On 10Oct2020 0948, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> Once you pass maybe 50-75% extra added body weight... I have to think > that only high STR individuals would be able to move at all. If >
someone added 100 pounds to my weight, I'm quite sure I'd be on the >
ground crawling at best. Even a fit person would find it fatiguing to >
act in that sort of gravity.
For the first day or few days young and fit people would manage -
'light' infantry manage whilst carrying loads of their body weight or
so. Sleeping would be where it gets you.
For guys who might average 160-180, +50% is something like 80-90 pounds. You can carry that on the march, but that is exhausting. Also, recall that all your *gear* goes up by the same factor. So you get that 80-90 pounds of excess weight for your body, then you add +50% on all your gear. That's probably an aggregate total way beyond modern infantry's march ability. And you NEVER fight with those big packs on unless you are nuts ( our CF gear has an emergency breakaway option so you can drop down to webgear and move and fight with some chance of functioning).
So if I'm 180 lbs and I have 40 pounds of gear (a more reasonable amount counting ammo, etc), then I add 110 pounds from +50% gravity. That's not something you'll function under for very long. Walk, maybe, but do much else, no. And you can't take it off at night or for a break. (Well, you can drop the now 60 pund gear, but you'd still weight 270 pounds). So no, I doubt they'd last a day. And us flabby people... down for the count.
> Thrown weapons get exciting in low G but you'd need to get used to > the gravity to judge the arcs. You might be able to hurl grenades a
> LONG way in low gee situations. Now, fired or thrown weapons (spears,
> bows, etc) would have longer ranges in lower G but also will have >
acclimatization to get the new arcs right. In heavier gravity, the >
range would drop off notably and the weight of some weapons (a heavy >
crossbow for instance) may require a bench rest because firing from >
the standing was already a challenge with archaic weapons given their >
normal weight. Again, you'd need to train in higher G to figure the >
arcs. > Slug throwers would have altered trajectories for long distance
fire > where fine precision is required. Over short ranges, your bullet
> speeds are enough that the change in dip may not be too great (due to
> the limited flight time of the round).
MegaTraveller has some rules for this, I think. GURPS certainly does.
I'm sure they do. I vaguely recalled that as well.
> The increased weight can cause vehicles to sink into ground or get > stuck in more conditions. Hovercraft and low ground pressure options
> probably fade in higher G planets. High G architecture would be more
> conservative and sturdy. On the other hand, lower G planets probably
> have fancier architecture, more elegant (fragile looking) transport >
means but may have some troubles with high waves (water also weighs >
less and so it can probably develop harry tides). On high G worlds, >
I'd expect lower tides. On high G worlds, submarines and boats (and >
planes) are probably less efficient (they take more to keep afloat) >
and on low G worlds, such subs, boats, and planes can more readily > float.
For ground vehicles higher gravity means better ground traction, so you
can accelerate, brake, and turn easier. Higher ground friction will mean
lower top speeds, and any falls resulting from crashes will be more
severe. Lower gravity means the opposite - worse handling, higher top
speeds and may actually be more dangerous, though easier on equipment if
drivers are responsible.
For hovercraft and aircraft air pressure is also very important, and may
cancel out the effects of high gravity on the ability to get off the
ground, though higher pressure means lower top speeds.
Um.... not necessarily. Unless the *ground* and *water* are all compressed by a commensurate amount (which I do not know if that would be true), then the first time you drove over water, you would sink. And you might sink more easily over land too.
So you might get to use higher pressures to an extend, but the ground would have to be much harder to take that per-square-inch pressure.
For a simple
arppoximation stall speeds go up with the square root of gravity and
with the inverse of the root of pressure, and top speeds go down with
the root of both, if I'm recalling things right.
Yes, provided you don't sink into what you are travelling over.
As for ships, etc. - gravity doesn't change flotation - it increases the
weight of the fluid just as it increases the weight of the vessel.
It does not necessarily increase the flotation containment's contents. Could you inject more air under pressure? Maybe. But then you might need heavier equipment. And am I sure that water will necessarily compact in density to match gravity? It seems it might but maybe not.
Very
high (/many/ Gs) and very low gravity will change speed and handling
because wave-making and wave-climbing behaviour will change, but
generally won't change things for a water vessel.
If it was designed offworld, it well might.
Thus high-G worlds will have less air traffic (unless the atmosphere is
thick) and more water and rail traffic.
Rail still seems the most likely to me.
Low-G worlds will find air
travel more economical (unless the air is too thin),
and road vehicles
will compete better with trains and ships (but people speeding will be
even more of a menace than they are on Earth).
Not possible. I've been to the Dominican Republic! I enjoyed the mountainous (4 lane road used as a 9 lane road by people who had no brakes but lots of horn) trip once I gave up all plans to survive. At that point, it was like a roller coaster. Others were white knuckled because they obviously could die and I had moved on to 'sure to die'. ;)
A lot of man-portable equipment won't change in construction much,
because most of the damage to them comes from rough handling, though
stuff made for high-G environments will need to be a bit more
drop-resistant.
If you have ruggedized equipment, it might work okay with mild gravity increases.
I can tell you that the user interface of many military systems has to differ from consumer systems because they need to be able to manipulate computer controls in a rough environment (bumpy, unpredictable). Now, high grav is not that, but it will make some types of interface useful and others not so: For instance, high G worlds will probably want voice command vs. trying to type or even use a very dense key layout. If you do have to use a key layout, it may be simplified. The odds of dragging a finger or palm or the tiredness of the arms, etc. would all play into what interface types could work.
So, although gear might need to be build sturdier, it may also need to be redesigned for successful use.
--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
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