Mike Surman queried:
> Another point I'd like to bring up is frictionalless surfaces. What
> would be the technology level required to produce it? Could it be
> produced with varying results, such as level 1 would be 10%, level 2
> 20% and so on, or is the nature of the material such that it would be
> all or nothing?
In terms of practical applied physics, we currently know of no
material or combination of materials, which, when in contact and
sliding past one another, are frictionless. Molecules are bumpy
little bastards, even in low friction combinations like teflon and
polyethylene, or steel and lubricating oil. Even in low friction
materials, molecules interact with one another, bumping and stripping
electrons and destroying molecular bonds, pulling and wearing away
both materials. The entire science of bearings is involved in
"getting the friction out" by engineering design (compare replacing a
sleeve or journal with a ball bearing) or by adding lubricants.
I don't think there will ever be a frictionless material, unless of
course someone finds a way to make "smooth" molecules, which according
to our physics, both newtonian and relativistic, is impossible. On
the other hand, who knows what strange physics the future holds? I
opine, however, that the nature of molecular interaction, (which is
the level at which friction is well explained), will not be subject to
change even as our knowledge of physics expands.
Even today, there are remarkable low friction materials. Most of
these materials have significant problems which prevent them from
being generally available for widespread commercial applications. The
typical problems are strength of the material (bearings are subjected
to some pretty hefty stresses), bonding failure when bonded to a
stronger material, and cost, to name a few. Given that we have the
technology today to make really low friction materials, albeit
expensively, I would estimate that by, say TL10, most of the problems
we have today will go away.
Why bother with frictionless materials? The area of mechanical
engineering where you want no friction is in bearing design. And true
frictionless bearings were invented in the 1970's for the european
space program. <The French Government (through the government
corporation which manufactures the rocket engines for the eureopean
space program) owns the patent rights.> Each bearing is custom
designed, so they are VERY VERY expensive. There is no bearing
surface - the components never touch because the rotor is suspended
inside a magnetic field.
The largest frictionless bearing so far was made for a IR gas turbine
at a power plant - the rotor (ie, the turbine shaft) was to the tune
of 10s of tons (I want to say 20, but I'm pulling figures out of my
memory - I really should go home and look the numbers up, but I
confess I'm being lazy). So size is not a limitation. Also, the
position of the rotor inside the field is actively controlled by an
analog filter (a frightening concept in this modern day of digitized
controls) - the resonance frequencies of the rotor can be filtered out
so the rotor can actually spin at a speed GREATER than its critical.
All of this is possible NOW (life is stranger than fiction...) though
at very large price tag.
>From a traveller perspective, I would say the frictionless bearings
become available at our current TL; the price tag, power consumption,
and physical size fall with increasing TL (the bearing is an
electromagnet - now think about the size required for an electromagnet
to float a 20 ton turbine shaft...).
Is anyone interested enough in frictionless bearings for me to go home
and generate some traveller charts for them? (I think they're rather
esoteric myself...for traveller purposes, I would just go ahead and
assume that I could use them cheaply by, say, TL12.)
I suspect I'm getting pedantic at this point, so I'll wrap this up.
Steve Higginbotham asked, I suspect somewhat incredulously:
> Why would anyone want to shoot a man in
> Battledress with a body pistol?
Would you believe desperation?
(Time to go back to my corner...before I get into any more trouble...)
Catie Helm
Finder Graphics, Inc. - A Schlumberger Company
Corte Madera, California, USA