6.4 KiB
[MK] Give Directions
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Author: u/Aabcehmu112358 Utter Fallacy*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3jpzs9/mk_give_directions/
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Score: 5
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Created: 2015-09-05T07:57:23
Post:
Another hypothetical, as I have evidently gained a habit of posing. This one less mystical, and more "what can you do by breaking a particular physical law in half over your knee."
What would you do, given the ability to create and collapse direction bubbles?
Direction bubbles are spheres which remain stationary relative to your reference frame ('yours' being the average of your constituents, if you happen to be in the unfortunate situation of different parts of your body have significantly different frames), of a radius you specify when you create them, which impel particles inside of them to move in a direction you specify when you create the bubble. This impulse converts heat into uniform aligned kinetic energy, at a rate per second between but not including zero and one which you specify when you create the bubble. Creating and collapsing a bubble only requires the barest thought, and specifications for radius, direction, and rate can be thought of beforehand and saved for later. You may create a bubble centered on any point you see. It's creation will begin on a light-like interval from the end of your thought, and will expand to your specified radius at c. Collapsing a bubble also begins on a light-like interval from the end of your thought, and the sphere likewise recedes to its center at c.
You are the only person able do this. Elsewhere on Earth, there is a direction antibubble creator, who can create and collapse bubbles that are identical to yours, except that they convert uniform kinetic energy moving in the specified direction of the bubble.
When you or your opposite die, the other obtains their opposite's ability.
Comments:
u/PeridexisErrant [+2] put aside fear for courage, and death for life (an hour later)
This is another of those powers where incautious testing could destroy a planet. Yay c minus elipson particle cannons!
Unfortunately, this one could get the rest of the solar system too. If your counterpart doesn't collapse the bubble before she too dies, the bubble (centred on the far-flung atoms that once made up your body) will become a wandering star-killer.
Unless you specified a radius of billions of lightyears, in which the universe as we know it ceases to exist.
The inverse power is also dangerous - it could create a zone where the heat death of the universe comes early. Game over.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (3 hours later)
It seems like it conserves energy, but not momentum, so you get an ice cannon. I would assume there's got to be limits on the size of the bubble as well.
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+1] Utter Fallacy (12 hours later)
Energy is conserved. There is not, however a strict limit to the size of the bubble.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (12 hours later)
OK. If there's no limit to the size of the bubble that's crazy.
u/None [+2] (8 hours later)
can create and collapse bubbles that are identical to yours, except that they convert uniform kinetic energy moving in the specified direction of the bubble.
They have a conversion process whose input is "uniform kinetic energy moving in the specified direction" and whose output is what? Heat? So you fire a bullet at the bubble and it gets warm, while the bullet stops? But only if the bullet's aimed in a specific direction relative to the person?
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+1] Utter Fallacy (11 hours later)
If the vector that describes an object moving through field has any part that is parallel to the direction, then that part of the kinetic energy begins to convert.
u/fljared [+2] United Federation of Planets (3 days later)
Does that mean anything travelling through the bubble ends up moving out of it orthogonal to the direction, unless it's fast enough to pass through to quick the realigned?
How does this work with objects rotating? If I send in a metal rod traveling in direction i and rotating around the i axis (and oriented such that i passes through the middle of the rod on a short axis), into a bubble of direction k, does it snap in half because one half is being stopped and the other not?
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+1] Utter Fallacy (3 days later)
Yes, things with small enough velocities will only exit the bubble at an orthogonal to the specified direction. A rotating bar slow and heat a slightly different rate all along it's length, and if it were rotating fast enough, bend or snap.
u/ulyssessword [+2] (8 hours later)
Build a liquid nitrogen cannon.
Set up a sphere in the atmosphere that has its heat-sucking set to maximum, and aim it forward. It will rapidly cool the air, hopefully enough to liquefy it, and shoot it out the front. This creates a vacuum in the bubble, drawing in more air, and continuing the process.
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+1] Utter Fallacy (11 hours later)
Technically there is no maximum to the set of real numbers greater than zero and less than one, but I get your point. Out of curiosity, what exactly would you do with your new high velocity stream of liquid nitrogen?
u/ArgentStonecutter [+1] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (13 hours later)
This was kind of my solution as well.
If there's no limit to the size of the bubble, I get with some very smart and rich people and build a power plant big enough to provide all the energy the world needs, while they work very hard to figure out how to keep me and my counterpart alive and happy forever.
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+2] Utter Fallacy (13 hours later)
I understand that such will likely be the gist of what just about everyone here would do. Are there any particular steps on that path that you can think of?
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (14 hours later)
My sinister plan would involve Elon Musk, NASA, and the Hoover Dam.
u/Aabcehmu112358 [+2] Utter Fallacy (14 hours later)
Watery space elevator?
u/ArgentStonecutter [+3] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (15 hours later)
Big high energy turbines and energy storage, but I dare say a certain amount of the transsonic liquified air can be diverted to launch services.