GBLW wrote:Hmm, I was taught that Inertia = Mass x Acceleration. If you have zero Mass, how can you have Inertia?Bartokian wrote:mass-canceling technology/magic is nice, but it's inertia that is the real killer.
Even anti-grav encounters problems in the larger scale. Newton's law tells us that if something moves, it will tend to remain moving (ie interia/momentum). Where inside the local (anti-)grav field you might not be subjected to inertia or momentum, in the larger interacting grav-fields something is being generated, and that needs to be stored somewhere (aka the inertia-compensator). Without option to bleed of the excess energy of inertia, any anti-grav is just a fast lane to getting smeared out when something out of the local field is encountered (and with relativistic speeds in mind, that might be sooner than you think)...
The real magic would be an intertia-compensator. Forget about artificially lowering mass - being able to pump/extract focussed kinetic energie in a structure without damaging its components would be the real trick. Wanna move upwards or turn - just dial up the engine. Apparent mass would still dictate the required energy, but at such an advances technological stage energy should be free anyway...
0 mass = 0 inertia . . . inertia = momentum + direction conserved also resting objects stay at restBartokian wrote:the zero mass only works in your local environment/reference frame - you are still accellerating your mass relative to the outside world. So you would have to use that world as your reference frame, hence mass reappears into the equation. Or were we planning on eliminating all mass all over the universe? If so, let me know in advance so I can shut down whatever engine-type equipment I may have as to avoid having it run out on me!
0 mass = 0 inertia . . . Any stationary objects with no mass could at any time go in any direction at any speed... I wonder if the military thought of this one (just add mass to object before impact).
Fel - is this the mechanism for Satan's Balls? Or is this a Soviet Jumping Bean? (Sorry to any Russians out there, I just had trouble coming up with anything else more opposite to Mexico. Besides, who is more dangerous than a steriotypical Russian sleeper with a grudge - anyone could get killed most specifically his handlers)