Nice article debunking the 'Helical Drive' - an idea for spacecraft propulsion without propellant that has been propelled a bit more than it deserves to be on social media.
Near-infinite specific thrust from drive that ignores physics
Two bits of news:
I will be joining a panel on "Physical Laws of a Novel Dimension" organised by Needling Haystacks at HarmonyCon today. (Just by video link.) If anyone is in Dallas, come along at 11am.
The first particle physics themed story I have commissioned will be published soon. Stay tuned.
Just to flag two non-pony things I am doing this month:
Besides being a writer I am also like to teach Physics.
I am going to attempt to find out how the laws of physics apply to Equestrian magic (as the title implies). This is my analysis based on a purely scientific standpoint and what is specifically shown in MLP (or rather, the images I found).
Eighteen years ago, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote, The Physics of Star Trek, an explanation, of sorts, of the speculative science behind warp drives, inertial dampers and matter transfer beams; as often as not explaining why such things just wouldn't work. The book was an unexpected best-seller, which surprised the world of popular science writing. No one expected such a nerdy title to have such wide appeal. But turned out plenty of readers wanted to know about the workings
My day job at the moment involves running computer models of electrical pulses through the readout of a CERN particle detector, testing whether all the megabits produced every second in the layers of silicon will be successfully routed to the data servers without bouncing off circuit board connections, or getting lost along over-etched copper tracks.
Previously, I have discussed one particular way of merging the idea of a "rational" universe, with Equestria's magic being present. There, I proposed the existence of a construct I have named the Source of Magic - an abstract construct big and powerful enough to be capable of performing feats considered "magical" while doing them only by the means available to everyone through the general laws of
Last week we saw the first pics from the James Webb Space Telescope. The stunning images of early galaxies were amazing, although as an instrument nerd I find myself paying more attention to the camera specs. It’s an impressive bit of kit: 6.5m mirror and IR camera operating under 50K, requiring a five-layer sun shield, which had to unfold in space after being launched, with no chance of fixing things if it went wrong. Got to respect the team doing the QA/QC.
Read the title you hecks
Just occasionally something happens which makes me think I love my job! Sadly it has not happened very often of late, but yesterday was a good day. This story began some months ago when I received a forwarded email asking if we could find a home for an orphaned spark chamber from the science museum.
My response was: What!? A spark chamber! From The Science Museum! Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!
So, I've been reading a lot, and this has been bugging me, quite a bit actually.
How could the concept of "magic" be explained in a universe that is rational? For example, our universe.
Note: for the rest of this posting, unless noted otherwise, the word "magic" will refer to the concept - and observed effects - of effecting control over matter and energy, as seen on the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic".
A recent story by Mockingbirb, Twilight Loses Her Innocence (Anything to Save the World), is a fun 2,569 words. It's mostly light humor, but also a difficult ethical dilemma. Much of the humor comes from the fact that Twilight is the only one who can save the world, and only Twilight (and the Twilights among us) would
Happy Hearth’s Warming everyone. I hope you are all in good health and enjoying the holidays wherever you are. Do you need something to do after eating the good food, playing with your new toys, and catching up on all the new films, books, fanfics and anything else? Here are some ideas:
From my perspective, Cart Before the Ponies gets the highest mark of any episode for grabbing the viewer’s attention during the opening.
...because today we're going to learn about physics!
Here is an interesting perspective by physics PhD Francesca Day: Writing Fan Fiction for the Universe.
Pinkie Pie glared at her reflection in the looking glass. Her reflection returned the gesture.
“There something very funny about this mirror Twilight!”
Twilight looked over at her friend and cast a quick spell on the glass to check for any magical properties.
“It’s just an ordinary mirror Pinkie. It’s not a magical portal or anything. There’s nothing strange about it.”
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