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Inertial Dampening: Difference between revisions
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Sometimes Inertial Dampening has a "lag", where a sharp turn or quick deceleration will momentarily cause a reaction (quick fall into the console or press back due to high accelerations).
Inertial Dampening is generally ''not'' [[Tim Taylor Technology]]. An overloading IDF [Inertial Dampening Field] has the opposite effect of most [[Applied Phlebotinum]], causing a greater inertial effect, usually culminating in a [[Star Trek Shake]]. Generally, however, the [[Star Trek Shake]] has no relation to the ''direction'' of inertia; i.e., the ship is traveling forward, but the crew feels a right-to-left effect.
Though often left unmentioned, [[Inertial Dampening]] is a [[Required Secondary Powers|requisite side-technology]] to any spaceship that can turn or accelerate faster than an ocean liner. It's the reason why [[The Bridge]] has [[No Seat Belts]]. Note that the physical [[Hand Wave]] that accompanies many forms of [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]] dictate that the ship does not accelerate in the traditional Newtonian or, for that matter, Einsteinian fashion, and so the inertial dampener is mostly for maneuvering and orbit changes.
In hard [[Sci Fi]], especially written but occasionally not, a more realistic method is used to cushion acceleration shock. Immersion in a fluid equal in density to the body would theoretically cause buoyancy forces to act counter to any accelerations; this is sometimes coupled with [[Human Popsicle|cryonics]]. Some method to allow the subject to continue to breathe in the fluid would be required, be it oxygenated liquids or a circulatory gas-exchange system. Since people riding around in bathtubs are not interesting on-screen (except from a voyeur's point-of-view) this has only rarely trickled down to the big and small screens; the exploration ship in ''[[Event Horizon]]'' and presumably the cryonics pods in the ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' series are the exceptions.
Another relatively hard way would be use of dynamical [[Artificial Gravity]] to compensate inertial forces.
See also [[Artificial Gravity]].
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Deus Ex]]'', a prototype weapon has these as a safety feature. They are called "kinetic bleeders"
* The Arwing fighters in the ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]]'' series have "G-Diffusers". At one point in Star Fox 64's first mission, Falco's diffuser goes on the fritz, and he does indeed fly slower and take smoother turns for a while.
** Actually that's their reactor systems.
* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'''s heroine has these built into her legs, as a justification for her being completely immune to falling damage (which would be quite a pain in such a game).
* In the computer game ''[[Anachronox]]'', you can read a bit of background that talks about the discovery of Anachronox and when a ship entered into an area that sped them up to faster than light speeds and when they stopped at a point far across the galaxy, they ''would'' have been amazed, except for the fact that intertial dampers hadn't yet been invented and so they ended up as messy spots on the wall. The next ship to enter ''did'' have inertial dampers and was just fine.
* The reason the pilot capsules in [[
* One of many components in your fighter, in the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' series, that can fail as you take damage, though the games don't model any actual effects of its loss other than ''any'' collision being fatal. In [[Wing Commander (novel)|the novels]], it's noted to be fast, but not instantaneous.
* In ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', the Liir use a specialized drive to prevent inertia -- since their ships are filled with liquid and are a lot heavier than those of land-based species, they use a drive called 'stutterwarp' that performs millions of short-range (in the range of millimetre-long) teleportations per second, slowly driving their ships in a direction without causing inertia.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' avoids this trope handily. Using the eponymous technology, ships engines form a field that changes the mass of everything within it, allowing travel at light speed, while everything within stays still because of its relative mass within the field. Of course, this doesn't change what happens when a ship is struck by projectiles.
** It should be pointed out that, in the case of dreadnoughts, the projectiles they fire have the kinetic force in the kiloton range (i.e. equivalent to a nuclear blast), while the people inside of the target ship, even if mass effect generators are off-line, get ''slightly'' buffeted to the side.
* Presumably, AMS Compatibility in [[Armored Core]] 4/for Answer also directly influences tolerance to G-forces. That particular universe ''is'' filled with hyper-maneuverable [[Humongous Mecha]] that can hit upwards from 100 kph in an instant acceleration to any lateral direction, repeatedly.
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* In [[Real Life]], high-speed trains such as Pendolinos damp out the centrifugal effect on curved sections of track by tilting the car bodies, thereby ensuring that passengers don't suffer from nausea. However, as British Rail learned with its failed APT project, if the damping effect is ''too'' good passengers can still feel nauseated because their eyes tell them they should be feeling a force and their bodies don't.
** All fast corners on railways are banked (known as Cant in the UK or Superelevation elsewhere) to some extent for the same reason, and also to prevent rail and wheel wear from flange contact (the wheel profile is what steers a train, other than on very sharp corners the flanges should not touch the rails). The problem is as the banking is fixed, it must be a compromise so as not to discomfort passengers or cause inside flange contact on slow or stopped trains. The limit for normal lines is usually 6 inches, but dedicated high speed lines can be higher. The benefit of tilt is that it can vary with speed, and can allow up to 9 deg of additional banking at top speed.
* Real Life: Beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, as aircraft performance improved, aircrew, especially fighter pilots, began to faint in the cockpit during particularly hard maneuvers. This is very bad, for obvious reasons. Aircrew were issued with special G-suits beginning in WWII; these take the form of trousers which inflate during hard maneuvers. This keeps blood in the upper body; that way, the pilots don't faint or lose too much peripheral vision. They must use special breathing techniques and undergo centrifuge training to be able to stand it, however. Early G-suits were water-inflated; later models switched to air inflation. The recent, famous Libelle suit, from a German firm, uses "passive fluid bladders" to cushion and protect the pilot, and by all means works very well. The name means "dragonfly" in German; the dragonfly is designed in much the same way. Liquid immersion has been tried in real life; a Dr. R. Flanagan Gray took a ride in a water-filled centrifuge capsule at one point, safely sustaining 31 Gs for several seconds. Another man, a Colonel John Stapp, volunteered as a human guinea pig, experiencing extreme decelerations during rocket-sled tests. Later, a Captain Eli Bleeding sustained 83 g for a brief instant...well, negative g, anyway. The research had civilian applications; it went a long way towards improving automobile safety. John Stapp was present when the act mandating the inclusion of seatbelts in all new US vehicles was signed into law by President Johnson.
** The JU87 "Stuka" dive bombers when pulling out of a dive could produce high enough G force to cause the pilot to temporarily black out. For this reason, once the bomb was released, the pull out was automatic, the pilot regaining control once the plane was climbing on full throttle.
** For that matter, the seatbelts in your car sort of qualify. After all, they're intended to protect you from forces which might otherwise turn you into chunky salsa, at least in some circumstances, no?
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