Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Unanswered Questions from the Alice-verse
ReindeerFlotilla:
Actually, you would run into the same issues of conservation no matter how you transport. Conservation of momentum is just a special case of conservation of angular momentum. So equal areas must be swept in equal time. No matter how you teleport, the total momentum of the system needs to stay constant.
So beaming from low orbit to high orbit requires that you be going faster than you were in low orbit. But your energy didn't change, so there's only one way it can work... You immediately start to fall. Basically, the only way a transporter can instantly move one thing from one place to another is by robbing everything else in the system of a little energy.
But that's okay, because the transporter doesn't have to be instant. If you beam at the speed of light, then the whole process will automatically conserve all conserved quantities. No big deal.
You'll still fall, because that's part of the conservation, but the key point in avoid any issue of violating physical law is respecting the speed limit. Anyway, you want to fall. You beam out "behind" the Earth, trailing it in orbit. Then you fall, but you angle the fall so that you miss, much like Arthur Dent. Avoid the worst of the outer atmosphere, and you steal a bit of momentum from Earth and go flinging off at a higher speed.
It does get tricky, at this point, because you might not be able to steal enough momentum to escape. But you have time. Lots and lots of time. So you fling out as far as you can and shape your orbit so that the Earth's gravity overcomes your velocity while you are behind it. Rinse, repeat.
It takes fuel, but not nearly as much as just blasting straight out of the gravity well. We do that part all the time. The only difference is we use big chemical rockets to get high enough to start falling in a useful manner.
FunkyTuba:
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 20 Aug 2015, 09:06 ---... since humans are more bacteria, by weight, than they are human...
--- End quote ---
Sorry to quibble... and it doesn't really affect your point, but http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/fyi-how-much-bacteria-do-people-carry-around
by count, yes, there are probably more bacteria than cells, but that's because most bacteria are way tinier than most of your body's cells
Wildroses:
I've thought of a new one. Why did the Nightwalker, who is not supposed to do anything but walk at night and stare at the moon, reach for Gavia and Ardent?
A popular theory I bought into was that it wanted Gavia's nanotech, as Gavia was the one floating. But recent comic events have put forward the idea Ardent has nanos, or at least the ability to turn simple machines into complex ones.
Could the Nightwalker have been reaching for Ardent instead? And what would have happened if it had managed to grab either?
KOK:
Will this nice bird now seek out other items to infect?
BenRG:
--- Quote from: KOK on 10 Sep 2015, 22:01 ---Will this nice bird now seek out other items to infect?
--- End quote ---
No, it will find Alice and her oh-so-serious personality funny and will hang around the cottage, pulling elaborate practical jokes in an attempt to cheer her up. In the fullness of time, having a pet that is as effectively immortal as she is will change Alice for the better and help her focus more and more on making things better rather than worrying about 'what if?'
Thousands, possibly millions of years in the future, there will be an interesting incident where the bird pranks a kindly but naive veterinarian of Alice's acquaintance and also Alice's current personal student during its periodic regeneration cycle. Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference!
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