# All Questions

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### How to find the density of a planet and its core taking into account the gravitational compression in them?

Consider a planet $P$ of radius $r$ larger than Earth, whose mass is $r^3$. By the square–cube law, this planet will have the same density as the Earth... assuming that the gravitational compression ...
30 views

### What would a world based on Bromine be like?

After seeing this video by Artifexian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwauz9uIl9M, I thought I should take a stab at creating a world based on a halogen. I'm thinking bromine might be a good idea ...
40 views

### pressurizing a space suit

So was writing a short story about space and I had a random idea. Could you pressurize a suit with something other than gas/air? In theory you could literally put pressure on the person or fill the ...
48 views

### Could a non sentient land animal evolve an innate knowledge for making boats?

I understand that some non human animals build structures that they innately know how to build, such as how birds innately know how to build nests, and spiders innately know how to make webs, and ...
43 views

### Identifying minerals without sight

Properly ventilating a deep mine is a significant engineering challenge. Ergo, you don't want to be carrying around torches that use up some of your precious breathing oxygen if you don't absolutely ...
54 views

### Could AI create a more complex language and (if so) how? [on hold]

Animals use less intelligent language, so one may assume that human language is unintelligent to extraterrestrial life. We use technology to perceive senses that we do not naturally have (e.g., seeing ...
20 views

### What mental and physical factors could make an adult mute? [on hold]

My first ever question here! Okay so, I'm creating a character for a story that has gone mute. This character is also a singer if that helps. My friend and I were searching for possible causes, not ...
94 views

### How deep could dwarves actually delve?

Given an arbitrarily long time to do so, what is the maximum depth too which a dwarven civilization could practically extend their mines / cities? And what would be the final limiting factor ...
60 views

### What would be the ideal “language” to control a complex machine via a human body?

Please assume the following scenario: A spaceship in a dense battle situation, controlled by a human beeing. The bridge is basically an empty room, consisting of screen-walls (showing the outside and ...
28 views

### What is the maximum equilibrium temperature that a mammal could evolve to tolerate?

Mammals live in some fairly extreme environments, but the most heat-tolerant ones all seem to cheat: e.g., they dig burrows to stay cool during the day and come out at night, avoiding the heat, or ...
86 views

### How long would it take for all evidence of humanity to be erased from Earth?

Suppose that due to nuclear warfare or some deadly disease, the entire human population of earth died off in the near future. All humans gone, but most of life survived, including domesticated animals....
31 views

### Appropriate Material for a Moon

I have some ideas regarding this but thought i'd check to see what you guys can come up with (i find some of the ideas here often trump mine in originality and/or plausibility) So i have a planet ...
54 views

### Is development of technological civilization without ecological damage possible?

A god once created a beautiful planet and populated it with all kind of plant and animals. He brought up humans, because no world is complete without them. But then he paused. Not because he needed a ...
540 views

### Architectural feasibility of a tiered circular stone keep

I have created in my world a keep that lies inside a walled courtyard. Artistically I have designed the keep to rise in three tiers not unlike a wedding cake. (Though the castle is made of stone ...
37 views

### How much energy would a particle accelerator need, to operate with a circumference the size of the solar system? [on hold]

An alien race has already built it, I’m just wondering how much energy would be needed to power it?
47 views

### Noble Gas Ionization by Enzymes

I am simply wondering if an organism could possess an enzyme that could ionize a noble gas such as argon, krypton, or xenon. I was thinking that the organism could obtain energy through light or maybe ...
89 views

### Why would a blind creature evolve display features?

I'm thinking of a predatory creature that lives deep inside large caves. Because this environment is so dark, the creature's eyes have disappeared through evolution since the creature relies on ...
77 views

### Moving mountains

In our world, mountains generally only move up (while forming) or down (while eroding or sinking). Otherwise they follow the tectonic plates they happen to be on. In island chains like the Hawaiian ...
958 views

### Non-visual Computers - thoughts?

TL;DR Let's say that computers were invented at a school for the blind in mid-1800s. How would today's technology, based on these non-screen-based computers, be different? ETA: To clarify and ...
95 views

### Can my planet have a very thin atmosphere only at the poles?

While thinking about Starfish Prime's answer to the question Algae using UV light from auroras for photosynthesis, I considered the possibility of an alternate Earth which has a normal, Earth-like ...
199 views

### Always night in one hemisphere. Is it viable?

I am building a world where one side of the planet has normal progression of day and night whereas in the other hemisphere it is always night. At first I had no idea how this could be possible in the ...
1k views

### Can realistic planetary invasion have any meaningful strategy?

The sea is used as an analogy in space travel, and sometimes it works well. Ships sail on long journeys, between distant lands, across a hostile medium. But these analogies tend to break down when it ...
77 views

### If my characters can control electrons could they use this as a means to attract and repel objects?

Could they use their abilities to change an objects electromagnetic fields to work in their favour. I want my magic system to be explained as the story progresses. I’m thinking this could be a way to ...
910 views

### how would martial arts evolve in a magical world? [on hold]

My magic system is quite basic it revolves around runes and drawing them in the air.If skilled enough you can not do that . or if the spell is so simple you dont need to unless exhausted. how would ...
2k views

### Would this system work to purify water?

This is part of my generation ship worldbuilding. I mentioned my water purification system in a different question, but I never directly asked about it. Here, I will directly ask about it. I think it ...
186 views

### Earth Has Four Seasons Lasting Years. Is This Too Much?

In this alternate Earth, the axial tilt is still leaning to the extent of the temperate and polar zones having four seasons--spring, summer, autumn and winter. The one key difference is that each ...
86 views

### What would it take to make a fuctioning photon rocket?

For reference closet counterpart to this would be the "wings of light" and Minovsky Drive System of the Gundam metaseries, engines that release what looks like pure light as a propellant.
110 views

### GMO Agriculture - Medieval farming with modern day seeds and advanced robots, how hard or how easy could it be to be rich using them?

Let's just say that you are stuck in a different world. You found a biological research and production starship wreck... You decided to have GMO plants/seeds agriculture on your land that you bought ...
109 views

### How do I make my main character react realistically to the discovery of a Christian Bible, in a world where it is highly illegal? [on hold]

So; I am working on a story that is inspired by my Christian faith to an extent, and I would like the main character to become a "redemptive hero" who becomes a hero by simply helping people to see ...
1k views

### Is it possible to create a golf ball sized star?

I have an alien race in my novel. They believe they are immortal, however, little do they know that they are machines. I had an idea that their core is made of some sort of fusion tech. I was thinking ...
45 views

### How much would an earth like planet cool if covered in ash for 100 days? [on hold]

Basically the title. I want to make sure everything on the planet wouldn’t die if the planet was covered in ash for 100 days. Thanks.
4k views

### Would it be possible to have a GMO that produces chocolate?

I am inspired by some people who apparently believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. I know that for sweet, delicious chocolate to come into existence, we need to do things to cocoa. Ferment it, ...
161 views

### Is my antagonist and his race plausible? [on hold]

I am writing a contemporary fantasy novel with sci-fi elements. The antagonist is a member of The Mahos. Their race predates our universe. They have an extremely high body temperature their skin is ...
195 views

### If an alien race used solid nitrogen hammers as weapons, how long would they last before melting on earth?

The enemy they fight have an extremely high body temperature, I’m wondering the effects of solid nitrogen would have on them. The idea is the enemies' bodies are like molten under the skin.
3k views

### Justifying the use of directed energy weapons

In my scifi setting I want a broad range of slugthrowers (bullets, smart ammo, grenades,...), exotic weapons (flame/chemthrowers, high tech blades, nano-bots,...), and directed energy weapons (heat ...
3k views

### On the feasibility of space battleships

We all know and presumably love enormous space battles with vast battleships doing minimal damage to each other for hours before being blown up by a single fighter. On Earth battleships became big ...
127 views

### Would society become matriarchal, patriarchal or balanced if the military consisted mostly of women but the top leadership are men? [on hold]

The premise is that in this world, mankind has extended their territory throughout the solar system. We now have colonies on multiple moons and planets. War and combat between the different factions ...
94 views

### how plausible is this method of humans breathing fire?

My method of breathing fire involves humans stomachs producing ethane or methane and them holding a lit flame near their faces and just breathing out of burping . Fire breathing in this is more ...
140 views

### How best to use wormholes for spaceflight?

The goal is to get from Earth to the Outer Solar System, preferably the Kuiper Belt, as quickly as practical, with a crew of about 12, and a not-set-in-stone dry mass around 30 tons. The characters ...
75 views

### Where do wizards come from, or how does one become a wizard [on hold]

There seems to be a weak genealogical 'inheritance' rule for wizards, and at any one time there are seemingly very few. Despite recent 'documentaries' it is actually hard to imagine a school for ...
227 views

### Is it possible for a spacefaring species to have never developed gunpowder based firearms?

A story I am working on contains a species, that evolved as tree dwellers on a planet mostly covered by giant forests, but are now spacefareing. This species tries to avoid fire due to their home ...
79 views

### What effect cold climate could have on reptilean demi-humans?

In this world, there are reptilean demi-humans (like lizardmen and lamia) which are appearance wise half-human half-reptile, they live in coexistence with humans and other types of demi-humans. These ...
2k views

### Would nanotechnology-scale devices be vulnerable to EMP?

For the purposes of this question, let's use the definition of nanotechnology from the tag wiki excerpt: "technology that works with sizes of less than 100 nanometres". An EMP can vary in frequency ...
869 views

### What would be the next technological step after advancing from cybernetic body parts to nanotechnology?

Technology in 2019 has many ways of augmenting the human body, for example: hearing aids, pacemakers, artificial hips, breast implants, artificial spine discs, coronary stents and even artificial eye ...
112 views

### Algae using UV light from auroras for photosynthesis

I was reading some questions on Quora and I found this claim: The polar regions have a very odd reason for them to have so much oxygen production. You see the Polar aurora run day and night in the ...
170 views

### Technology to see an invisible being

I have a world where there are two types of beings. One type, let's call them X, exist in our "dimension," and the other, let's call them Y, exist in another "phase" or dimension. Only 10% of X ...
113 views

### What would the weather be like after the world is shaded by an immense object?

I have a situation in my imaginary setting, and I am specifically interested in how this situation would affect the weather. The situation is as follows: Positioned above a large landmass of my ...
74 views

### What trajectory would an interstellar asteroid move in if a super creature jumped off it? [on hold]

The recent interstellar asteroid Oumuamua is the inspiration for this question. if a humanoid creature that had all the abilities to survive in space had hitched a ride on this asteroid and chose to ...