Questions tagged [engineering]
For questions about the use of engineering to create structures and devices in other worlds, including whether or not a device could be made or what materials would be needed to make a device.
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How to recreate a "land" harp that can work in the deep sea?
Once again, I am asking questions based on my as of yet defined highly-evolved, human-derived "merfolk". But this time, I'm going towards deeper waters-- let's say about 5000 meters below ...
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How would you get a ship out of a gravity well?
Context
I'm helping a friend with a hard sci-fi story and we ran into an issue. In this setting the technology for absurdly powerful and efficient fusion drives which seem not to have heat managment ...
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Can a device that causes memory loss be created with near-modern technology?
I am creating an alternate history world that leads to modern Earth having many different nations & cultures than it has in real life. One country is big on funding many extreme experiments to ...
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Would it be possible to make a brass/wind instrument with a jet engine as the source of airflow?
As the title says, basically. Could you have some kind of musical instrument powered by a jet engine?
It could be an organ, or a tuba, or whatever, it doesn't matter.
I'm understanding and open if the ...
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Space station maglev junction design
I'm designing a city building game in a huge 3D (without any notion of "top" or "bottom") space station (or rather, a space city). There are various functional buildings (vertices) ...
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How bullet resistant would a person be who is 80 times more durable than a regular human?
The tensile, shear and compressive strength of all their tissues, including bone, skin, muscle, etc., is multiplied by a factor of 80. They are also very buff and so have a large body volume.
How ...
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How to increase the structural integrity of comets (for the purpose of moving them)?
Suppose there is a comet of radius 500m made of mostly ice, with the rest being rock, dust, and other frozen gases. The comet is being hollowed out in order to use the water as reaction mass (giving ...
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Could a solid metal, tapered, segmented whip with a tip of equal mass to a 5.56 round produce fire arm like ballistics if cracked? (Not on the ground)
The whip would be around 10–11 feet long and most likely made from some steel alloy. If we were to ignore the strength limitations of humans and assume that someone could actually effectively use this ...
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Are stainless steel railway tracks worth it?
In How long would it take unused railroad rails to corrode below usability?, we are asked how long railway tracks would last, and in my answer, I show that while ordinary steel railway tracks are ...
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Non absurd way to lay a cable over light years of distance [closed]
This isn't entirely hard science but bear with me.
(Prologue) In the near future, a series of increasing heavy elements are synthesized building on the theory of islands of stability, incredibly ...
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Expanding a modular space-station for 100 years
The Mir, ISS, Tiangong, Skylab, the numerous Salyut-missions...Space-stations are one of the most impressive and interesting feats of modern engineering, which in my opinion, makes it even more tragic ...
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What is different about nocturnal humans' European manor houses?
Edit: Originally I asked this question about "houses" in general, but several comments made it clear to me houses was too broad a scope. So I've edited this question to restrict it's scope ...
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The late-victorian nuclear-thruster
Nuclear fission! How hard can that be? Nuclear reactors have been quietly humming under the earth's surface only a few billion years ago after all.
It's very convenient then, that my planet's quite a ...
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Motivations for creating "brainstar" bioplanets [closed]
I define a "bioplanet" as any single organism that completely covers the surface of a planet. In my scenario, humans pass Kardashev Type I status and build a Matrioshka brain around the core ...
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Designing barrier to stop only non-hooved animals
We have barriers that stop hooved animals by taking advantage their hooves fitting into slats between metal bars/rods, meaning they refuse to pass the barricade because it limits their mobility. ...
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Is it possible to design a bottle that can always be "full"?
The people in my setting (urban fantasy, starting in 1998 America and moving forward) have a bit of an engineering dilemma they need to work out regarding potionmaking. The magical substances they ...
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The Topography of Madness: Why would my lighthouse be designed with noisy, maddening switches? [closed]
My world is dead and mostly unexplored. And at the end of the known world, there is a beacon which serves that singular purpose: warning anyone approaching that beyond this point, there is nothing ...
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Believably Enhancing Actuator Machinery Performance through Ground Detection Techniques in Articulated Mechanical Racehorse Hooves
My hero is an ingenious technician held captive in a pirate enclave and serving them in the mechanical maintenance of their steampunk race horses. Similar to pod racing in Star Wars I: The Phantom ...
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Feasibility Of An RTEG-Powered Unmanned AFV With 1970s Technology?
The title says most of it. We would be assuming a pretty much unlimited R&D budget, and the vehicle to be remote-controlled or automated.
EDIT/CLARIFICATION: Could an RTEG power an APC-sized ...
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Feasibility of a 5000km tall orbital tower using active support
Note: I'm working on a far future sci-fi setting for a novel series which aims to blend elements of both "soft" and "hard" science fiction concepts. I'm aiming for the series to be ...
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Is it possible to melt icebergs for water at below the cost of desalination with 1960s/1970s technology?
(i'm going to use dollars for cost because i don't really want to figure out currency conversions for the in world currencies)
In this world people need water, a lot of water. But in areas that don't ...
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Super broad gauge railway vs double wide/multi track railway
So here's the scenario, a mad scientist has just managed to take over the continent on his campaign for world domination (which continent I will leave to your imagination but for simplicity lets say ...
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What is the longest bridge that a Bronze Age society could build across a bottomless chasm?
My world is in the mid-Bronze Age, very loosely based on ancient Mesopotamia. Metal is scarce and generally of poor quality, and the only iron available is meteoric in origin. Gold is relatively ...
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Can You Make A Tiny Nuclear Reactor By Employing Supercritical Conditions For Brief Periods Of Time?
The idea is that you would have pieces of plutonium or U233 close enough that if left to their own devices they should go supercritical in a fraction of a second. However, in between the pieces you ...
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How Effectively Could You Use Magical Darkness As A Compact Heatsink?
In this setting materials science is decades ahead, so answers should be limited by technology that isn't too speculative and don't presume anything supernatural beyond what I describe in this ...
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Could You Use Artificial Volcanoes To Create Buildings?
For the purposes of this question the builders are incredibly wealthy, have access to cheap nukes to use for excavation, and everyone in this world is immune to radiation.
The technology is decades ...
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Feasibility of Tiny Nuclear Engines
In this setting nuclear material is incredibly cheap, while all hydrocarbons need to be synthesized from scratch. Additionally people have shadow magic which allows them to both easily shield against ...
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Is there any reason a society might use electric boilers and steam engines in their trains rather than electric motors?
In an area in my world, people have discovered how to turn their aural constructs (magic stuff) into electrical supercapacitors, allowing for relatively advanced electrical technology.
Now that they ...
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Stranded mining colony using its own resources to build an interplanetary spacecraft: how long to completion can I credibly make it? (More = better)
Setting
In the not-too-far future, Mars hosts a few mining complexes that extract, refine and send materials back to our planetary system, as well as some scientific research bases. Commutes between ...
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What engineering complications would come from a species being giant?
In a project I'm currently working on, the primary species stands at roughly 19 feet tall on average. While there are advantages and disadvantages to such a size, this scaling would present a number ...
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How feasible is it for a construction company working 24/7 to superficially cover a (roughly) 2500x2500x500ft quarry and how long would it take?
A construction company has an immense workforce and wants to superficially cover a quarry and retain use of the interior for further and later development. The budget and workforce is immense, with ...
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Can one get some partial ammo compatibility or tooling simplification by developing a few weapons of caliber ~80mm together?
For a few weapons there is something akin to sweet spot around caliber ~80mm:
Carl Gustaf 8.4 cm recoilless rifle (rifled)
81 mm mortar (smoothbore)
FIM-92 Stinger (72 mm) / 9K38 Igla (72 mm) (...
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Bidirectional engineered rivers for long distance non-self-propelled boats
Building on my previous thread and taking into account suggestions Long distance travel by non-motorised rolling vehicles
I wish to consider two-way rivers that flow in opposite directions at the same ...
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Can I use the Peltier effect to cool down an underground city on Venus
In my fiction I have a city deep underground on the planet of Venus. I know this is deeply impractical, and there are far easier places to build an underground city, but that is not what I have done.
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City planning underwater
In my world, there is a race of fish people and merfolk. For a brief description: They are a mix of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Luca. For pictures and extra description: What conditions ...
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Supersoldiers enabling man-powered vehicles
Just as an exercise in worldbuilding, imagine a world where genetic engineering (on subjects that already reached maturity, so no need to modify embryos and raise them to adulthood) creates ...
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How could a man-portable EMP shotgun generate a pulse?
The Story
(this starts playing) The reactor core room is coated in black inky sludge, dotted with glowing blotches of cyan, with black tendrils laced up the hydraulic shocks and all around the reactor ...
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How could a resistance movement sabotage a hyperloop?
In my setting, a futuristic North America, the hyperloop is a newfangled mode of long-distance transportation. Basically it's a vacuum tube at low friction and air resistance, which allows pods to ...
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Necessities for a handheld electron beam weapon
So, since practically every science fiction writer under the sun has imagined some manner of handheld laser beam, I have been exploring alternatives for energy/particle weapons, one of which is an ...
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What fluids would be better than water for steam power?
I was wondering what it'd take for a fluid to be more efficient than water for steam engines.
My current idea is a fictional fluid with three properties: 1) It boils at 80C, thus requiring less fuel/...
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Possible mechanism for telescoping barrels
Is it a good idea?
No. A very definitive no.
However, that's not stopping a young aristocratic terrestrial cuttlefish (long story) that lives on this world's equivalent of a highly mountainous and ...
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Would a stationary railgun be possible utilizing 1910s electrical technology?
I am building a world in which gunpowder was not invented (chemistry is less advanced compared to other sciences), but other kinds of projectile weapons still dominate the battlefield (compressed air ...
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What would destroying an antimatter ship look like?
The Backstory
The ship in question is a massive matter-antimatter annihilation powered starship, built by an imperialist and tyrannical government with basically unlimited budget.
The Ship
The ...
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How could a 1 TW power plant be built?
As of 2021, global electrical production was about 7 TW. And the largest single power plant is the Three Gorges Dam at a capacity of 22.5 GW. My hero needs a single power plant with 50 times more ...
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How do we replace printing by automated writing?
It is the year 1800 technology-level. In this world, no one uses any kind of printing technology (moveable type, typewriters, block printing, lithography, etc). People still write, and need to ...
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How to make a good landing pad for a start-up colony
Due to the expansion of humanity into the stars, landing pads have popped up on every planet with even a remote resemblance of a permanent human presence, whether they start with a dozen or a thousand ...
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Cities built of ice and compacted snow on a planet where it never melts?
Picture a planet where it's always winter all year (by that I mean that there are technically no seasons and it's always sub-zero weather) so the colonizers make use of the most abundant materials ...
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Can there be an Underwater Advanced Civilization? [closed]
After watching Aquaman and, most recently, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which features Namor and his underwater empire, I got curious about the feasibility of an underwater civilization composed of ...
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How difficult would it be to reverse engineer a device whose function is based on unknown physics?
Premise - A technological device of unknown origin is found by modern day humans. by messing with its controls, it's discovered that its function appears to create some kind of anomaly such as a ...
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Can we use magnetic fields to make metalic hydrogen for rocket fuel?
Metallic hydrogen is probably the best possible chemical rocket fuel. It would make single-stage-take-off possible. The trouble is the stuff is extremely hard to contain, and requires exotic fuel ...
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