[email removed] (Adrian Hurt) writes in answer to
[email removed] (Stephen Camp):
>Newton's 3rd law puts a stop to that. If the gravity generator is exerting
>a force on the ship, then the ship is exerting the same force on the gravity
>generator. Whatever is holding them apart is going to have to be pretty
>tough if it isn't going to get squashed. And if it doesn't get squashed,
>then neither the ship nor the gravity generator are going anywhere. You
>don't need a hefty gravity generator to play this trick, anyway - an iron
>hull and a large magnet will behave the same way.
The other problem is that of tidal forces. For a really powerful point gravity
source (read: singularity) which is that close to you, the difference in force
across the depth of your body will tear you to bits. Robert L. Forward
postulated a novel way of getting around this, though. All you need to do is
create a torus out of a black hole which is continually rotating in on itself
(as opposed to radially). You aim it at a distant star, fly right through the
middle, and because the forces are equal in all directions you can be
accelerated at terrific accelerations without tidal problems. To stop at the
far end, simply reverse the procedure. Of course, all of this can be
accomplished with materials found in the average kitchen...
I agree with an earlier poster: if the rules work, forget about reality. If
you or your players are such sticklers for realism then any game involving FTL
travel must by definition be out of bounds anyway.
Ian Davis [email removed]