Frictionless machinery?

[SadisticCynic]

For the first two days of their occupation, the globe had received a careful examination...
Tweny-one skeletons preserved in transparent plax along a wall near the core! Macabre observers of everyone who passed through there... Patrin had found records that said the dead ones were the artisans who had built the place, all slain by the Harkonnens to preserve the secret.

Altogether, the globe was a remarkable achievement, an enclosure cut out of Time, sealed away from everything external. After all of these millenia, its frictionless machinery still created a mimetic projection that even the most modern instruments could not distinguish from the background of dirt and rock.

Anyone wonder how frictionless machinery could work?

[A Thing of Eternity]

For the first two days of their occupation, the globe had received a careful examination...
Tweny-one skeletons preserved in transparent plax along a wall near the core! Macabre observers of everyone who passed through there... Patrin had found records that said the dead ones were the artisans who had built the place, all slain by the Harkonnens to preserve the secret.

Altogether, the globe was a remarkable achievement, an enclosure cut out of Time, sealed away from everything external. After all of these millenia, its frictionless machinery still created a mimetic projection that even the most modern instruments could not distinguish from the background of dirt and rock.

Anyone wonder how frictionless machinery could work?

Magic. Or force feilds. KY.

In that order of probability.

[inhuien]

For the first two days of their occupation, the globe had received a careful examination...
Tweny-one skeletons preserved in transparent plax along a wall near the core! Macabre observers of everyone who passed through there... Patrin had found records that said the dead ones were the artisans who had built the place, all slain by the Harkonnens to preserve the secret.

Altogether, the globe was a remarkable achievement, an enclosure cut out of Time, sealed away from everything external. After all of these millenia, its frictionless machinery still created a mimetic projection that even the most modern instruments could not distinguish from the background of dirt and rock.

Anyone wonder how frictionless machinery could work?

I sure do, and for my second trick I'll explain my patented Perpetual Motion* machine. Or is that the same thing.











*may not function as described.

[Omphalos]

A good SF author would tell you.

[SadisticCynic]

From Wikipedia,

K-Y Jelly is a water-based, water-soluble personal lubricant

Good point about how they would even achieve it but what I first thought was that without friction can the parts even move?

A good SF author would tell you.

Where can I find one?

[Omphalos]

Where can I find one?

http://www.omphalosbookreviews.com/inde ... /avgr/desc

More weekly.

[SadisticCynic]

Where can I find one?

http://www.omphalosbookreviews.com/inde ... /avgr/desc

More weekly.

Best. Possible. Answer.

[A Thing of Eternity]

From Wikipedia,

K-Y Jelly is a water-based, water-soluble personal lubricant

Good point about how they would even achieve it but what I first thought was that without friction can the parts even move?

I'm not sure if FH was just trying to be cool and meant that the machinery had moving parts without friction, or if he meant that it was machinery without moving parts and hence no friction. Go with whichever doesn't burst your suspended disbelief bubble.


For a fancy SF explanation of the first option above:

Parts suspended in total vacuum by feilds (never quite touching eacho ther, but maybe imparting force onto each other via each part's own internal feild generators) would be frictionless in theory - but not perpetual motion since there would still be lots of energy lost thanks to resistances that would crop up in the feilds.

[SadisticCynic]

Wouldn't the field generators have frictional parts?

Sorry if I'm being overly into the details of such things.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Wouldn't the field generators have frictional parts?

Sorry if I'm being overly into the details of such things.

No, they would likely be electromagnets, which is simply a coil of wire. I don't see the need to go higher tech than simple magnetic levitation for this job.

Don't worry about being nit-picky, I'm a hard-SF freak (I don't think authors have to use hard science, but I enjoy things more when they do), and I love thinking about this kind of stuff. If I every really get into writing (as opposed to just worldbuilding by myself) it'll all come in handy. That's right, I'm one of those "I'm writing a novel, and have been for X years" kinda people... oh the shame.

[Omphalos]

If its a repellor field then the fields themselves likely never touch. They may not cause air friction either, as they repell everything that comes into contact with them.

Just an idea.

What book is this from?

[A Thing of Eternity]

If its a repellor field then the fields themselves likely never touch. They may not cause air friction either, as they repell everything that comes into contact with them.

Just an idea.

What book is this from?

Don't even have to worry about the air, just suck it all out to create vacuum. I'm not sure if feilds can really "touch" each other, but I know what you mean.

[Freakzilla]

What book is this from?

No-chamber at Dar-es-balat, GEoD.
Null-entropy chambers and no-fields in HoD and CH:D.

A circuitboard and power supply do not have any moving parts... except the on/off or transient voltage surge suppression. Ohm and the fan, but your can make air move without them, (Ion Breeze).

If you replaced your hard drive with fixed memory storage it wouldn't have any more moving parts than that... besides the fans.

[GamePlayer]

Yay for solid-state drives!

[Freakzilla]

Yay for solid-state drives!

The size HDDs have grown too is amazing, but I hate 'em.

[SadisticCynic]

Wouldn't the field generators have frictional parts?

Sorry if I'm being overly into the details of such things.

No, they would likely be electromagnets, which is simply a coil of wire. I don't see the need to go higher tech than simple magnetic levitation for this job.

Don't worry about being nit-picky, I'm a hard-SF freak (I don't think authors have to use hard science, but I enjoy things more when they do), and I love thinking about this kind of stuff. If I every really get into writing (as opposed to just worldbuilding by myself) it'll all come in handy. That's right, I'm one of those "I'm writing a novel, and have been for X years" kinda people... oh the shame.

Electromagnetism, why can't I think of these things myself?
I love the details myself. I get a thrill of pleasure whenever I read something that is presented but not explained and I understand it based on other things I have experienced, read or learnt. It means each time I read the book I understand things a little better. For example in Dune Frank describes prescient vision as having a kind of Heisenberg indeterminacy. This meant nothing to me the first time I read Dune but then in my studies of physics it was mentioned (not in detail yet but soon if all goes well) and it got me thinking not only about prescience but also about bigger questions like free will.

I'm rereading Destination: Void and I'm tentatively linking the multiplier circuits he mentions to the myriads of synapses neurons can form. This is what makes reading fun!
(For the above paragraphs many I know would simply dismiss me as a nerd... aw well.)

Ion breeze? I feel so uneducated! Wikipedia here I come...

(People post faster than I can reply!)

[Freakzilla]

...For example in Dune Frank describes prescient vision as having a kind of Heisenberg indeterminacy. This meant nothing to me the first time I read Dune but then in my studies of physics it was mentioned (not in detail yet but soon if all goes well) and it got me thinking not only about prescience but also about bigger questions like free will.

That's why He is The Master.

[Freakzilla]

The Ion Breeze is an air filter sold by Sharper Image. At least I think that was the name of it.

[SadisticCynic]

Yeah just looked up air ioniser on Wikipedia. Quite a cool idea but I'm not sure of its value in cooling as it seems to be more of a frictionless( ) air scrubber i.e. removes particulate matter from the air.

[Freakzilla]

Yeah just looked up air ioniser on Wikipedia. Quite a cool idea but I'm not sure of its value in cooling as it seems to be more of a frictionless( ) air scrubber i.e. removes particulate matter from the air.

Computer fans do not change the temperature of the air, they only circulate it. It exchanges the hot air around the CPU for the cooler air in the room.

[SadisticCynic]

Yeah I know that much, what I mean is that something that's scrubbing the air like that seems unlikely to generate a convection current (if it can be called that) as efficient as a fan (or make a current at all). The removal of particulate seems to be pretty much passive.

[Freakzilla]

Yeah I know that much, what I mean is that something that's scrubbing the air like that seems unlikely to generate a convection current (if it can be called that) as efficient as a fan (or make a current at all). The removal of particulate seems to be pretty much passive.

Let's just hope that 20,000 years in the future they can make a more efficient processor that doesn't waste so much heat.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Does anyone here understand solid state hard drives? I haven't really looked into it yet, but I'm pretty confused as to how it it would work, magnetic drives make sense to me, this doesn't. Maybe I just need to research it on my own.

[Freakzilla]

Does anyone here understand solid state hard drives? I haven't really looked into it yet, but I'm pretty confused as to how it it would work, magnetic drives make sense to me, this doesn't. Maybe I just need to research it on my own.

I thought they were just like a big ROM chip.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Does anyone here understand solid state hard drives? I haven't really looked into it yet, but I'm pretty confused as to how it it would work, magnetic drives make sense to me, this doesn't. Maybe I just need to research it on my own.

I thought they were just like a big ROM chip.

I forgot about those - I also don't understand those.

I'm an analog guy, solidstate makes no sense to me.