owl: Stylized barn owl (ponder)
[personal profile] owl
If you can manipulate gravity, that doesn't automatically give you an reaction-less drive, no? I'm kind of imagining creating a gravity well in front of your spaceship and falling into it, but wouldn't that be like pulling yourself along by your shoelaces?

Obviously you could still use it to stick yourself to the floor and avoid the disadvantages of freefall, stop smashing your passengers at high acceleration, deflect space debris, or create very small black holes in your enemies' stomachs :)

Date: 2008-02-07 04:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] persephone-kore.livejournal.com
You'd still have inertia, so no reactionless...ness.

Date: 2008-02-07 04:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aquarius-1977.livejournal.com
Hey, if we could just figure out how to manipulate gravity enough in order to keep it from taking a toll on our body parts and our hair, THAT'D be cool!

Date: 2008-02-10 07:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] emmy-roo.livejournal.com
You really can pull yourself along by your shoelaces (yes, I did just try it, yes, I'm a nerd). It takes energy, but you can do it. So the question would become - how do you generate the gravity well in the first place? Considering that General Relativity equates gravity and acceleration, and requires you to bend spacetime in order to create a gravity well?
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