Technology ConnectionsJun 9, 2023
Realizing I don't have a perfect handle on how Trek-universe artificial gravity functions, it just occurred to me that incidents involving turbolifts falling down the shaft seem... silly
Show threadDopeGhotiJun 9, 2023

@TechConnectify
It's definitely one of those timey-wimey things. Depending on the needs of the plot, it's either shipwide or each deck has its own gravity generator. The only constant is that the handwavium includes controlled emission of gravitons.

If the artificial gravity is shipwide, a falling turbolift plot element at least sort of makes sense; otherwise it's one of them there plot holes.

Show threadRev. GothAlice

@DopeGhoti @TechConnectify Gravity generator somewhat implies a point source for the force applied, which would be… like trying to live on an Alderson disc. It'd be problematic.

Building it into a planar surface such as the deck plating itself, with a single direction of pull (projected up… meaning pulling down) makes the greatest sense, for such a fictional technology.

The trick is, of course, continuous power drain. Because apparently gravitational manipulation ain't no thang; like inertia.

Jun 9, 2023 at 3:14amWeb
Show threadRev. GothAliceJun 9, 2023

@DopeGhoti @TechConnectify This means the turbolifts themselves would be within a zero-gravity environment (optimally), with gravity only projected within the volume of the inhabited space.

(I may or may not play a sci-fi author on the television in my head.)

Show threadDopeGhotiJun 9, 2023

@alice
Oh inertia is definitely a thing, that's why in a catastrophic incident the first things to tip over, in order usually, are:

  • Deflector shields
  • Antimatter containment
  • Inertial Dampeners
  • Structural integrity fields

Fun semi-related fact- in the TNG-era sickbay sets that had the big screen with the readings for all sorts of biometrics for the patient on the diagnostic bed? One of them - and always the first to bottom out - was labeled "Medical insurance remaining".