For those of you that may have experience in engineering of one kind or another, if you found yourself in a setting that appeared to have functional magic, including academies for it, what aspects of magic would you most immediately want to look for, as a potential expansion of your engineering knowledge?

I realize a lot of this depends on the specific field of engineering, and I'm more especially interested in an electrical/robotics perspective, but any input would be great.

One of the worlds I’m currently working on is a planet that spins sideways like Uranus. Such a planet wouldn’t have day-night cycles on its own. Thus, I was thinking of having a Hot Jupiter planet pass near the sun to blot out sunlight and having that simulate nighttime.

However, this raises the question of how long Hot Jupiters even last for. Would it be feasible to have a Hot Jupiter last long enough for complex life to appear on a habitable world?

I have a simmering worldbuilding project that I am working on for some time now, for which I am slowly gathering ideas that would fit The Vibe™ and each other, specifically to construct my ideal magic system. I'd like to ask you for some inspiration or brainstorming on what I am looking for, which is mechanics that are not supernatural within the world itself, but are just a more fantastical (and simpler) version of our laws of physics, just-so-happening to permit ghosts, alchemy, vampires, dragons and fireballs - or their approximate equivalent. The setting is a lot of things but let's say it a dark Victorian-esque steampunk, and I found that having archaic but still scientifically sounding concepts works great, especially if those actually seem to work in-universe.

So, do you have any favorite old scientific theories, esoteric concepts or weird phenomena that fall somewhere in between of science and fantasy? The things I have considered/implemented already include:

• Phlogiston - theory about a substance contained in combustible materials that is responsible for burning. Superseded by theory of oxidization. Essentially the elemental fire in material form.
• Caloric - theory about heat being a weightless, self-repelant fluid. It was superseded by the kinetic theory.
• Energeticism - theory that posits that energy is the ultimate element of physical reality, an alternative to the theory of atoms.- Luminiferous aether - theory about a substance propagating the universe, which was the medium through which light (being a wave, such as sound) propagated through.
• Etheric force - actual name by Thomas Edison for a phenomenon that what was basically radio waves
• Catastrophism - as in geological theory, that as opposed to Uniformitarianism, proposed that the world was shaped mainly by the circles of catastrophes.
• Miasma - theory stating that diseases are carried by "bad air". Where we got the iconic plague doctor mask, which was an attempt to stop the stink from getting into their lungs.
• Humorism - system of medicine detailing how humans are made out of four bodli elements (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) and that diseases stem form an imbalance between them. Closely linked to the temperaments theory and more generally to the 4 elements in Western culture.

Most of those are very Western, which fits the Victorian vibe and faux-hellenic naming scheme I am using, but I also very much welcome theories and concepts from outside of Europe. Including something in the story doesn't also mean that what the theory says must be true - a big part of what I want to capture is that most of what we know is only a lens through which we look at reality. Having an "approximate but alternative" names for the things we are familiar with is also something I want. Anyway, I love this topic so I hope I get to share some ideas with you. Thanks for reading till the end ^^

I was hoping to run some basic chemistry cycles by y'all to see if it seems at least plausible, so please feel free to let me know any potential issues or effects I might not have thought of!

So, starting conditions are that this is a terrestrial world, in the liquid water temp range, and it has more hydrogen and chlorine, with the main salt dissolved in the oceans being zinc chloride, not sodium chloride.

Starting in the ocean itself, it is mainly a solution of water, hydronium, zinc chloride and hydrochloric acid. This makes the water highly acidic and corrosive, but more importantly the large amounts of hydronium give the oceans a positive charge. Considering the atmosphere has a slightly negative charge on average, I'm using artistic license and assumption to say that lightning storms are common and strike the water very often.

These lightning strikes act as electrolysis, stripping elemental zinc from the zinc chloride and turning the water and hydrochloric acid into oxygen, hydrogen and chlorine gasses, which recombine into hydrogen chloride, water and hydrochloric acid in the atmosphere to form acid rain.

The Zinc left behind in the ocean reacts to the hydrochloric acid and hydronium to create zinc chloride salt, hydrogen gas and heat, which is where the boiling comes in. Acid rain comes back down, adding more water, hydrochloric acid and hydronium, the ocean becomes more acid and positively charged, lightning strikes again, and the cycle begins once more.

Now, I'm not a chemist so I'm sure I'm missing some things in this reaction cycle, and I'm fairly sure that in reality this would likely just make the oceans steam and bubble a little from escaping hydrogen gasses at best, or just be a little warmer with no other difference at worst. That said, does this seem at least plausible? Any big ripple effects or implications I haven't thought of?

Hi! This is my fisrt time on this sub Reddit.

Years ago I came across a short novel about an couple of stranded times travellers that have to saving up wealths for the timemachine fuel, which happens to be a lots of pure gold element. Later, there would be more of short stories in various media that use similar concept of expensive fuel source. (Unfortunately, I couldn't remember plot to all of them)

And the latest with the ducktale reboot, Scrooge's rocket ship that also use gold mineral as fuel source.

So to cut to the point - Is there a scientific theory or even older Sci-fi work that these writers could have based or referencing their's gold fuelled engine of off or is it just some coincidence.

Hi everyone :) Hope you're having a good day. I'm a writer and am seeking help with coming up with an antimatter periodic table for my science fantasy book. While my book is not hard sci fi, I do want it to have some grounding in real or specualtive science. However, I have very limited knowledge of chemistry. I have tried talking to some people who are experts in chemistry but haven't yet found a solution. I'd greatly appreciate any advice from any of you on how to go about this.

I'm working on a book in which there are two CPT symmetric universes, one made out of matter and the other made of antimatter. Both universes have the same physical laws which are similar to the real life physical laws. My story dictates that both universes have some similarities and some differences on a micro and macro level so that they are essentially mirror images of each other. For this to occur, I wanted the elements and antielements to have slightly different chemical properties because that would cause the universes to end up having some differences.

There is a significant community that explores speculative biology and evolution in sci fi/fantasy books but I have never come across an exploration of speculative chemistry. I'm unsure how to go about handling this endeavor. When I tried to find any scientists who have speculated how an antimatter periodic table could look like or how it's chemical properties could differ from those of matter elements, I found nothing. We have only very briefly observed antihydrogen and antihelium, so I do have significant creative liberty in assigning properties to antimatter elements.

However, I do not how to scientifically justify mirrored properties for the matter and antimatter elements because based on what we now know, it seems like elements and their corresponding anti elements most likely behave in the same way. I would have liked elements with more metallic traits to have corresponding anti elements with more non metallic traits as this would give the universes a mirrored nature while making sure that both universes are equally powerful. My goal is to use real life chemical principles as much as possible and keep things simple while still creating novel universes.

If any of you have any ideas or suggestions on how I can go about this, please DM me. I'm happy to provide more details via chat if needed. Any fictional or non fictional book recommendations that would help me are also welcome. Thank you in advance!

for a framework this kin of earth magic would make rock from mana. The rock would be formed by mana sort of calcifying and binding together. I'm just wondering what a geological name for this type of rock would be.

One type of world I've always wanted to try designing is a binary planet system where two planets of similar size orbit each other around a shared center of gravity (sort of like Pluto and its moon Charon).

However, I was wondering how stable such a system would be. Assuming both planets were in the Habitable Zone of their star, how long would the planets be able to orbit each other before spiraling towards each other and colliding?

There are many concepts of galactivores or world eaters. Good example here.

They are usually portrayed as having sharp teeth like real world carnivores, which are for tearing meat. But is that what a world eater would really need? Aside from eating, they wouldn't need the sharp teeth for defense either, assuming they are the topmost apex predator.

• Maybe they have whale-like baleen to filter out the hot suns and black holes, since they can’t digest helium, hydrogen, and infinity.
• Or maybe they would be like gargantuan tube-shaped sea sponges, with most of a galaxy passing through it except the edges nearest to the sponge walls where the pulling-apart happens.
• Or maybe they are clouds of maw-like rings that gradually absorb galaxies as they become entangled with them.

These ideas might make for a more varied set of world eater stories and art. Probably a lot of examples in SF that I just haven't read. Anyone seen non-sharp teeth concepts?

So I have a situation in a fantasy novel I’m writing, where I’d like to understand the real-world physics to see if it would be a problem, and if so, is there a fix.

Assume a cargo sailing ship with construction/hull design similar to mid 19th century Earth, say 150-200’ long. Ship is becalmed and will be towed to safety by a dragon (don’t worry about the dragon physics for this.)

The question is basically this: I’ve heard that it can be a problem if you tow a displacement hull too fast (even heard you can sink the ship this way.) Can this be fixed towing in a way that lifts the bow up while towing (since the dragon could presumably pull the tow rope at any angle.)

Any structural considerations? I’m assuming most hulls would be reinforced to take a lot of stress through wherever the anchor would be attached to at the bow?

In D&D, a Quickling is a humanoid measuring 24-30 inches in height and weighing 10-15 pounds. They are capable of running up to 40 feet per second.

Assuming their bodies have the same size proportions as humans, would they be able to run on water?

I have trouble figuring out the exact science behind my magic system since I wanted it to be fundemental enough so that a lot of our world's "magic" like alchemy, voodoo, what-not can exist in an alternate world but still have a rational basis behind them. Thus I'm trying to figure it all out by defining its mechanics first and then play scientist later and theorize how it all works.

The Seed Crystal (Base idea) is from the dnd spell Detect Magic. If one were to become aware of the magical energy and use it, they must learn how to detect it first. Typically the spell (in my dnd playing experience) is used to detect high concentrations of magic by feel or sense, implying that magic is recently used in that space, implying that magic is uniformed across spacetime (else they can just write it off as "Oh, high magic concentrations drifted here, it's not because a Fae recently used a complex spell in this area thus effectively increasing the magic concentration in the spell's aftermath") and it can interact with regular matter, but not enough to make an effect with its constant ( also need to figure out a symbol for it) in a vacuum.

So I've decided to get the one of the biggest problem out of the way: the ability for a random organism to use an energy of such high caliber. It doesn't make sense to me sometimes when a creature is able to just use magic and affect reality. How are they able to do that? Is it genetic or environmental or both? Is there evolution pressure to be able to magic? etc etc.

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Arcanists: entities able to manipulate Arcanum aka Arcane Energy, the primordial energy (soup) of which all energies are derived from, uniformed across spacetime. Though an official international title, it is sometimes used as a derogatory term to objectify organic Arcanists due to its technical association with non-organic arcanists.

• Organics: 
  • Humans: are splitted into 2 groups. Arcanists and Non-Arcanists, often referred to as a “Race” even if they’re not exactly a race. All are capable of using arcanum and producing Arcanic cells, it's just that it's not inherent from birth. Genetics + Environment.
    • Arcanic cells: are produced when the body is exposed to high arcane energy concentrations; the dormant gene to make the specialized cells are activated to help the body cope with this energy/radiation(?), and any cell can become a stem cell and split into Arcanic cells. They're shaped like small neurons and connect together like a biological energy circuit in a few limbs or the entire body. So those who are exposed to higher concentrations of Arcane energy, typically by living in a household of Arcanists, can possess them. But if the cell is not being used because it's no longer as onslaught-ed by arcanum in the environment or the body's own manipulation of arcanum, the body no longer produces more since it's a waste of resources, and eventually the Arcanic cells die off. It can also die off by sudden leaps in energy concentration, ei apoptosis? This means an Arcanist can become a non-arcanist, and vice versa.
    • Differentiation: Arcanists possess Arcanic Cells. Non-Active Arcanic cells are not linked together, maybe because the cells are so fried, they just can't anymore. Like muscles. Also like muscles, they can get ripped apart from each other, thought that damage is negligible.
    • This means the body uses parts of its resources to constantly make those Arcanic cells, resulting in Arcanists being weaker than average. This also means the less arcanum used, the longer the cell lives, the less resources used, the more non-arcanic cells being made, the physically stronger they are. 
  • However, Humans will not recognize Arcane ability if they don’t use it at all. Which is why some Arcanists don’t do any arcane, because they don’t even notice they can. Its kinda like having muscles. Don’t use = they die. 
• Non-Organics (and sometimes Non-Arcanic Species like...a durian. Or a tree. Sentient Tree Grandma potential. This is what I meant by wanting it to be fundamental enough that I can do anything)
  • Awakened: Exposed to extremely high Arcane concentrations, the energy has no other choice but to force itself into the Baryonic Matter, effectively converting it into Arcanic matter as it joins the nucleus (I don’t know how). Two things can happen: the atom gets into an Excited state, where it slowly gains “sentience” so long as it stays in that excited state; it then “dies” during Emission, where the atom returns to ground level. In sentience, the “awakened” arcanist can keep the Arcanic matter from naturally “unraveling” back into Arcanum using the energy itself and preserve its own life. This limits them though, as it means they remain static. All energy is used to maintain itself. Their own power comes from how much excess Arcane they can utilize without losing control over their artificial(?) homeostasis. 
    • Which is why magic artifacts exist :), sentient-ish less-complex non-organics with magic power but can’t do much since its own consciousness is primitive.
    • Arcanists often imbue things like swords or guns(provided they have a license....or not) with arcane during combat, maximizing their own endurance while maintaining combat ability. Then once combat is over, they gradually release control over their magic artifacts (else it’ll explode) and it returns to ground level. This prevents the thing from becoming sentient by disrupting the gradual process and also their Arcanic cells can take a break from overtime. Some who absolutely hates physical exercise or just suck as physical movement will use wands or staves instead. They can bonk and poke.
    • Most non-organics are magic artifacts/things. Like 99.99% ∓ 0.01% idk

Hello, sorry if the title doesn't make sense. It is for a story that I am making, and it is a My Hero Academia fanfic. I have a character that breathes fire. But how could I explain the mechanisms behind that? I did some research, (animals that can expel some liquid as a method of defence, such as the bombardier beetle, about circus performers…). I even tried to figure out what sort of sport she could have done in her childhood that would help control her power: swimming, for example, takes a lot of breath control. She is also an overachiever and a perfectionist. It is not enough to be good, it NEEDS to be excellent. People constantly look down on her, so she loves to prove them wrong academically or in sports. But, in the sports in question, I wanted to be somehow something that could help her power. I am in between ballet, ice skating, swimming, fencing or taekwondo—something that requires effort, something that drains her. There are reasons for that. Maybe more than one? But it is all loose information. Could I, in some way, shape or form, write this and pass it off as believable? Thank you for reading.

Tower and mine shaft

Elevator

ropes

flywheels

Very large catapult larger then the Warwolf. The system is connected to electricity sources via wires to an external combustion engine, dam or coal engine.

How effective would this be? Could it have a longer range then traditional catapults due to the energy sources with larger bombs?

I’m in the beginning stages of world building a story set in a mega city on the moon. There are certain aspects of my story that lean a lot more towards a fantasy/magical side of things, but there are other aspects that I would like to keep semi plausible. Essentially, the “Magic” gives opportunity for high caliber technological advancements. My prime example is this -

In this universe, there is a seemingly all powerful “God Particle” type element that exists. This element has been integrated into societies across the universe and serves as the driving force for renewable energy / technological breakthroughs. After it’s discovery by humans, they have used it to create a new society on the moon. With its discovery came an extreme technological breakthrough, with one of the main things being the complete manipulation of gravity. One of the essential items every single person living in this newfound moon society must have is a Gravity Regulator.

My idea for this Gravity Regulator is that it should be a wearable piece of tech that allows people to manually adjust the force of gravity their body experiences. They can turn it off completely, leaving them semi-weightless like one would typically be on the moon, or turn it fully on to replicate earth style gravity.

My question is simply - How could this be scientifically explained in a way that makes sense to the reader?

I want to build a fictional type of technology that uses tachyons for FTL applications. The tachyons need to interact with ordinary matter for this to work. Obviously this is impossible, but ignoring that minor inconvenience, what class of particle would work best for a tachyon? Boson? Fermion? Lepton?

I know that Neutron Stars are formed from collapse of massive stars and their protons and electrons collide forming neutrons and they emit neutrinos.

I was wondering, if you came into contact with a piece of neutron star, from it’s intense gravity and radiation, would it basically turn you into neutrons as well and emit neutrinos too?

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/could-you-walk-on-a-neutron-star#:\~:text=You%20would%20become%20a%20puff,neutrons%20and%20ultra%2Drelativistic%20electrons.

I trying to make something for a story of mine

In 2021’s “Godzilla vs Kong”, there is a scene in which Godzilla uses his atomic breath to blast a hole through the Earth’s surface that eventually breaches into this universe’s interpretation of the Hollow Earth. Godzilla does this to fight Kong. I wanna know how strong this attack is.

Assuming the Hollow Earth begins at the Earth’s outer core, Godzilla’s atomic breath burned through the Earth’s crust and mantle. In terms of the movie’s runtime, this action took place in 3 minutes from when the beam hit the ground and when it exits next to Kong in the HE. There’s about 1,795 miles of solid and molten rock between him and the Hollow Earth (assuming the Monsterverse’s Earth actually has a mantle).

I guess I’m looking for energy output here? I’m not a math or science nerd so I’m not sure what figures or equations I’d need to use.

TL;DR, Godzilla blasted a hole through 1,795 miles of crust and mantle to breach the Earth’s outer core. He did this in 3 minutes. How much energy did that blast produce?

Some other factors if they’re helpful: Godzilla is 393 feet tall, weighs 99,634 US tons, and his atomic breath is nuclear powered (they never really explain why his body lets him breath atomic fire, he just can). Also, several other monsters have tanked this attack and lived, including Kong himself. One source also states that Godzilla’s atomic breath reaches a temperature of about 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but I don’t know how credible or accurate that is.

In this universe, “magic” is obtained through consumption of iron. Let me explain.

Iron is the most stable element on the periodic table. In this alternate reality, the universe has “limits” on both the stability and instability of anything. Basically iron is too stable and breaks the rules of the universe. So the universe slightly altered Iron-56, it added “Havoc” to the binding energy between the nucleons. This adds just the perfect amount of instability to Iron-56 allowing it to exist in the universe (think of havoc kinda like sauce is to pasta). Once havoc has been applied, the effects are permanent, even if the havoc is removed.

Some people have the ability draw the havoc out of iron after consuming it (can be literally eating iron but usually iron-dense foods) and use certain abilities depending on different factors.

Now the problem comes here:

I want to come up with a sort of anti-havoc, the exact opposite of havoc. It will be called Stability or something, which will basically negate the effects of Havoc. Stability is a sort of negative energy that the universe has applied to an element that is so unstable, it would not be able to exist otherwise.

So naturally this (google search for the least stable, naturally occurring element) led me to Francium. If you know anything about francium, then you see my issue LOL. It’s so unstable it’s half-life is abysmal. It’s egregiously rare. And it’s reactive asf. It would basically never see use by characters.

I can’t use an element that’s slightly less stable than Francium (i think) because that would mean that Francium is breaking the universe’s rules.

Maybe my only option is to make a new element?

Or maybe have multiple elements that are too unstable to exist, thus having multiple elements have Stability in them to draw upon? so I could use a more stable element too?

it’s hurting my brain

If you took the time to read this, thank you!!

The earth is constantly moving through space at about 67000 mph so if that stopped and you didn't you would still be moving at an insanely high speed right?

Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse and now For All Mankind were revolutionary in representing realistic spaceship physics in terms of momentum and not treating spacecraft like fighter planes. But the area of spaceship design I'd like to see given more realism is the sensors. In Star Trek they tap a few buttons and an HD image of the ship appears on the display screen from millions of kilometers away, they can even analyse the DNA of people on board somehow. They never really explain where the sensors are on the ship, how they work or what their capabilities are.

Let's say a ship appears from behind the moon. It's probably a Chinese cargo ship returning from bringing supplies to their base. But covert ops heard rumours of a Chinese warship being built in secret. NASA turns its telescopes to inspect the ship and look for clues as to if it's armed or not. How good a picture can you see from a quarter of a million miles away?

In cosmic terms Earth and the Moon are pretty close. We can see moons around gas giants with civilian telescopes or stars in other galaxies with really big space telescopes. But Hubble is looking at stars that are a lot bigger than a Chinese spaceship and 250,000 miles is still a very very long way away. Google says that Hubble can't see the Apollo landing sites because at that distance the 4 meter wide Lunar Descent Stage would be a single pixel. Some of that may be down to design issues, Hubble wasn't meant to be able to see things so dark or so close. But does that mean a ship would need a telescope much larger than Hubble to be able to see ships approaching from the moon?

What about larger distances? Like in The Expanse if there's a ship / fleet leaving Mars heading to Earth. Can you see anything more than a blob at those distances?

I feel like ships would need giant telescopes bigger than JWST to see things that far away. Then those giant telescopes would be a major weakspot in combat, perhaps they fold away under protective doors before getting into a fight. Or you could get a surprise hit with a laser and ruin their long range sensors before your main fleet comes out from behind the moon.

My book takes place on Earth but in a different timeline so all continents are shuffled and in different places than real life. The rocks that killed the dinosaurs have a new element in them that is a specific type of radiation which any living thing that comes in contact with will transform it. Mutate, in a way that makes animals more like mythological creatures and people will have magic power that isn't like "presto i have a rabbit in my hat" but rather "i willed my breath into fire".

I know, it's kinda outside our knowledge. I'm more so talking about keeping it LIVING.