Questions tagged [electromagnetism]
For questions involving the fundamental electromagnetic force. This includes electricity, magnetism, light, and other phenomena.
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What conditions would cause electricity to create carbon monoxide?
I've been mulling whether the local gaseous makeup of air is changed by electricity running along a wire. My previous question is on hold, and this one is different anyway.
I couldn't find exactly ...
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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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How do passive, toggleable magnetic clamps function?
See, I'm a low-g cargo shipper by trade. We get all sorts of containers in all kinds of shapes that we need to fasten to the deck plating, and to do that we use magnetic clamps.
Now, these clamps are ...
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What sort of forces can be expected in the sudden stop of a rotating space station ring?
This is a bit hard for me to put into to words, but it is an idea I have been working on for a few days, with input from a few other people. I have actually brought up part of this in a previous ...
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Would using Magnetic Coil Platforms be an effective way to transport people across Solar Systems
QUESTION
So recently I was doing research on Magnetic Coil based weaponry in the Halo universe, and while reading about how the "Super Mac" worked, I noticed that the theoretical speeds at which the ...
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How to protect against a worldwide EMP?
What are the ways to protect against EMP and can they be used to protect storage facilities, vehicles and indoor hydroponic farms ?
The cause of the EMP is a meteorite crash around the same as what ...
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Is this a plausible progression of EMP-like effects?
Background:
In a setting similar to Roadside Picnic, non-man-made objects termed 'emitters' produce a periodic 'zone effect' of induced current, similar in effect to an EMP. This zone effect falls off ...
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How big/how many permanent magnets would it take to create a good Martian Magnetosphere
I was reading a question regarding building Mars's magnetosphere and one respondent proposed setting up a thousand or so permanent magnets equidistant all over the planet to build the magnetic field. ...
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Is it possible to use Magnetic refrigeration to cool down a sun probe, so that it could survive at least a few hours inside the photosphere?
The probe in my mind is unmanned, with a super-reflective surface to deflect most of the energy from the Sun on all wave length, only absorb enough to power its operation.
Please also elaborate if ...
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Would a "perfect invisibility cloak" still be vulnerable to energy based weapons?
Let's say we have perfected a meta-material that is invisible to the complete range of electromagnetic radiation. I reckon that since light (ionizing or not) entering the material is simply being bend/...
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How strong could the Coulomb force be made? [closed]
This is a pretty hypothetical question. I was just reading about electromagnetism and about how two charges of one coulomb could repel/attract each other at a distance of one meter with some huge ...
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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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Fighting fire with fire: Railguns [duplicate]
In order to defeat railgun projectiles, I wish to create the Electromagnetic Reactive Armor, a defense that fights fire with fire, aka: intercepts the projectiles by shooting out another one, that ...
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How can an optical signal be converted into a mechanical/acoustic signal without using electricity?
There are several ways to directly convert acoustic/mechanic signals into optic signals (e.g. opening/closing a shutter, or the acousto-optic effect). Is there any way to do the reverse, without using ...
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Could plasma "blow away" bullets? [duplicate]
I have a shield concept, however, I'm not entirely sure, if it's capable of stopping bullets.
The basic concept is an enhanced version of Boeing's patent, that:
The system ionizes a small portion of ...
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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 can temporarily disrupt Earth's magnetosphere?
I'm trying to find some type of space weather or other natural occurrences that would result in the intensity of Earth's magnetic field dropping for a few hours to maybe a week or two at most. ...
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Could a species evolve a special organ that stores pure energy & allows it to control its own magnetic field?
Could a species, over centuries of evolution, evolve a special organ that stores pure energy and allows it to control its own magnetic field? What possible steps would have to happen for this to occur?...
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How could you accidentally cause a global blackout?
Besides geomagnetic storms, obviously. This has to be man-made. At first I considered a HEMP, but who would've guessed nuclear weapons had so many failsafes to prevent premature detonations? So then ...
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Is it possible to make high voltage cables hard to detect?
The tech level is roughly comparable to contemporary. There is a loosely populated planet, where any realistic power grid system should span over continents, with on average a few thousand kilometers ...
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Could I control plasma from a distance?
In my story, people use handheld, high-power laser rifles, however, there was a problem with the weapon's concept:
Laser beams begin to cause plasma breakdown in the atmosphere at energy densities ...
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If Earth's Core Had Mercury's Super Core
Earth is protected by a magnetic field. Not only does it shield life from solar radiation, it also guides animals to their migratory grounds. But here's the thing, according to Universe Today:
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The Moon has a magnetic field instead of the Earth; what are the changes in navigation?
I'm curious as to what the implications to any navigation system are:
ship
trekking
aviation
etc.
Will their compass change shape (as being spherical), or might they dump the compass alltogether ...
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How can I weaponize solar flares?
Could a solar flare be coaxed from a star with a magnetic weapon, possibly by manipulating magnetic reconnection? Could the resulting flare be aimed at a planet (or space fleet) with any accuracy?
I ...
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Effects of powerful superconducting rings on humans?
I recently came across this paper detailing a plan to use 12 superconducting rings around earth to strengthen our magnetic field. I'm planning on using this same idea for my own worldbuilding.
An ...
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Can an android be "immune" to electromagnetic forces?
I'm having no luck researching this topic so my terms may be wrong or my entire premise faulty. I have found a related question that might be a corollary: "Can I kill a cyborg with magnetism?"
My ...
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What are the specific effects of an EMP on electronics?
Within the next decade or two, Earth is attacked by an alien fleet. The various militaries have some forewarning and are able to destroy the attackers by launching most of their nuclear arsenal at the ...
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Is there any phenomenon that could result in a huge solar storm?
As per the title, is there anything with near future tech, unlimited budget and fast cheap spaceflight that could be done to induce a huge solar storm or flare three or more magnitudes greater than ...
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Can matter be super-compressed by a magnetic field
So I had this idea for an FTL drive that would work by creating a rift (a black hole before it tugs on space enough to become unstable and deadly) via an unbelievably strong magnetic field. I know ...
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Selective EMP weapon
According to wikipedia, EMPs have a number of different waveforms. Radio transmitters are carefully designed with a near-perfect sine waveform so that their signals can later be filtered out by the ...
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"It's not the fall that kills you . . ." The capabilities of this kinetic shield [closed]
Kinetic shields
From Dune's Handwavium I mean Holtzman-shields to NGE's AT-fields. It's a common practice to make knife fighting/D.E.Ws viable wit a magical shield, that counters any other attack ...
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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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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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Could a giant battery serve double duty as a sadistic acid bath?
Setting: In a fantasy setting much like World of Warcraft (where huge liberties are taken regarding the level of technological sophistication), an evil emperor rules from a castle in which there are ...
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What are short-term defenses against massive elegtromagnetic disruption?
A society comparable (in resources, technology, economics and politics) to present day Earth is gearing up for war. There is a weapon which causes massive, widespread electromagnetic disruption. Like ...
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Killing a magnetic shield
Now that I have a proper plasma rifle, I only just have to kill, disable, or make my enemy disable his/her/its magnetic shielding for enough time to properly roast him/her/it to a smoldering pile of ...
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Feasibility of this plasma cannon-Round 2 [closed]
My intention is to develop this idea through multiple phases of flaw searching, proposing possible solutions and starting it over again, until there are little to no flaws remain.
the first phase of ...
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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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Energy Transfer Through Space Without Adverse Affects
Perpetual motion doesn't exist... or does it? In space planets continuously spin around stars for trillions of years due to inertia and gravity balancing each other out. What if a race of brilliant ...
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Do all devices go out at the same time in an EMP attack?
Is there an order in which different kinds of (unshielded) electric devices go out in the event of a high altitude EMP? For example, first small gadgets, then electric vehicles, then grids. Or do all ...
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Using EM noise + computers to simulate sound in the cockpit
I had a fun idea for a space simulator game I'm working on from a lore standpoint. We all know that there is no sound in space due to it being a vacuum. The lack of sound would probably leave pilots (...
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How can we generate energy by using a planet and its satellite [closed]
Like magnet on Moon and coil on Earth , as in motor where magnet revolve around coil ..(Notice that it's an idea behind it; I don't want to cover earth with coil and moon with magnet or vice versa; ...
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Can a planet's magnetic field be used to generate power? [closed]
According to my relatively shaky understanding of science, moving a conductor through a magnetic field generates power. And the magnetic field of the earth rotates with the earth. So, if an orbiting ...
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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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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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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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Can we identify distinct "colors" beyond visible light?
Let's talk about the visible light "rainbow"
In almost all depictions of the electromagnetic spectrum, visible light is shown as a rainbow, and adjacent parts of the spectrum are monotone in color - ...
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Astronaut magnetic "gravity" injections
Would it be possible to somehow inject astronauts cells with safe amounts of magnetic metals, or use some sort of magnetic properties, to hold them down to a space station floor with magnets?
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Under what circumstances will magnetic levitation kill Average Joe?
After the WorldBuilding community helped Average Joe start his own
microstate, Joe has become scientifically inclined, and uses his
money to conduct somewhat dangerous research projects from his ...
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Holding in an atmosphere primarily using a magnetic field
Assuming it was possible to create an artificial magnetic shield on the moon, would it be possible that a sufficiently powerful field could hold onto an atmosphere despite the low gravity.
Thanks
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