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[feathered_earth]

I don't think I'm going to be surprised anymore by anything I see in Disneyworld. I don't know if I'm going to get used to it, but I'm not going to be surprised by it. I still dI never knew people could build so many different kinds of machines just for fun. It really is amazing... I'd love to know how they all work. And maybe try a few more of

Comments

[desig_survivor]

There's a flight simulator I liked. Interesting how those affects can be created without the use of inertial compensators.

That's as good a thing to try as any, I guess.

[You know what, there are enough flavors of gigantic weird monster in SW...]

That looks... I don't know. Was it flying?

[feathered_earth]

Without what?

No, it was swimming. Kind of.

[desig_survivor]

[Aaand I used affect instead of effect. Argh.]

Machines that play with gravity and keep you from getting tunnel vision and blacking out in sharp turns and high speeds. They can also be used to make your body think it's making those turns and going that quickly.

Huh. I'd almost expect something like that to float.

[feathered_earth]

[It's okay!]

Oh, so they work both ways? But I've So you mean they're used in airships and things like that, right?

He seems to have been a sea serpent of some kind. I think.

[desig_survivor]

I think so. And more like starships. If it goes fast enough to break the sound barrier, it generally needs something to keep the pilot from passing out.

Looks big, whatever it is.

[feathered_earth]

I didn't know anything could go faster than sound. It doesn't sound pleasant without that sort of device. [a couple of doodle-lines at the ping.]

It really was. At least twenty feet long.

[desig_survivor]

Hey, you're the girl who works at the weapons stand, right? There are things there that go supersonic all the time - certain bullets and long whips. When you crack a whip, part of it goes faster than sound and makes a sonic boom.

Huh. [He'd imagined it being much bigger.]

[feathered_earth]

Oh come on, you're pulling my leg. They can't go that fast, can they?

[desig_survivor]

They can and do. Down in the stables, there are a few handlers who use long whips - they say they don't beat the animals, and I haven't seen those tips touch anything, but they do get their attention with the sound. You've seen how the tip travels much faster than the handle does. More than thirty times faster, if done right.

Momentum is mass - weight and substance - plus speed. The handle you move has much more mass than the rest of the whip, but the same momentum. Less mass, higher speed.

[feathered_earth]

Next time I go there I'll have to see that for myself. It sounds pretty complicated when you put it in those terms. It makes sense, but it sounds kind of crazy for something as simple as a whip to go faster than sound.