The answer to all your problems. by oldenglanddry

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

The answer to all your problems.

POSTED BY: OLDENGLANDDRY
UPDATED: Sunday, August 28, 2011 18:37
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Friday, August 26, 2011 2:10 AM

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/astronomers-discover-planet-made-diamond-0149
13051.html

'Course the Chinese are probably already there.

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Friday, August 26, 2011 4:15 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Reminds me of the fabled material 'Neutronium' which sci-fi writers indicated could only naturally exist in the core of neutron stars.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Friday, August 26, 2011 4:22 AM

OLDENGLANDDRY

Or "Unobtainium" ?

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Friday, August 26, 2011 4:29 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Heh. Yes. Though my personal favorite to use for invented supermaterials is 'Stabilized Ununbium."

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Friday, August 26, 2011 2:32 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Huh. I remember Arthur C. Clarke postulating just such a thing about certain planets - enough heat, pressure, time, and carbon, and you get a planet with a giant diamond for a core.

It's really cool when this kind of stuff is discovered - whatever physics says CAN exist, it seems we eventually find it.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Friday, August 26, 2011 7:17 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Reminds me of the fabled material 'Neutronium' which sci-fi writers indicated could only naturally exist in the core of neutron stars.

Not really so fabled, though, is it? I mean, physics says neutronium should exist, and neutron stars exist, so...

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Saturday, August 27, 2011 5:37 AM

DREAMTROVE

Dragging over from the other thread: Yes, hard to get to, pretty to behold, but if land here...

Meanwhile, diamond star!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm

Diamond planet has the lovely Dr. Who episode feel, in a field of gravity impossible to get in and out of, diamond the mass of jupiter.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Saturday, August 27, 2011 6:49 AM

KWICKO

Now if we could just get a solar system necklace of a sort, with diamond stars orbiting a diamond sun, that would make a lovely gift for the missus! :)

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 8:03 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Reminds me of the fabled material 'Neutronium' which sci-fi writers indicated could only naturally exist in the core of neutron stars.

Not really so fabled, though, is it? I mean, physics says neutronium should exist, and neutron stars exist, so...

Hello,

Well, it's more the supposed properties of Neutronium that are fabled, more than the flat fact that something must be in the middle of stars.

Neutronium does anything needed, depending on the story. Usually an impenetrable hull or metal, which can be penetrated only by the superduperweapon.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 9:53 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Neutronium does anything needed, depending on the story. Usually an impenetrable hull or metal, which can be penetrated only by the superduperweapon.

While leaving aside the fact that it'd be too bloody heavy to get off the ground, and have so much mass you'd never be able to carry enough fuel to move it...

Sometimes you have to wonder if many of the folks who write sci-fi have even the vaguest understanding of elementary physics.

-F

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 11:03 AM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Reminds me of the fabled material 'Neutronium' which sci-fi writers indicated could only naturally exist in the core of neutron stars.

Not really so fabled, though, is it? I mean, physics says neutronium should exist, and neutron stars exist, so...

Hello,

Well, it's more the supposed properties of Neutronium that are fabled, more than the flat fact that something must be in the middle of stars.

Neutronium does anything needed, depending on the story. Usually an impenetrable hull or metal, which can be penetrated only by the superduperweapon.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Ah. Yes, point taken.

Perhaps a bit of it - a couple spoonfuls - might be handy in some sort of gravity drive, but a quantum black hole might be easier and more efficient...

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 6:02 PM

DREAMTROVE

It might go through your hand and the planet, but that's why you carry it in a containment field, which can fit inside a canister, and as long as the blue light is on, the collective arrangement doesn't weigh any more than a soda can.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 6:37 PM

KWICKO

Yeah, that's the general idea usually seen in sci-fi. But if you have the ABILITY to create a quantum black hole, you needn't carry it around; in fact, you really can't carry one around, because they are so very, very unstable in the first place.

But if you have the ability to create one on command, you have the ability to drop one into its own gravity well and then follow it. Allegedly. Interdimensional travel at your fingertips, so long as you don't really care where you end up. Or when. But you'd definitely get somewhere.

Same idea behind carrying around some neutronium for a gravity drive - it adds mass and gravity when you release it from its containment and drop it, so it warps space ahead of you as you follow it, and since it has nearly infinite mass, it also has near-infinite energy potential.

Theoretically, anyway.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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