Scytale wrote:Flat, if the mood strikes you would you convince me of no gravity in LT? I still think an aether with non-Newtonian viscosity could allow for masses like planets to remain essentially stationary.
I recall Dinosawer mentioning gravity existing but only as a short-range force...
The main virtue of the idea of a "pushing aether" is that it's one principle that accounts for multiple effects. It explains why large masses coalesce (over long spans of time); it explains why large masses are (apparently) stationary, and it explains why small masses like ships experience a drag force. Of course it's not a perfect explanation, but a game isn't a perfect simulation.
Having said that, though, I really like the idea of gravity operating as a relatively short-range force. Although that adds a principle, which complicates things -- now there are aether
and gravity -- it removes the need for the aether to have a "pushing" capability.
So is it better to have one principle that gets extended in slightly unbelievable ways to explain the nature of normal space? Or is it better to have multiple principles that feel closer to our own reality but complicate explanations for visible physical behaviors?
Another question about gravity in LT as a relatively short-range effect: what if the ranges of gravity and electromagnetism were swapped in the LTverse compared to our own?
Victor Tombs wrote:It's one of the thing I don't understand about some of the members here, Talvieno. Why the need for explanations of every part of the LT universe? Some of which is just pure hokum. I could understand this if LT was meant to be a scientific simulation but it's just a game. Am I missing something about the needs of these members?
And to put another gloss on this besides "it's just fun," there's also a practical reason for it.
Developing an internal logic to an invented world makes it easier to imagine new features that "fit" that world. And when more of the features of a world work together, the "willing suspension of disbelief" becomes easier, and experiencing that world becomes much more satisfying intellectually and emotionally.
I know that watching people trying to find an internal logic might appear to be nothing more than indulging an odd compulsion for things to make sense. But I think there's more to that than just a blind snuffling for Structure: understanding the rules by which things work enables the construction of more and better things.