Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Alice Grove MCDT - May 2015
mikmaxs:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 22 May 2015, 22:45 ---Yeah...if she wants to. But she doesn't seem to be in a rush.
--- End quote ---
Remember when she was running from the Nightwalker, and she couldn't keep up with Ardent?
--- Quote from: improvnerd on 23 May 2015, 00:08 ---IRL, in zero gravity you can't move at all (unless you can push off against something or fart really hard).
--- End quote ---
IRL, you can't move in normal gravity unless you have something to push off against either.
My point was that there shouldn't be a speed limit. Even if the nanomachines can only give a tiny amount of forward thrust, the only thing that should slow Gavia down is air resistance, which wouldn't be much of an issue until you start pushing highway speeds.
BenRG:
--- Quote from: mikmaxs on 23 May 2015, 12:59 ---My point was that there shouldn't be a speed limit. Even if the nanomachines can only give a tiny amount of forward thrust, the only thing that should slow Gavia down is air resistance, which wouldn't be much of an issue until you start pushing highway speeds.
--- End quote ---
Think of it as a VTOL aircraft moving at slow speed. Gavia's nanomachines can generate, for the sake of arguments 20 units of thrust in any direction. However, to resist the planet's gravitational force requires that 15 units of thrust always be directed downwards to keep her up in the air. That leaves only five units of thrust for translation in any direction.
VTOL aircraft get around this by having lift-generating aerofoils so, at a certain speed, aerodynamic forces generate lift and reduce the amount of vertical thrust needed to keep the aircraft in the air and allowing more thrust to be used for horizontal flight speed. However, Gavia doesn't have that option. So, she's limited to the amount of force against air resistance that her nanomachines can generate without compromising her levitation.
Remember that air resistance increases in strength right up until you reach the speed of sound. At a certain point, unless you have particularly high-thrust propulsion, the total air resistance equals your thrust and you cannot accelerate any further. So, Gavia has an equivalent of 'terminal velocity', where the aerodynamic forces acting against her body equal the lateral thrust generated by her nanomachines. As we have seen, that is slower than human running velocity. Once again, there are work-arounds, such as altering her body posture to reduce her frontal area against air resistance. However, from what we've seen so far in the strip, it is unlikely that Gavia has either the knowledge or practical experience to do this.
jwhouk:
If it was VTOL-like, then we'd see a cloud of Pig-pen like dust every time Gavia started moving in a particular direction.
Pilchard123:
Magnets.
BenRG:
--- Quote from: Pilchard123 on 24 May 2015, 02:31 ---Magnets.
--- End quote ---
Exactly; don't take the VTOL comparison too literally. The point is that Gavia's nanomachines can generate a limited amount of force and most of it is used up just keeping her off the ground. Thus, there isn't much reserve left to get her moving in any lateral direction.
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