -- one of you physics majors might want to jump in here.
[Right on, in Einsteinian General Relativity, all frames of reference
are valid - there is no "master" frame of reference. The Universe's
rules apparently hold true for all observers, and there is no underlying
"grid" or "mesh" to the Universe that is special or fixed. All events
in the Universe happen relative to each other. Nonetheless, there are
several holes in EGR in Traveller. Perhaps there is a non-relativistic
universal frame of reference available through a small oversight in
Einsteinian theory. How else can you suspend your disbelief that matter
can travel faster than light? That reactionless thrusters can function?
How many holes and hand-waving you permit in your campaign is a function
of the Player's and Ref's ability to suspend their disbelief. -- James]
Another question for physics majors...can the PE problem be gotten rid of
if the potential energy of a system involving a large body and a bg'ed
ship is set at zero for the ship arbitrarily, and the PE is assigned to
the planet whose gravity the ship is falling into? Then the ship would
just have to worry about the KE when the planet hit it, right? (Sort
of thinking about the problem backwards.) It's been a while, so I may
be missing something important here....but if that works, maybe it solves
the problems about approaching planets.
Personally, if I was using a globe, I'd be worried about KE weapons --
but then, it might be a bad idea to have it on a high rate of flicker
if I thought they knew where I was. Then again, if it can nail the
capacitors, it can probably get me anyway!
- - --Steve