Physics of Elite Dangerous and it's connection to lore
Considering what i read around the forums, i never thought the "Details in Elite Dangerous" thread would get that much attention...as so many are bickering about how the physics of E: D are "crap". But are they really...?
E: D at least tries to uphold physical laws. I understand it's not possible always, since you would sacrifice to much gameplay - and i do appreciate this, since it is still a game. There are other games out there, Children of the Sun for example, which is set in a completely different environment. The Engines are no where near as powerful - even a Sidewinder has more Power. But let's see, which things in Elite correspond to "real" (albeit very theoretical) Physics (bear in mind, I'm not a physicist, so i may be wrong in some specific details):
Supercruise: Alcubierre Drive
Hyperdrive: Tricky, but in game the Hyperdrive "punches" a hole through the Fabric of "normal" Space (or our Universe) and considering the Multiverse Theory , "Witch Space" would be either a "Level II Universe" after Mark Tegmark, or a "Landscape Multiverse" after Brian Green. However, this all involves Quantum Gravity and a lot of other highly theoretical stuff. So unless we get the "Theory of everything" and the missing link to connect quantum mechanics with normal physics...we're not going to get a "real" answer ^^
PowerPlant: Fusion Power (i guess with direct energy conversion...i don't think we got a steam turbine in the back of our ships
)
Weapons are a bit more difficult, but projectile weapons do work in space (The Soviets tested the Rikhter R-23 on Board of Salyut 3 after the Cosmonauts left. It was fixed, so the whole station had to be moved to target something. And apparently the mass of the station was barely enough to counter the recoil of the gun, so it had to fire the maneuvering thrusters - i noticed that while standing still the thrusters are always firing. If you turn them off and wait long enough, the ship starts to drift very slow. However, i'm not sure that the flight model is that sophisticated...and tbh, it would not make much sense in the setting of Elite), Lasers also work and considering you can clearly see the Light of the Starfire Optical Range's "FASOR" - also Pulse Lasers do work. Plasma Weapons are based on MAURADER which interestingly enough as been classified after the initial results in 1995. No one is sure, if this still exists. SHIVA does exist and is still used for other research. Also, Plasma Guns are used in Fusion Research to start the Fusion inside reactors (But we still have no way in sustaining the Fusion Reaction...)
Interestingly enough, pretty much every source of these have been removed...pretty much all published papers have been classified and removed...so this may be suspect to a lot of conspiracy theories
And the most difficult of all: Shields.
For that, we have to first define what that Shield we have in game is.
In Game Description of the Shield Generator:
So it protects against pretty much everything that has "Mass". For this, we need to look at the same principle, that "Mass" can be inverted and repelled. The only thing i could find, that would allow for an electromagnetic field, that has negative mass and pretty much all of the desired "features", has jet to be found. Pretty anticlimactic, huh? [where is it]
But wait, there is something in the works: It's the "UFT - Unified Field Theory" in combination with "The Theory of Everything" - which would lead to the "GUT - Grand Unified Theory".
And since there are so many still unsolved Problems in Physics, that would come into play with such a force field...there is no saying, that a Shield which is working inside a warp bubble, has all of those desired properties...it stays Science-Fiction.
But, considering what leaps physics have made in the last 100 Years, i'm pretty optimistic, that in 1000 Years all of it will be solved. (Or we are all dead, since Trump found the Red Button and lost patience )
BTW: I did not go into the Thrusters for a reason - they are limited by the Onboard Computer and the Pilots Federation, so they are not really a "physics" Problem, rather then a "lore" Problem. Probably the same as the gentlemans agreement of some car manufacturers today in limiting their cars to 250 km/h, although they could do a lot more.
(PS: If anyone has a problem with Wikipedia - feel free to use the Sources on the bottom of the Articles or go to your local Library and start reading through the books. Wikipedia has come a very long way and now even some Harvard instructors "recommend" Wikipedia, as a way to start familiarizing yourself with a topic - of course for academic research it doesn't work, but that isn't the point of this nor Wikipedia... )
Edit: I did not know, there is a Thread, that explains the Physics of Elite way better, than i ever could. However, since english isn't my native language i have a few difficulties finding the right wording. I did not want to explain the physics, but rather the correlation between it's lore and what physics phenomena we can observe.
This means, i disagree with some things said in this excellent Thread by DCello, because they may be physically more accurate, but don't correlate with the lore of Elite.
Considering what i read around the forums, i never thought the "Details in Elite Dangerous" thread would get that much attention...as so many are bickering about how the physics of E: D are "crap". But are they really...?
E: D at least tries to uphold physical laws. I understand it's not possible always, since you would sacrifice to much gameplay - and i do appreciate this, since it is still a game. There are other games out there, Children of the Sun for example, which is set in a completely different environment. The Engines are no where near as powerful - even a Sidewinder has more Power. But let's see, which things in Elite correspond to "real" (albeit very theoretical) Physics (bear in mind, I'm not a physicist, so i may be wrong in some specific details):
Supercruise: Alcubierre Drive
Hyperdrive: Tricky, but in game the Hyperdrive "punches" a hole through the Fabric of "normal" Space (or our Universe) and considering the Multiverse Theory , "Witch Space" would be either a "Level II Universe" after Mark Tegmark, or a "Landscape Multiverse" after Brian Green. However, this all involves Quantum Gravity and a lot of other highly theoretical stuff. So unless we get the "Theory of everything" and the missing link to connect quantum mechanics with normal physics...we're not going to get a "real" answer ^^
PowerPlant: Fusion Power (i guess with direct energy conversion...i don't think we got a steam turbine in the back of our ships
) Weapons are a bit more difficult, but projectile weapons do work in space (The Soviets tested the Rikhter R-23 on Board of Salyut 3 after the Cosmonauts left. It was fixed, so the whole station had to be moved to target something. And apparently the mass of the station was barely enough to counter the recoil of the gun, so it had to fire the maneuvering thrusters - i noticed that while standing still the thrusters are always firing. If you turn them off and wait long enough, the ship starts to drift very slow. However, i'm not sure that the flight model is that sophisticated...and tbh, it would not make much sense in the setting of Elite), Lasers also work and considering you can clearly see the Light of the Starfire Optical Range's "FASOR" - also Pulse Lasers do work. Plasma Weapons are based on MAURADER which interestingly enough as been classified after the initial results in 1995. No one is sure, if this still exists. SHIVA does exist and is still used for other research. Also, Plasma Guns are used in Fusion Research to start the Fusion inside reactors (But we still have no way in sustaining the Fusion Reaction...)
Interestingly enough, pretty much every source of these have been removed...pretty much all published papers have been classified and removed...so this may be suspect to a lot of conspiracy theories
And the most difficult of all: Shields.
For that, we have to first define what that Shield we have in game is.
In Game Description of the Shield Generator:
So it protects against pretty much everything that has "Mass". For this, we need to look at the same principle, that "Mass" can be inverted and repelled. The only thing i could find, that would allow for an electromagnetic field, that has negative mass and pretty much all of the desired "features", has jet to be found. Pretty anticlimactic, huh? [where is it]
But wait, there is something in the works: It's the "UFT - Unified Field Theory" in combination with "The Theory of Everything" - which would lead to the "GUT - Grand Unified Theory".
And since there are so many still unsolved Problems in Physics, that would come into play with such a force field...there is no saying, that a Shield which is working inside a warp bubble, has all of those desired properties...it stays Science-Fiction.
But, considering what leaps physics have made in the last 100 Years, i'm pretty optimistic, that in 1000 Years all of it will be solved. (Or we are all dead, since Trump found the Red Button and lost patience
)BTW: I did not go into the Thrusters for a reason - they are limited by the Onboard Computer and the Pilots Federation, so they are not really a "physics" Problem, rather then a "lore" Problem. Probably the same as the gentlemans agreement of some car manufacturers today in limiting their cars to 250 km/h, although they could do a lot more.
(PS: If anyone has a problem with Wikipedia - feel free to use the Sources on the bottom of the Articles or go to your local Library and start reading through the books. Wikipedia has come a very long way and now even some Harvard instructors "recommend" Wikipedia, as a way to start familiarizing yourself with a topic - of course for academic research it doesn't work, but that isn't the point of this nor Wikipedia...
)Edit: I did not know, there is a Thread, that explains the Physics of Elite way better, than i ever could. However, since english isn't my native language i have a few difficulties finding the right wording. I did not want to explain the physics, but rather the correlation between it's lore and what physics phenomena we can observe.
This means, i disagree with some things said in this excellent Thread by DCello, because they may be physically more accurate, but don't correlate with the lore of Elite.
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