On Wed, 10 Apr 1996, ablater wrote:
<Physics stuff snipped>
Main points:
1) Someone riding on Sonic's back COULD move above light-speed, provided one can do
that without becoming energy and that rider was shielded from the wind.
2) Assuming Sonic accelerates to mach one (300m/s) in ten seconds, the rider would be
subjected to 30m/s^2 (or three EARTH gees)
3) Assuming Sonic would deaccelerate from mach one to zero in three
seconds(!), the rider would be subjected to -100m/s^2 (or ten EARTH gees)
My responses:
1) This would also depend on Sonic. Not only would Sonic have to be shielded from
the wind, but he would have to expend the infinite energy required to move at light
speed. If he was able to use an organically-generated subspace warp field (like in
Star Trek), he might be able to do this, but:
-Air resistence is still a factor
-I have a hard time believing that Sonic could generate a subspace warp field without
equipment
-Unless Sonic wanted to make himself pass out from too many gravities, he would have to
accelerate slowly (even at 1000m/s^2, or 100 gees, it would take Sonic 3000 seconds to
reach 300,000 m/s^2 (light speed))
-I think that even Sonic would have a hard time controlling his movements at higher
speeds
2) I think that Airforce pilots are subjected to three gees and usually don't pass out.
Even so, it would be hard to hold on AND not black-out. However, a rider would
probably have some advantatges:
-From what I can tell, most furries are one-half to three-fourths the heights of most
Humans. This would lower their weight substantially, giving the rider less weight to
carry during acceleration. I believe that the muscle-to-weight ratio would not
decreace as much.
-Most of the Knothole Freedom Fighters are probably pretty dang strong, even for their
ages. Besides, a rider would only have to hold on for 10 seconds.
-The reason that people black out at high gravities is because not enough blood is
getting to their brain. I think that smaller animals have an advantage (shorter
distances for the blood to travel) and that furries may have different anatomies.
-Sure, Sonic can accelerate quickly WITHOUT a rider, but he might accelerate slower
with twice his own weight. But then again, I don't have the cartoons (sniff), so I
haven't seen him accelerate/deaccelerate much.
3) TEN GEES?! Um, the above arguments may give a passenger some leeway, but TEN GEES?!
Well, Sonic would DEFINITELY have a hard time deaccelerating quickly here, so he may
actually start slowing several minutes before the stop. A rider would probably
black-out quickly here, but if it was quickly enough, they might keep conciousness (or
just die, like falling off a building). One thing that would definitely help is if a
gravity on Mobius is different from one of Earth's (but I doubt that).
Kyle Graba, lurker
e-mail: jgraba_at_usa.net
Received on Tue Apr 16 1996 - 20:03:17 PDT