Grrl Power #654 – Dejectory
It’s easy to take for granted that smart people in comics (and books, tv, etc) are smart because we see them standing in front of a big board of math – usually a clear board, which looks fancy and futuristic but would probably give you a headache trying to not focus through it. >cough< But the actual smart stuff is always off screen. We never see the process because the writers aren’t as smart as, for example, Reed Richards, who invented a time machine in, like, issue 2 of the Fantastic Four. But even if the writer wants to do a bunch of research just to even have the right equation on the big board for the 0.03% of the audience that would even notice, it’s not like an averagely intelligent character like Sydney would even be able to utilize information like that. (Okay, Sydney has exhibited above average intelligence on occasion, but not “inventing a dimension hopping portal gun” intelligence)
I mean think about it, do you really know what E=MC^2 means? Sure, you know E=Energy, M=Mass, C=The Speed of Light, but without googling it, do you know what the units are? Is E joules or newtons? M=kilograms, probably? And really, if you were on an alien space ship, and you had to program your confiscated railgun with just the right amount of power to punch through the door in front of you, but too little and it ricochets back and kills you, too much and the projectile rips through the bulkhead into space or into the reactor and kills everyone – could you do it? Using E=MC^2. You can’t fire a bunch of shots till you get it right, messing it up kills you at best or everyone at worst, can you tell me you REALLY understand E=MC^2?
Anyway, that’s why I thought this page was funny, because for the briefest flash, Sydney tried to actually mathematically work out space travel in her head. Dabbler would be all “Yo I got this.” but have you guys seen Hidden Figures? NASA had buildings full of really fucking smart people and it took them months to figure that shit out. (And a computer that could do over a thousand computations per second, watch out!) Sure, they were concerned about fuel and oxygen and angles of launch and reentry, and Sydney doesn’t have to worry about any of that. But STILL.
BTW, I know Sydney says it took the Apollo missions took three days to get to the moon, comments on the previous page mostly said four. The point is, Sydney doesn’t have access to the internet and she’s mentally breaking down already.
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E is joules naturally, newtons aren’t a unit of energy. Mass is kilograms and c is meters/second, at least as we do the math. That’s just how we do it though, the equation remains the same even if you use other units, so long as they’re the right kind of unit.
E = mc^2 is pretty useless for the scenario described though.
I might have guessed ergs.
I mean, I use ergs because I’m an astronomer and we use ergs as our energy unit. The unit for energy depends entirely on the units you put in to it. You could have the speed of light in miles per year and mass in tons and the other side is correct, just now it has wonky energy units. Whatever floats your boat.
To be honest the equation is that hard, although it’s also not complete. The complete equation is E^2 =(mc^2)^2 + (pc)^2, where the p is the objects momentum.
It’s super easy, you’re just missing half of it, barely an inconvenience.
” That’s just how we do it though, the equation remains the same even if you use other units, so long as they’re the right kind of unit.”
Exactly! As long as one uses a speed unit (distance-per-time) for “C” (well, and the correct value of “C” in those units), a mass unit (kilos, pounds, stone, whatever) for “M,” and an energy unit (joules, calories – would BTUs count? They measure heat…) for E, precisely which ones don’t really matter. The very first thing my Astronomy 101 professor made the class do was calculate the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight, and that, though a very, very big number, is perfectly usable here.
The formula isn’t too bad, but not one I’d want to go after without at least a pocket calculator..
Thing is, speed is relative, and in all this, I’ve been wondering what it is relative to. Normally as long as you add power, your speed increases. F=ma, so a=f/m. Normally what limits speed is friction, but friction isn’t relevant here. Thus, what is her speed relative to? I assume if she were on a starless planet hurtling through space at a speed relative to some star of 200 km/s shed still be able to go “up” relative to the line of motion at full speed.
Or, if she was in an infinately long airliner traveling at mach 4, she could transverse it back to front at mach 4, and wouldn’t be stationary. Though this ends up in the realm of comic logic, it implies she could travel at full speed though water or even earth, provided the shield was up to the task.
Then again, mach is relative to sound, which would be a different speed in various materials, and in a vacuum of little practical meaning at all. Though I’m just assuming it is properly expressed in meters per second, and air temperature won’t affect her top speed…
Normally, having cleared the atmosphere she should be able to accelerate infinately. Perhaps it’s for the best that this doesn’t appear to be the case for “reassons.” As it can be a bit difficult to remember that in so much as you had spent all that time accelerating.. it’d take at least as long to slow back down …
In one of the Heinlein novels.. the moon is a harsh mistress maybe? Two characters were in a disabled craft and one calculated in his head the impact time. The other character pointed out he was wrong and why. Mainly, space isn’t billards. Everything is moving in accordance with orbital dynamics. Aiming for where a moon is is already wrong. You’re aiming for where it will be. Otherwise she’d end up chasing something that is itself going pretty close to her top speed… unless the relative object changes when she changes sphere of influence.
Your assuming her orb setting is a gas pedal, and not a target speed. If it’s a limitation with the orbs (for levelling purposes or whatever) then it doesn’t matter how fast she can get to 1372 m/s, she won’t get to 1373 m/s no matter how long she tries. Unless she levels up ofc.
“I’ve been wondering what it is relative to”
Took me quite a while to wrap around that myself, but essentially, the faster you move the slower your time goes. You will see yourself travelling faster and faster in a more or less constant pace, but only because time is slowing down.
If your walking along in a train that moves at relativistic speeds your slowing down your perception of time more than your speeding up your travel, so you get there faster in your eyes. Your moving at normal pace in your eyes. But someone sitting down will see you move more sluggish the faster you try to move.
In short, your relative to everything else. Though I’m not a physicist so I might be wrong about details in that.
Another reason her max speed appears to be set is: She moves as fast with several people in her bubble as she does on her own. The acceleration of the flight orb seems to be relative and quite high, or in short, its a strong motor and won’t be slowed down much by added weight, but it moves in a predictable way.
The orb set seems to be a form of “learn as you go” artefact, you can give a set of unlevelled ones to a “recruit” or even teenager since they can’t fly too fast, or do too much damage. Then as they level up, the orbs give you more power, allowing you to grow into it. Sydney got a prelevelled set after all, giving her pretty decent powers from the get go. But she hasn’t learned enough to be allowed to travel the stars yet (if it ever can).
The thing is, modern physics tells us that “speed” without reference frame has no meaning, pretty much the same way that, say, question “if derivative of F(x) is 2*x, what is F(2)?” has no answer. In one reference frame, your speed is v = 200 m/s (in one solution, F(x)=x^2 and F(2)=4). In other reference frame, your speed is u = 6000 m/s (F(x)=x^2+16 and F(2)=20). Modern physics says there is no “reference” reference system which would give you a “true” speed. Relativity basically ensures that if v<c then u<c, but that's it – for any speed u below c (for any value y), there is another inertial (~non-accelerated) reference frame where your speed is u (there is F(x) such that F'(x)=2x and F(2)=y).
The spheres seem to act in a weird non-Newtonian fashion, though, possibly ignoring conservation of energy entirely.
If that is a function of some handwavy magiphysics involving gravity, it’s possible that the spheres have a top speed (relative to the strongest gravity well in the area) instead of a top acceleration.
That is actually the first thing that came to my mind when i saw Sydney trying to fly to the moon, since that could mean that the farther she is from a strong gravity well the slower her flight, effectively making it impossible for her to escape orbit.
Oh I agree with you there, but don’t think of it as a physical constraint, but as a safety net. The orb refuses to go faster, and it can only measure speed to the nearest planet. Presumably she can be stationary outside of the atmosphere, behind the planets orbit, without needing a lagrange point. Not because of physics, but because the orb measures speed to the planet and she set it to stationary.
This is all assuming there isn’t a magical reason for it behaving like it does. My point is just, it has a max speed, not a max acceleration, it appears that the max speed is unaffected by weight, and the acceleration it has is also unaffected by weight. This is either magic or a safety net designed into the orb.
It cannot accelerate too fast, even though it has the power to accelerate faster since weight isn’t making it slower. And it cannot go faster than mach 4, even when air resistance is removed, thus it’s either magic, or it’s computing the speed compared to the main gravity well affecting it and refuses to go beyond it’s artificial limitation.
If you want to go faster, level it up (which has more to do with the user learning, not the orbs gathering power). Unless, again, magic.
E = MC^2 is absolutely useless in calculating the forces needed to punch through a door, because literally all it’s saying is “mass and energy become interchangeable at that speed.”
What you NEED for that scenario is Force = Mass x Acceleration, plus at least a rough guess of how much force you need to get that door open, which can be calculated from the mass and shear strength of the materials involved–is it a sliding door? Hinged door? What are the points of weakness? What’s the door made of? What kind of lock does it have? Are there things piled up behind it, or are you dealing with JUST the door?
But the “sweet spot” for something like that is really pretty broad. There’s a huge area that lies between “gets the door open” and “punches through a bulkhead,” because much of your force will be dissipated in the “getting the door open” portion of action regardless.
I mean yes, but really it depends what the units on your railgun are.
“Ok, I think I have this worked out, I need a force of 500kN, right so what does that equate to on this dial that um goes up to 7? Dammit I knew I should have brought the manual with me.”
Eh, just give your handcannon an onboard strong AI to calculate that crap and put it in control of aiming, firing, and analysis. What’s the worst that could happen?
Further proof that I don’t understand math.
This isn’t proof that you don’t understand math. It’s proof that you don’t understand physics. ;p
For teh dirteh minded peoples. I think the last panel allows us to see how cute Sydney’s “O” face would be :P
I can’t be the only one thinking this…
I wasn’t seeing it before.
Now I can’t unsee it….
Mixed feelings…
WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN!
…aaaaaaaaaaand now this is REALLY a ‘Math’ problem… LOL
Two cents from a french guy
Saturn V : max speed about 40 000 Km/h ( 24 854.848 mph ) -rocket used in Apollo 11-
Bullet -.338 Lapua Magnum -sniper rifle bullet — about 3 600 km/h ( 2 236.936 mph)
Mach 4 speed on earth depend of altitude at ground level about 4 900 km/h ( 3 044.719 mph )
at 3 048 m ( 10 000 ft) Mach 4 is about 4 736 km/h ( 2 942.814 mph )
Earth to Moon: 384 400 km ( 238 855.086 miles)
Fell free to use pocket calculator.
I’ve played this campaign before. She’s forgetting she has a whole planets worth of infrastructure to play with + orbital facilities, and the inevitable scavenger groups whoare going to loot what they can. “Easiest” option, try and collect som valuable loot and use it to barter a ride into the greater galactic commerce web. Her atmosphere refenerator alone would make her a valuable slave.. er asset on a ship.
I love that she included not drawn to scale in her mental blackboard
Yes, I’d actually like to know the math.
What math, exactly? The problem here is we don’t know any of the important numbers. We don’t know how fast she accelerates, or even if she accelerates at all, past a certain point. Dave talked about E=mc^2, but mass and energy are things that don’t even figure, here, unless she can run out of “gas”. What math can even be done when you don’t know what laws of physics apply to your situation in the first place?
Unless I’m mistaken, this is an almost quote from “The Big Bang Theory”.
Sheldon: What are the odds that two individuals as unique as ourselves would be connected by someone as comparatively workaday as your son?
Beverly Hofstadter: Is that a rhetorical point or would you like to do the math?
Sheldon: I’d like to do the math.
Beverly Hofstadter: I’d like that, too.
I realize most of the joke here is that she isn’t even close to reaching interstellar speeds, but it still isn’t unreasonable based on what we’ve been shown. The question isn’t “what’s her top speed” but “what’s her acceleration”. The speed of light is 300 million meters per second, and Mach 4 is around 1000 meters per second, so if it takes her a minute to reach Mach 4 in atmosphere then in space where there’s no resistance and she can keep accelerating indefinitely, she could reach relativistic speeds within a few hours.
Obviously once you actually start to bump up against the speed of light, acceleration stops meaning the same thing, but as far as getting to the moon goes, it is well within her capabilities.
The reason you hit problems near light speed is that the faster you are going, the more energy is required to increase your speed further. At the speed of light, the amount of energy needed to go further becomes infinite. Even in space, you will encounter the problem of hitting a max speed for your propulsion method because if you have a finite amount of energy being contributed to your current speed, over time you will reach a point where the energy you add will fail to contribute meaningfully to your speed.
All true, but we have no idea if Sydney’s Flight Orb has a power source that is exhaustible in a practical sense. She may be able to attain a significant portion of the speed of light (say, 10%c), which is more than enough to allow her to overtake most objects within a solar system (at least, based on currently available data). Useless for interstellar travel, but quite useful in a system.
The point being made is that if she is persistent, she will continue to accelerate until she reaches a maximum acceleration, which speed is more than sufficient to eventually allow her to catch an orbital object.
Whether or not getting to the moon will actually help or if she has sufficient food and water to complete the journey are separate issues. :D
“The point being made is that if she is persistent, she will continue to accelerate until she reaches a maximum speed, which speed is more than sufficient to eventually allow her to catch an orbital object.”
That’s true. And she could use that to travel longer distances. but there would still be the problem of cosmic dust when traveling at crazy high speeds. She does have her shied and hopefully it’ll be able to deal with the problem. But ya know that f=MA applies even if you hit a stray speck of dust. and the fact the Mass is really small doesn’t help when the Acceleration it would suddenly have to do is so huge. the force of the impact would be like a uber high power shape charge going off.
And something like three pages back we determined that her shield *does* have a maximum energy level; I find it not unreasonable that the same can be said for the other orbs.
We also don’t know if the flight orb even uses acceleration. It’s powered by magic/unknown tech that by our best guess so far seems to be gravity based not propellant based. (But even that is a guess.)
Does it require interacting with a nearby source of gravity so as you get further form a planet it gets weaker?
Does it set your speed relative to… something (what? in space everything is moving)… instead of using acceleration at all?
Does it use the medium you are traveling through to propel itself?
In all of these cases, leaving the planet would be a problem.
That’s true.
Then there’s another possibly bigger problem, even if she can find a way to do reasonable interstellar travel by some means, there’s also fair amount of evidence to suggest that she’s in a different time/dimension than home.. so it’s quite possible it’s pointless if she can even make the trip through space at all.
Change of plans Tenno…
Time to grind that XP!
Given the plethora of lengthy technical comments over the last couple pages, we are both appreciative of and surprised by your restraint. :D
Doh. Was a reply to a comment on previous page, but I suppose it works as a reply to the comic page as well. :)
The real problem is you don’t have at lot/any food or water. Unless you could travel x systems to get home in under a month you’d have to start survival mode on the planet grind until you develop blood tech and go home. Or go all nukular gahidi and take the alien ship for yourself with lasers/pew pew!
My anti-malware routinely flags Grrl Power as a problem…
That has been linked to certain ads that sometimes show on the page. I use an ad blocker and it both speeds the page load time and removes the malware warnings.
Note to Website Management:
I just got a warning in my antivirus that says the webcomic vote link at the bottom of the page is malware.
Please have someone look into it.
Thanks.
You know, it’s amazing how many sciencey types in the comments are refusing to accept the evidence in front of them. The in comic world works the way it works, if the flight orb behavior doesn’t match your predictions, then it’s your model that is wrong.
There’s no evidence that her flight orb DOESN’T obey the laws of physics, man.
Lol, I totally imagined you saying this in that classic pothead conspiracy nut voice. “There’s, like, no proof the forb doesn’t obey, like, physics, maaaan!”
Actual comic comment, but I think this page might have the best art yet, now that I really look at it. Great work!
Not that I dislike her at all, but I’ve never sympathized with Sydney more than at this moment…I hate grinding, too.
She seems like she would be totally screwed over unless the other figure out how to help her. Good on her to be thinking of a plan right now even if it leads to no solution. I would be spinning around in a circle swearing and having a panic attack if this happened to me.
“do you know what the units are?” The answer to that question is “They could be anything as long as they match.” If C is in meters/second, then e would be in joules, and m would be in kilograms. The units match because joules is shorthand for kg*m^2/s^2 and is actually a measure of what we normally refer to as kinetic energy. However, as long as your units match you could use C in rods/fortnight, in which case E would be in stone*rod^2/fortnight^2.
Um, yeah…
E=mc² is most definitely not what you are concerned with.
Tensile strength of the door, momentum of the projectile, things like that.
And yeah, BSc in Applied Physics, I understand E=mc².
Sydney loses geek points! You can’t tell me she’s never tried Kerbal :)
What year did Kerbal come out? (2015)
What year is the comic set in? (“A few months” before August 23rd, 2010 plus however long has passed in the comic… maybe a week?)
At some point someone on earth is going to have to explain to the Interstellar UN Dabbler was talking about why the human child’s reaction to being trapped on an alien planet was to go an a massive killing spree. “Yeah, we’ve been teaching them that if they murder enough stuff, they get to loot the bodies, increase their power, and receive special rewards. No, dialog normally doesn’t offer the same rewards. I don’t see the problem.”
But… but the Alari buildings make it look like they kept everything in crates! Smashing them all was the only logical response!
Given the existence of things like blood Mages, necromancers, wrath powered Super villains and other sorts of shenanigans I fail to see how that statement wouldn’t technically be true on the galactic scale
Soo did Sydney level up by surviving that Mega blast? I was under the impression that she needed to hold her orbs in order for them to be operational. I love the ideal that if she is not paying attention or if her Brain is focused on another task at hand. That she would have a passive ability to using the orbs. But they wouldn’t be as effective/powerful like when she uses them direct hands on.
it is possible that she’s keeping the shield orb firmly in one hand, and is switching out the propulsion orb that was in her other hand for the one that lets her redo the air in the bubble. since it seems she got far enough above the planet that she won’t fall back down on to it once she stops using the orb to push away from it. And we do know that her shield is air tight and that there’s enough volume of air inside the bubble so she can breathe for at least a short bit with out having to refresh the air. so everything she has done thus far doesn’t requite more then two hands even still enforcing the must hold the orb to activate it rule.
While flying straight up, there is no point at which you would not fall straight down if you stopped flying up. Ever. No not even if you left the solar system. Gravity extends infinitely in all directions.
1) She’s far enough up that she won’t fall a significant portion of the distance in the time it takes to refresh her air supply. 2) You are vastly oversimplifying the effects of gravity on a (relatively) small mass.
Gotta say, like others have mentioned, love the art on this page, its looking really top notch (I rarely think about it though, usually just look at the story)
Side note, and I think it makes sense that she makes the mistake, but still: 9.8 m/s^2 is not the escape velocity, that’s the acceleration you have to beat to start to accelerate going straight up. Escape velocity is around 11.2 km/s, but that’s assuming no drag and that your firing a projectile straight up from sea level, since she can travel straight up she can leave the atmosphere as long as she doesn’t run out of fuel, and that she doesn’t need the atmosphere (which we see she doesn’t).
Dave, awesome comic, awesome story arc… I’ve been with you since day one and enjoyed the opportunity to help you with Osprey images back when I was deployed to Afghanistan… I’ve watched your artwork evolve and refine… love the geekiness/nerdiness and sci-fi/sci-fact you weave into the story…
today’s comic? Gorgeous! However… Syd is extremely well-lit for hovering at the edge of space… the moon only appeared partially lit on the previous page…
Anyhow, love it, love it, love it!
Keep up the fun!
We don’t know the position of Alaria’s sun
Came down to the comments looking for Sydney’s O-face used as an avatar. Was not disappointed! :)
It’s situational lighting, as seen in caves and such in the movies.
The alternative is black with colored orbs barely illuminating her head.
I think there’s a glostic in the utility belt but she should save that.
(throw it at the Aliens…watch them dive for cover thinking it’s a grenade!!)
Thanks. Yeah, my ability to do positional and moody lighting is something I’m struggling with.
E=mc^2 is just the formula for kinetic energy modified to take into account that all the mass is involved in a total conversion, otherwise it would be E=1/2mc^2. I used to be an engineer before I was a computer help desk operator. Which was before I got killed and started building bicycles and tumbrels.
I guess she realized that she is going to have to go and “Pew-pew!” quite a few things in order to get her next levels to increase her flight speed…. yeah, I have to agree with her: Bleep grinding! I hate that in online games.
The really important thing to note here, is that Sydney is at least making the effort, under a lot more pressure and stress than anyone else ever, and it’s not like she could do that sort of thinking at the best of times, which this certainly ain’t
Think about it: her meds are running out (if they haven’t already), she’s floating probably in sub-orbit (we don’t know if she has broken free from Alaria’s gravity yet, butt she is at least outside of the atmosphere), she has been attacked (twice) by an entity that came very close to breaking Mr Buble and probably still looking for her, Sydney probably has a passing familiarity with the “Three Strikes and Your Out” rule, and she’s Who Know’s how far away from home all alone
…Sydney does have a limited supply (2-3 days worth?) of the generic version of her ADHD meds in her belt, some first aid gear-but no food unless she has a couple of Caloric bars…
Yes, butt she has to take them again, in the meantime, she is coming down from the last dosage
While it’s not the same for all of us, for me at least situations that provoke the fight or flight response give me a nice boost of focus. THe danger here may well substitute for the medicine for at least a few days. Adrenaline induced superfocus FTW!
Problem is, superfocusing on the wrong things, which can be just as bad (if not worse) than not focusing at all
Oh man, I really hope this means we get to see Sydney really start flexing her (proverbial) muscles. She hasn’t gotten to cut loose and really tear into any sort of enemies yet, so it’ll be interesting to see her approach to things.
I am seeing Dabbler with Sciona’s help finally getting the portal back open only to see half a burning space craft slam into the ground not far from them while Sydney does some sort of bizarre hyperactive, I haven’t taken my meds in three days dance while the mega nega squidward cries in a corner.
Well, obviously “E” is in foot-pounds, “M” is in slugs, and “C” is in feet per second.
I thought everybody knew that.
Thing is, even the REALLY smart people look up the formula for these things when needed. The thing is, they have the context to know where to find the formula, and how to come up with the numbers (in their proper units) that go into the formula in place of the assorted constants and variables. THEN they can do the actual math.
The OTHER thing about the really smart people is that they can visualize the scenario well BEFORE resorting to the formula, and will have a good idea if a method is workable or not before they go to the trouble of grinding it out.
Lol. I can sympathise with Sydney, on so many levels. But I haz feels for her over the grinding. :-D
Something has changed about Sydney’s looks. Not quite sure what, but I like it. Especially the the way she is looking so nobly towards me, in panel 5.
I’ve learned to ignore the math on chalk boards in entertainment.
The E=MC^2 is not in fact the actual formula like people think it is. It’s actually a highly simplified formula that only applies to non-moving objects.
The actual formula is E^2=(pc)^2 + (mc^2)^2 The definition of a joule is kg*(m/s)2. In that formula, p is the object’s velocity relative to you. If you set p to 0, what you get is E^2=(0C)^2 + (mc^2)^2.
Since 0C is 0 and 0 squared is also 0, this and 0+anything changes nothing, what we now have is E^2=(mc^2)^2. Since the values on both sides of the equals are squared, just get rid of the squares and what you get is E=mc^2. So E=mc^2 only applies to objects which are not moving relative to you.
While
There’s actually more to it than that, as there’s also a version which employs gamma, which is relative mass, but I won’t get into that.
As for units, E is in joules, m is in kilograms, and c the speed of light in is meters per second or ms^-1.
Now check this out… so we now know that E is joules, m is kilograms, and c is the speed of light in meters per second? Well, in science, energy is the ability to do work. It’s pretty much always defined in joules. The amount of kinetic work that can be done with a joule is equivilent to E = kg*(m/s)2, with kg being “kilograms” and (m/s) being meters per second…
So wait a second… Isn’t that the same formula, just using a different speed than c? Yes, yes it is…
Sorry I typoed a few things… Ignore the rogue “while” and the joules kinetic work formula is E = kg*(m/s)^2
Also I meant to point out that heading straight for the moon is wrong. If you aim straight for where it is, you’ll always miss it because it’s a moving object… It’s like trying to shoot a moving object by aiming for where it currently is, not where it’s going to be, only you’re the bullet.
Aiming straight for the moon works in Space Engineers where the moon doesn’t move, but it doesn’t work in Kerbal Space Program, which is much more realistic in terms of space flight.
Oh and 9.8 m/s² is not escape velocity. It’s no where near it. If you accelerated up at 9.8m/s² you would escape Earth’s gravity for all of a second before coming back down.
A rate of acceleration is just how much you’re speeding up by with 9.8 being Earth’s surface gravity. By the way, the ISS orbits at an altitude where if you were to be at that altitude, standing still, and not orbiting, you’d be experiencing about 0.9G or 8.82 m/s².
Also, the figure is only good for Earth, not for alien planets. Interestingly enough, Saturn has a surface and if you stood on it, the surface gravity would be 10.44 m/s². That’s 1.065g. That’s how much gravity you’d experience standing on the surface of Saturn… just 6.5% more than on the surface of Earth.
So yes, ISS isn’t in a zero gravity environment. It’s actually just in orbit. Orbit just means that you’re moving perpendicular to gravity enough that gravity isn’t able to actually pull you down, only keep you from leaving. Speeding up raises your orbit and slowing down lowers your orbit.
So if you were to throw stand on the outside of the ISS and throw a ball at the Earth, it would probably never impact the Earth, because it’s moving sideways to gravity at the same rate you are, but now at a lower altitude, which means it’ll end up in a more elliptical orbit than you are on the ISS.
Escape Velocity on Earth is actually 11.2 km/s. That’s not squared like gravity figures because 11.2 km/s is speed where as 9.8 m/s² is the rate of gravitational acceleration. That is once you achieve 11.2 km/s, Earth’s gravity will is insufficient to pull you back. At that speed, “don’t trouble me with trouble man, I’m gone”. Earth’s gravity will still slow you down, though, so you won’t maintain that 11.2 km/s. In fact, at 11.2 m/s you’ll probably wind up simply orbiting the Sun at a slightly different speed and slightly more elliptical orbit as Earth.
Despite Saturn having only 6.5% more surface gravity than Earth, its escape velocity is just over 3 times that of Earth’s, at 35.5 km/s. This is because the gravity well of Saturn is much MUCH larger. You have a longer distance to travel, and thus Saturn’s gravity has more time and space in which to slow you down, so the value is much higher.
Sorry I typoed a few things… Ignore the rogue “while” and the joules kinetic work formula is E = kg*(m/s)^2
Am I the only one who feels like she should have tried the comm ball’s teleport feature at this point?
Did you mean are you the only one doesn’t remember that this is all still a flash back… an 8 year long flashback… and doesn’t realize that this is probably why in #60, which is the actual present time and not a flash back, Sydney is known as “The Big Guns”?
Yeah you’re probably not the only one…
You are one of the few who has forgotten that the LigthBee has to physically, and slowly, move to its destination first
It is more of an espionage tool than a rapid transit device. It can get her into a locked room, but only one within walking distance.
It was proposed back at the time that it might be possible for Harem to grab the activated bee and teleport somewhere, and Sydney could then follow her to the same place. As far as we know this has never been tested.
Heh, know the feeling. Kinda like in a ACM programming challenge. Idea is to create a programs that satisfies given set of problem. points given for every correct working solution and the time it took. However; even the ones creating the challenges can be bypassed with a Trivial solution
One example;
write a program that will produce a monthly calendar for where the numbers are all in roman numerals.
note: converting numbers to roman can be fairly difficult at times, not to mention getting a correct calendar because of all the date/day_of_week for any particular date.
the trivial solution:
– was 7 lines of code all having just one print and a static string.
– they had looked up the regular calendar for that , then just hand converted the numbers to roman notation -> 3=’III’, 5=’V’, 7=’VII’ etc
– the rest was just making it look somewhat pretty – adjusting the spacing in each string for each line. – the way unix does a calendar
Um. None of the orbs gives her water right? So she going to die in 3 days dor her max speed is moot. She will never reach her max speed.
She doesn’t have enough information to do the maths. You’d need to know the diameter of the moon’s orbit and how long it takes to make the orbit, as well as confirming that it’s near-circular (moon in a Molniya orbit, anyone?) These can be figured out if you’ve got other bits of information but she doesn’t have those either. If she’s got infinite time then she could just get out to orbital distance and wait for it to come past, although relative velocity might be a problem, given her apparent speed limit of Mach 4 (Relative to what?)_
Daphney I guess has basically teleported so much she has enough power she had to make another one.
And Grinding is the best part.. If you do it right..
First of all..
Go back down.
Glassover the planet. It’s already like that.
And speed when you do it.
Or fly leisurely.. At the edge of the atmosphere. Whith life support instead ofs shield.
More XP in those she used rarely.. Eill speed her up.
And for Fuck sake put the first one also into Sight.
AKA *Teleportation*
For Daphney..
Or they just went back in time..
Use human logic! If you don’t understand, then hit it with your biggest gun, and repeat as much needed, until one of you collapses! :P
Rule of Bethesda: Whoever has the most stimpaks/healing potions wins.
That was the rule of Black Isle Studios LONG before Bethesda got the Fallout franchise.