Questions tagged [electromagnetism]
For questions involving the fundamental electromagnetic force. This includes electricity, magnetism, light, and other phenomena.
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What could make a star green?
Stars are never green.
When a star's spectra "peaks" in the green range, it also releases a significant number of waves of the adjacent colors - so "green" stars appear yellow or ...
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Is it possible to use a planet's magnetic field for transportation?
On a planet, a species uses magnets (i.e. float in the air) instead of wheels for transportation. Roads are easy enough, just slap some magnets in it, at it works.
But I was wondering about the ...
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Could a species develop the tech necessary to land on their own moon without comprehending light?
Inspired by a brief comment converstaion found here.
I would like to investigate the design and development of an alien species whose technological development did not include an understanding of ...
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How might telekinesis and pyrokinesis work if they were possible?
New here! Now let me be clear: I'm well aware that telekinesis and pyrokinesis are both impossible, as I've been rudely informed on every science forum. Nonetheless, I don't just want to "make it up" ...
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"Shields at 10% one more hit and..." What?
How do force field work in many sci fi fictional universes? I remembered the last time I checked the strength of the electromagnetic field a.k.a force field is proportional to the power output from ...
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Effective way to recreate a magnetosphere on Mars with current technology
Our Earth and Venus each keep a thick atmosphere because of a magnetosphere.
Most terraforming scenarios of Mars involve transferring water and other gases from the ground to the atmosphere.
We now ...
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Using magnetic fields to prevent a weaponized warp drive?
I've been thinking of ways that an FTL-capable galaxy would prevent weaponized FTL missiles.
Ignoring causality violations and paradoxes, I'm looking for a way to keep something based on an ...
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Inducing a Solar Flare
Is there a way to induce a solar flare / coronal mass ejection (CME)?
For instance, could a very tight glob of charged particles reconfigure the the Sun's corona leading to this type of event? Is ...
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How would a planetary ring react to a magnetic field?
So for the story I'm writing, I'm designing is a gas dwarf with a very strong magnetic field and a planetary ring with a slightly inclined orbit. However, the rocks within the ring are very sensitive ...
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Would my compass still work?
Imagine a world with a very wacky magnetic field, the magnetic poles are not aligned at the top of the axial tilt and the sun is active enough to cause huge northern lights each night.
I know ...
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Can the Meissner effect explain very large floating structures?
James Cameron's Avatar featured floating mountains which stayed aloft due to the Meissner effect; they contained large quantities of the room-temperature superconductor unobtainium, which, due to ...
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Can this unique planet be colonized?
In the story I'm writing, a gas dwarf (named Eden) is discovered in a triple star system. Its atmosphere is mainly oxygen and water based, and its gravity is slightly higher than Earth's.
Unlike our ...
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Properties of magnetically confined plasma shielding
In the setting I'm creating for a game, I've given one of the factions plasma shielding and I'm about to rewrite the code behind their shields from scratch. I wanted to revise the game mechanics to be ...
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How much antimatter can we theoretically hold in a Minimum Magnetic Field Trap?
I will be using solar antimatter production via Schwinger pair production like the VARIES project but I need to store it for bulk use. The containment will be a satellite orbiting the sun close enough ...
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Reasons why air travel isn't feasible, but ground travel is?
My story takes place on an Earth-like, inhabited world that is far larger than Earth, has roughly 110% of Earth's gravity, and has unusually high (and generally unexplained) EM emissions permeating ...
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What would be the side effects of a massive, strong magnetic field?
A permanent static magnetic field appears on the surface of a planet that is sufficiently large and strong to attract non-magnetized ferromagnetic objects up to 100 miles distant from the source, with ...
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Could somebody get temporarily stuck/“glued” to a wall by way of energy or some other force?
My story takes place in the future with advanced technology and I have a torture scene where I need prisoners to be immobilized against a wall—-but not permanently. I’m wondering if it could be done ...
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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 ...
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What is the most powerful magnetic field a planet could generate?
What is the most powerful magnetic field that could be generated by a planetary object? The measurement of 'powerful' will be field strength ($\mathbf{B}$-field) at the planet's surface, in teslas.
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What could make a star violet?
Part of a series I'm starting since the recent What could make a star green? did quite well and others could use the information here in their worlds.
There aren't any "violet" stars.
When a star ...
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Could I use a series of magnetic asteroids to create a magnetic field for mars?
If I push a couple of magnetic asteroids into mars gravitational field, could they form an interlocking series of magnetic fields able to protect mars from solar winds?
Size limits for asteroids is ...
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What would a realistic plasma shield look like?
A follow-up to my previous question-barrage:
Properties of magnetically confined plasma shielding
After some of the feedback, I'm splitting it into several smaller questions.
In the world I'm ...
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Can a Planet's Electromagnetic Field Be Strong Enough for Wireless Electricity (Induction)?
Wikipedia states:
"Electromagnetic or magnetic induction is the production of an electromotive force (i.e., voltage) across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field."
This one sentence ...
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How could you build an artificial planet-sized magnetic field?
I'm conceiving of a world where humans can readily terraform worlds that were once considered "dead" due to the planet's magnetic field being long gone. In such a situation, what could humans do to ...
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How would a torus planet's magnetic field work?
Simply put as the title says. I'm going to handwave that the planet is held together with magic, but I want to know how a magnetic field would work on a toroidal planet- assuming such is even possible....
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Magnetism-based weaponry
I remember seeing a show on the Science or Discovery channel about a certain type of star, maybe a magnetar, with a powerful magnetic field that would twist and wind over time. Eventually, the field ...
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How does an O'Neill cylinder generate its own magnetic field?
The purpose of a magnetic field is to shield against solar winds, which are relativistic ions produced by our Sun. This is a typical O'Neill cylinder with 4 islands. I'm looking for a cost effective ...
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If global radio communications systems are disrupted, what is the alternative?
An event has occurred several thousand kilometers from the surface of the Earth. Let's assume some sort of tear in the universe has appeared, from which extra-dimensional or exotic energy is pouring ...
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EMP that causes all mobile phones to stop working
I know that there exist nonnuclear EMP weapons, but these do not influence the entire world. Could someone build a device that creates an EMP that is powerful enough to make all mobile phones on the ...
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How to make dragons move stealthy on radar?
What dragon exactly? Well, the ones in my story tend to be "smaller", around the size of a larger horse with wingspans of 10-12 meters. They have six limbs and are capable of powered flight. ...
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Effects of Superconducting Rings to create a magnetic field around a planet
Continuing along my oft-contineud series of questions relating to terraforming, I return to an idea of giving Mars a magnetic field which I had hitherto dismissed. The idea is that a huge ...
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If electromagnetic waves didn't follow an inverse square law?
I was thinking of a hypothetical universe in which electromagnetic waves decrease in intensity with the distance instead of the square of the distance. What kinds of effects would that have on that ...
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How to discretely sustain a plasma life-form?
I have some plasma life forms that have evolved within the photosphere of a star and also capable of existing on a neutron star and the ergoshpere or accretion disk of a blackhole.
This lifeform ...
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Could magnetism work in place of gravity for large bases in space?
So, in my sci-fi future, humanity has spread across the universe, made contact with many sentient races, and advanced technology greatly.
However, very few bases in the vacuum of space can use ...
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Could plant life evolve on a world with a toroidal magnetic field?
Let us assume that my new world has within its rings, shells, and blobs of remarkably cool magnetically-involved stuff such that its magnetic field is toroidal (shaped like a donut) rather than ...
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Can there be planets with extremely strong magnetic fields?
Would it be possible for a planet with surface conditions suitable for humans landing on it to have a very strong magnetic field, with field strengths on the planet's surface similar to the surface ...
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How much charge would destroy the world?
Someone invents a machine that creates electrons. It takes in some electrically neutral matter, and produces electrons of equal mass.1
Let's consider two quantities of negative charge:
$q$ is the ...
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Creating flying cities
Writing about suspended cities within a planet's atmosphere! The story itself focuses on the air forces that fight for each of the hundreds of floating city states living in the sky, but that's here ...
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What happens to asteroids when heated into a plasma?
I'm looking to build a scientifically plausible mining laser for my science fiction setting. The first approach that came to mind was a high-power laser that heats the surface asteroid until it ...
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Preventing the dispersion of a particle-beam behind the target
Ranged plasma weapons can't work effectively, due to certain issues, so I want to replace them with their closest relatives, Neutral Particle-Beam Weapons (hereby referred to as NPBW)
There would be ...
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What material do I use to make a biological electromagnet?
This is rather simple: I want a biological electromagnet capable of producing a weak magnetic pulse when electrified.
I recognize what an electromagnet is: a coil, spiral, or helix of conductive ...
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could a robot fly with powerful enough electromagnets?
The robot in question is a large, worm-like mining robot built for digging tunnels. It has electromagnets positioned throughout the segments of its body, for the purpose of pulling metals out of the ...
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Could soft matter infused with nano or pico sized magnets be used to clump together so that we could create environments with it?
I am trying to create a planet with low gravity that keeps an atmosphere and has an ocean that covers the whole planet. Basically I am developing beings (separately from this question) who can live in ...
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Creating a stable split earth
So having read a couple of other questions on here, and postulating over this for a while, here's my question.
Is it possible to have two magnetars in a distant binary orbit, with an earthlike planet ...
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Terraforming Mars by making Ceres orbit it
So, Mars is a stubborn planet that refuses to be terraformed. No matter how much air you import in order to create a atmosphere around it, it will be blown away in a short time. And there is one ...
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