Questions tagged [hard-science]
REVIEW THE WIKI BEFORE USING THIS TAG! For questions that require unequivocal proof that answers are correct through the use of equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, etc. Compare to: science-fiction, science-based and internal-consistency. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, science-based, or internal-consistency tags. Flag your question for moderator attention once posted.
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Can You Build a Propeller or Airfoil for a Higgs Field?
The Higgs field is described as a
viscous field, akin to syrup for the particles that interact with it.
That got me thinking: could a propellor, then, be constructed that generates "thrust" ...
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Climate and ecosystems of Zealandia [closed]
As per the title, I have not been able to locate accurate information regarding what the climate of a surfaced Zealandia have. For the purpose of the question, we will suppose that the continent ...
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The possibility and effects of xenon in the atmosphere
I'm building a exoplanet with no humans included to do speculative biology, so I'm wondering what kind of effects would xenon have on the planet. I was thinking about a mixture of: N2-72% O2-22.9% Ar-...
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What's the fastest real-world travel time to the opposite side of the world?
Imagine you are the most important and powerful person on Earth.
One day, you're giving a talk in Managua, Nicaragua, when something important suddenly happens on the opposite side of the planet: ...
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Long term viability of a human population with super healing that causes female to male sequential hermaphrotism [closed]
This question starts with a conversation I had with friends about the implications of super healing ability of Marvel comics characters like Wolverine, Deadpool, Hulk, and more. How would a person ...
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Exploring the Feasibility of Laser-Based Ram Scoops Powered by Micro Black Holes [closed]
Ram scoop ships are a well-loved element of hard science fiction, typically employing magnetic fields to harvest interstellar gas. However, this concept often grapples with practical issues like drag ...
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Would you be able to look directly at the Sun if it were a red giant?
For the moment, let's ignore the fact that the Sun is theorized to swallow Earth when it does decay into a red giant. We will pretend that it gets big enough to eat Venus, and stops there.
It will ...
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What would happen to the sky colour if SO2 made up 95% of the atmosphere? [duplicate]
Because of the Rayleigh scattering phenomenon, I'm interested in how the G2V-type star light would interact with this composition, especially how it would change the colour of the sky. What kinds of ...
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What is the longest possible (current material science) for a human weight-bearing 3” thick, 5’ wide slab attached to a wall on one end? [closed]
For my story, I need a cliff face with a slab sticking out of the middle of it, like an inflexible diving board. I need it to be 5 feet wide (exact) and 3-to-6 inches thick (thinner is better). I need ...
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How long can nuclear power plants last without the power grid and humanity? [duplicate]
Here is the question: "Following an immediate, irreversible collapse of the power grid and the medium-term (few decades) disappearance of humanity, would would happen to nuclear power plants?&...
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Sky color other than blue
Is it possible to have a planet where humans can survive for >30min outside, where the sky color is anything but blue?
In anime and sci-fi, there are planets with a purple / green /red / yellow / .....
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Stealth In Space Calculator
I want to make a calculator that can determine the range at which spaceships will be detected against an infrared detection system.
Figuring out how "stealthy" a ship is is mostly a matter ...
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How to calculate the tides for lake?
Assuming I have a lake on Earth shaped simply like an oval or circle with a consistent bottom slope and of otherwise arbitrary dimensions, how do I figure out what the resultant tidal range will be?
...
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Could a Luna-based colony successfully revolt against Earth? [closed]
Let’s say that a colony established by humans on Earth’s moon was, for whatever reason, entering a revolutionary war with Earth for its own long-term sovereignty as a planet/nation. Mars has also been ...
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What are the orbital perturbations needed to destabilize a system to the point of taking some bodies out of resonance and kicking out another?
I have a gas giant with a mass of $1.63314\times10^{27}kg$ and a radius of 66,559.052km and orbiting it are 4 moons.
It orbits a star with 0.86M☉ at a distance of 5.03AU
My question is what ...
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What is the largest fraction of Earth's sky that an astronomical object could take up (visually) before ripping Earth or itself apart?
I know the Roche limit limits how close another planet could get to Earth. Closer than that limit, and either it breaks apart or Earth breaks apart.
I don't care what size it is, if it's a super-...
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Global warming in an apocalyptic future?
In my world, there's a global apocalypse that wipes out humanity, but I'm wondering how global warming might continue even with the lack of additional greenhouse gases. If emissions suddenly stopped, ...
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How much better would metallic hydrogen be than conventional explosives?
How much more effective (if at all) would metallic hydrogen explosives be against armored targets?
In this setting metallic hydrogen can be cheaply manufactured and contained in a metastable state ...
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Readily available MIR refracting material
I am looking for a material that could serve to do the following: build a 5m x 5m wall that looks pretty normal (not necessarily during construction) but has the ability to transmit and refract MIR, ...
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How do I figure out where a moon is in the sky at a given time and place?
I use this planetarium tool to see the position of the Moon to check I have it in the right place for a given place and time, for my non-Earth plant. I'm considering having another moon. How would I ...
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Moving people and goods between spinning and non-spinning parts of a space station [closed]
I'm thinking of three possibilities - all of which have the user experience of elevators and don't require space suits.
involves a programmed pod that moves a short distance in space between docking ...
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Building dams from underwater
A recent question of an underwater race hunting land-based creatures has been answered with "they can build dams" (here https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/253462/86466). I have ...
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How would sex chromosome inheritance work in a tetraploid trioecious species with the ZW sex determination system?
I imagined a trioecious angiosperm species descended from common cocoa trees (Theobroma cacao). Trioecious = three sexes (male, female, and simultaneous hermaphrodite).
They use the ZW sex-...
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Questions about Pycocyanin [closed]
Okay, so I have been reading on phycocyanin for blue plants, for a spec bio project, and I have several questions. Which are all closely related in terms of how it functions.They are essentially all ...
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Did I just discover that the ether that my etheric keels interact with is four-dimensional?
I have been working on deriving an answer to How should I determine the properties of keels and ether? myself, and I was looking at the lift equation:
$$L = \frac{1}{2}\rho v^2SC_L$$
where:
$L$ is ...
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Can two species from the same genus but with a different sex determination system interbreed and have fertile (or at least sub-fertile) offspring?
In my futuristic world, there are two coelacanth species that are the daughter species from the famous West Indian Ocean coelacanth. One has the XY sex determination system (like humans, iguanas, ...
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On Habitable Moon Systems
Context
I was working on a habitable gas giant moon, but I came across an issue in that, at the acceptable distances from its parent planet (10-20 planetary Radii, according to an Artefexian video on ...
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If you Broke Mars' Perclorates and Benzenes How Much of an Atmosphere Would this Create?
Much of Mars is inimical to human life. While there are many problems I would like to focus on three:
The low density atmosphere does not provide the pressure needed to
sustain humans outside of a ...
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How would researchers on an alien planet be able to support their dietary requirements?
A group of scientists travels to a newly discovered planet shown to support life in the form of plants and animals. Obviously they can only bring so much food with them so at some point they would ...
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If money were no object, is there an element or alloy that would make for better train tracks than common steel?
A question that arose from here.
Say we have a planet with a different percentage of various elements than Earth, but steam train technology, and we were striving for train track longevity. Is there ...
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How could my organism lose most of its water?
I'm writing a short hard-science story about an organism that loses most of its water much like tardigrades before entering dormancy but this organism is the size of a cat, how could I explain this ...
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How much difference would Alpha Centauri A cause to the climate of a planet about Alpha Centauri B?
Imagine an earthlike planet in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri B. Call it ACBc (although I am not sure ACBb has been confirmed). When ACA and ACB are closest to one another, they are about 11 AU ...
- 1,075
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Solar Flare/CME Range Limits
The Setting:
A binary solar system comprised of a KV-class Orange Dwarf, and an M-Class Red Dwarf which orbits roughly 600AU away. The Orange Dwarf has 4 planets orbiting around it, including one ...
- 1,534
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How to calculate the expected rotational speed of a star
I am working on fictional stars, and I want to have as many points about them as I can, and most things I found relatively easy, except for rotational speed.
I am not sure exactly how to find at what ...
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Do Forbidden Lines in Stars Often Come in Groups
In previous questions, I asked about how a K2V star could develop an [O VII] forbidden line and how those x-rays would create "pseudo-aurorae". Now, I'd like to know if my star could ...
- 1,554
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Finding a stable atmosphere for a different gravity
I am trying to find what would be a stable atmosphere for a planet, using this https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cW7BIWlBUscqS9MVqs5gSbPH0OGzyE-j2cz6ADBSVzE/edit#gid=0 (you have to make a copy ...
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Visibility of My "Psuedo-Aurorae"
I have been designing a habitable planet, its moon, and its star for a while now.
Background
My star is a K2V star with very strong solar wind and is about the age of the Sun. Every so often, when the ...
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How could a K star develop an [O VII] Forbidden Line at 22.1 Å
The Goal
I have been designing a planet for quite a while now, and I would like the star to have an [O VII] forbidden line in its atmosphere. There doesn't need to be too much, but I need enough for ...
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How do human girls who are sterilised at age 9 develop as they mature?
On the world of Ruquelis, there are three genders, men, women, and lilim who are a female sex, with wings and clawed feet. Because of the genetics of this situation, lilim are less fertile and can ...
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Amount of antimatter needed to propel large spacecraft?
Okay, So i'm not really into physics or mathematics but i'm trying my best to learn some bit of how the calculations needed for the amount of antimatter needed to propel a spacecrafft to relativistic ...
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Exomoon Color as Viewed from Planet It Orbits
I have been designing a planet and it has one moon that is slightly smaller than ours. Just like how mars appears red and its dust is red, I realized that maybe if I altered the composition of my moon,...
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How could a planet accumulate xenon in its atmosphere?
I am currently creating a planet with an atmosphere rich in noble gasses, especially neon, xenon, and argon. It's composition is roughly about this:
Nitrogen (N2) - 61.5%
Oxygen (O2) - 21%
Neon (Ne) -...
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Ammonia transporting blood
Okay essentially I am designing an alien ecosystem with an ammonia and methane based metabolism. Here's the formula for the metabolism animal analogs use on this planet:
$$\ce{3CH2O + 4NH3 -> 3CH4 +...
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How deep underwater can red photosynthesis work?
The Setting:
I have a binary star system.
First star: K5.2V class Orange Dwarf, 60% the mass of Sol, 17% luminosity of Sol, and at 4.5 billion years old. This star is the only one with a planetary ...
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Fire Analogue on Hydrogen Methane atmosphere Planet
Okay to summarize I have a planet with an approximate atmosphere of 44% nitrogen gas, 30% hydrogen gas, 23% methane and 3% other trace gases. I am working on an intelligent alien race on this planet ...
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Partially tidally locked planed due to elliptical orbit... Possible?
Would it be possible for a planet with an elliptical orbit to be tidally locked to a star, only for a certain part of it's orbit?
If this is possible, then:
could the tidally locked side vary from ...
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Would lenses work in a universe with four spatial dimensions?
Let us assume that we have a universe with four spatial dimensions rather than the three of our universe, in which matter can exist that is a four-dimensional analogue of three-dimensional matter.
...
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Zero energy transfer between Earth and Moon with space elevators
I'm asking this out of curiosity, mostly as a response to Space elevator from Earth to Moon with multiple temporary anchors and some of the comments and answers there.
Suppose you're able to build ...
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Trinary star system - Tidal locked planet [closed]
I'm trying to build a world where an earth-like planet is tidal locked to a sun in a three star system, where the other two would orbit each other in the center (being the central mass of the system). ...
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What kind of scanner can detect a hidden chip in someone's body?
So it's the lead-up to what might be World War III and the enemy is kidnapping and implanting mind-control chips into our people, one by one, to turn them into sleeper agents, to all attack en masse ...
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