Questions tagged [hard-science]
REVIEW THE WIKI BEFORE USING THIS TAG! For questions that require unequivocal proof that answers are correct through the use of equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, etc. Compare to: science-fiction, science-based and internal-consistency. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, science-based, or internal-consistency tags. Flag your question for moderator attention once posted.
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I may have made an error in the stability of my extremely close orbit
Alright, here's my issue. I have a planet, roughly twice Earth's mass, that is extremely dense. It's about 6000 KG/M^3, so in theory it should be able to orbit inside the star before breaking- my ...
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Dzhanibekov effect and structural integrity of a spaceship
The Dzhanibekov effect shows the instability of rotation about an asymmetric object’s intermediate principal axis. An example can be seen in this video.
I was thinking of embedding it in my ...
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Mapping political boundaries in the Milky Way galaxy
Background
The Salutary Suzerain Eashmeelthfluischaotchaulpcreurmmoelshchurbshrulth (we call him The Great Eel, now kneel!) has declared that in His Greatest Beneficence, He shall divide the Galaxy ...
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How would the statosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere of an Earthlike planet merge together?
Imagine an Earthlike planet orbiting a sunlike star. Now imagine a Wolf-Rayet star passing by pretty close to the sunlike star. However, WR stars emit almost all of their light in the vacuum ...
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Could an alien plant composed of purely stem cells, be very adaptable?
In terms of scientific realness, I want to have a bioengineered plant that is composed primarily of stem cells. I want it that way so it can grow in any environment, and adapt to any changes in ways ...
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How much air pressure and air flow I would need in order to make a ultra thin and long air jet for a plasma cutter-sword with a ideal de-laval nozzle?
The idea is that specific types of industrial plasma cutters were adapted in a compacted form for mechs in case of melee combat and for bunker-buster missiles (easier to go through meters of ...
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Does the slow reproductive rate of large mammals make them unable to compete with dinosaurs?
I have a fictional world where mammals coexist with dinosaurs, and I am currently fleshing out the details of the ecosystem. I don't really have a vision for what specific animals I want in my story, ...
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How to calculate population growth of space colonies including immigration
My setting involves colonizing other planets over long periods of time and I am trying to calculate population growth of these colonies to determine how developed they become by a certain date. While ...
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How small can a human-like eye be?
Ultimately, resolution is constrained by diffraction limits, so using smaller wavelengths of light gets you more resolution for a given eye size, and a smaller eye ends up with a worse diffractive ...
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How large can my interplanetary banana be? [closed]
In this question, there is a giant banana planet. It basically handwaves the whole giant banana part, but I want to do things scientifically. How large can I make my banana?
This banana will be scaled ...
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Unintended Consequences of a Cryptocurrency Based off of Radioactive Decay
Tax season is almost over in the U.S., and it got me thinking. Out of curiosity, I had joined a local chapter of the Libertarian party in the past. Many of them loved cryptocurrency. And many, but not ...
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How big can I make an explosion? [closed]
By explosion, I mean that it must meet the following criteria:
It releases enough energy and/or tangible byproducts in any form to affect visible and tangible material through noticeable destruction ...
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Radioactive World Formation
So I’ve just finished reading Neptune’s Brood for the second time and have found myself wondering what circumstances would be necessary to form a planet similar to Shin-Tethys. Essentially I’m ...
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How would plasma mining work? [closed]
I was fascinated with the concept of plasma mining for my story. In Star Wars, the characters mine plasma from the core of Naboo, a planet. Plasma doesn't work in the means that you can mine it, but ...
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Planet illuminated by an accretion disk?
Could a "rogue" planet orbit a black hole at a radius where it is 1: Considered to be in the habitable zone due to the light emitted by the accretion disk. 2: Subjected to a survivable ...
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