Science Behind Shields?

Iori

Iori
Skuli said:
The only real technological breakthrough in Elite Dangerous seems to be the frameshift drive; the rest is standard physics.

I'd wager the shielding utilizes the same technology as the frameshift drive, but in a fashion that redirects the thermal and kinetic energy rather than absorbing it.

Don't think of it as the shield blocking the attack; the shield frameshifts the incoming projectiles/beams to some empty section of space possibly tens of thousands of light years away, or simply sends them directly into witchspace, never to be seen again.
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So, how do you explain that it saves you from collisions and your ship actually stops?
 

Skuli

S
Iori said:
So, how do you explain that it saves you from collisions and your ship actually stops?
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I'm no physicist. I assume it has to do with the field's inability to teleport the entire object at once. Probably a safeguard to keep a faulty/damaged frameshift drive from teleporting only half of a ship.

Possibly the frameshift interdictor abuses this to cause the targetted ship to believe the safeguard needs to be triggered, causing an immediate drop from hyperspace.
 
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Agarthan

Agarthan
In Star Trek is photons and electro magnetism (force fields), very similar to the holo deck. The deflector array works the same way I'd imagine these shields act as both, don't ask me to explain why you don't get ripped up by dust without them in the RES zones.
 

TheLoneTrucker

Banned
T
I found an article and liked the title. Who knows what we'll have in 1300 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/solid-light-created_n_5824268.html

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Agarthan said:
In Star Trek is photons and electro magnetism (force fields), very similar to the holo deck. The deflector array works the same way I'd imagine these shields act as both, don't ask me to explain why you don't get ripped up by dust without them in the RES zones.
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I'm not digging it up but one explanation for ST shielding was using replicator technology to make an invisible secondary hull around the ship. This was back during the first ST movie. I believe it was changed and recreated later on but that was one idea that was used.
 

norty303

norty303
I queried the action of shields way back during 'Ram-gate', as it didn't seem to make sense that they affected both slow and fast physical objects - otherwise how on earth do we scoop with shields up, deploy landing gear with shields up, land (and not bounce off), etc, etc, etc. In fact the idea that the shields warp the projectile off to some far flung place becomes very interesting when you think of a station connecting with your shields.... :)

Having shields be of no effect for slower moving projectiles would still make a lot more logical sense as to their use and function, and would also likely have a positive effect on ramming too.
In fact, I like the idea of different protection types for different weapon types - ironclad and energy.
 

Skuli

S
norty303 said:
I queried the action of shields way back during 'Ram-gate', as it didn't seem to make sense that they affected both slow and fast physical objects - otherwise how on earth do we scoop with shields up, deploy landing gear with shields up, land (and not bounce off), etc, etc, etc. In fact the idea that the shields warp the projectile off to some far flung place becomes very interesting when you think of a station connecting with your shields.... :)

Having shields be of no effect for slower moving projectiles would still make a lot more logical sense as to their use and function, and would also likely have a positive effect on ramming too.
In fact, I like the idea of different protection types for different weapon types - ironclad and energy.
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Yeah, scooping was a big ? in my theory as well.

The technology apparently allows for small "holes" to be punched in the shield, otherwise your own lasers and projectiles would be incapable of penetrating the field, so I assume that could allow for cargo and landing gear to function...

Also, "the slow blade penetrates the shield", amirite.
 
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Baleur

B
Morbad said:
They aren't.

Closest practical thing we can conceive of is a plasma window, and even if we could create fully enclosing plasma envelopes with the properties of a plasma window, it still wouldn't be able to do half the things shields in ED or most other sci-fi that feature shields could.

As far as plausible explanations go, "it''s magic" is about it. Of course, in 1300 years, plenty of every day things could seem like magic to our current understanding.



Which is all magic.
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Indeed, a forcefield is magic to us today just as an iPhone would be magic to Thomas Jefferson.
Utter and complete magic, he would have no basis what so ever on which to understand how it works.
So just because something TODAY falls into the realm of WSFM (weird science and f* magic), doesnt mean that it is not plausible or even improbable.
Just based on our current limited drop-in-the-galactic-ocean development.
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(mods, check it out before issuing me a "almost swearing" warning, the f doesnt stand for what you think)
 
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Tesla3E

Tesla3E
Maybe shields work in a similar way to the frameshift drive in warping the space around the ship. Projectiles might then just miss and energy weapons dissipated elsewhere. In both cases there is a drain on the power maintaining the "shield".
 
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Bruce Warren

B
Star Trek is still magic.

None of the so called technologies have actual specs. If Paramount had actual specs on this stuff they could make a fortune. All sci-fi set in the future is magic. They just give the magic devices plausible sounding names.
 

Ydiss

Ydiss
We're lucky. 30 years ago you had to turn the tape over to side 2, rewind and press play to reload the shields every time they dropped.

The new ones are powered by floppy disk. Just keep away from strong magnets.

PS they're magic.
 

Don Alvarez

Don Alvarez
Avago Ero said:
I will still wonder about this and maybe there is a scientific study explaining this but I'm lazy and I'll wait for Brian Cox to do it with some nice graphics. Unless someone on these forums can.

It's a game play thing isn't it.
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Brian Cox?
fhd995BHT_Brian_Cox_003.jpg
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Knows a thing or two about fighting with shields
 

KodiakAlpha

KodiakAlpha

obliterator

O
Simon853 said:
If their operation could be explained scientifically, that would bear up to scrutiny without any "insert bit of magic here" parts, then surely we could all go out today and build them for our cars? It's science-fiction, or to be more precise: science-fantasy.
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By that logic we would already have a coriolis starport in orbit around the earth. Just because something can be explained scientifically doesn't mean we have the resources or tech to build it.
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
Morbad said:
As far as plausible explanations go, "it''s magic" is about it. Of course, in 1300 years, plenty of every day things could seem like magic to our current understanding.
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Very true - reminds me of "You see this ... this is my BOOM stick" (Evil dead - protagonist talking about a gun to natives)
 

Parmo

Parmo
When you press your thumb against your forefinger it is 'force' fields that prevent them going through each other.
Our old intuitive sense of 'solid' serves us well in the main but in when it comes down to a deep understanding of matter and energy there is no such thing as 'solid'.
Mind you, I'd like a scientific explanation at this level for when I receive a cut by a 'solid' material called paper.:S
 
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