For Questions That Don't Merit Their Own Thread

[FleshJeb]

5 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I forget the author - but there was a good Sci-Fi book I read years ago where a guy lived kind of in the remnants of an advanced civilization - and without knowing it used anti-aging tech.  He got into something like a phone booth and pushed a button - something happened, but he did not know what; it cleared out all the 'dust' and aging stuff from his cells.

Was pretty cool.

Can't remember the name of the book or author.  Empire something, maybe.

I know I've read this, but it's such a common trope, I can't remember. My gut is saying Saberhagen, but I've never read the Empire of the East. Perhaps this event was referenced in the later Swords books, which I HAVE read.

Otherwise, possibly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Out_of_Time

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LongevityTreatment

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FountainOfYouth

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

21 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

I know I've read this, but it's such a common trope, I can't remember. My gut is saying Saberhagen, but I've never read the Empire of the East. Perhaps this event was referenced in the later Swords books, which I HAVE read.

Otherwise, possibly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Out_of_Time

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LongevityTreatment

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FountainOfYouth

I've been wracking my brain all day with Empire of the East - which I remember enjoying (as I enjoyed many of Saberhagen's works - including the Swords books and Berserker series way back when).

The problem is the 'sense' I have of the protagonist; IIRC the protagonist in Empire is a kid with a knack for machines.  The sense I have of the protagonist in the story I referenced seemed more mature; i.e. someone who would truly appreciate being rejuvenated.

Still - it's likely Empire of the East... but then World out of Time.  That character name rang a bell; but not the story synopsis you linked.

 

Continuing to wrack my brain.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I've been wracking my brain all day with Empire of the East - which I remember enjoying (as I enjoyed many of Saberhagen's works - including the Swords books and Berserker series way back when).

The problem is the 'sense' I have of the protagonist; IIRC the protagonist in Empire is a kid with a knack for machines.  The sense I have of the protagonist in the story I referenced seemed more mature; i.e. someone who would truly appreciate being rejuvenated.

Still - it's likely Empire of the East... but then World out of Time.  That character name rang a bell; but not the story synopsis you linked.

 

Continuing to wrack my brain.

World out of Time you will remember, an trip to the center of the galaxy and back, 3 million years in the future and earth is now an moon of Jupiter as the sun heated up because of enemy action, think they dropped an planet into the sun. 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

12 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

World out of Time you will remember, an trip to the center of the galaxy and back, 3 million years in the future and earth is now an moon of Jupiter as the sun heated up because of enemy action, think they dropped an planet into the sun. 

Yeah - that wasn't the story I remember... 

 

Still thinking

[FleshJeb]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Still thinking

In the not-too-distant future these kinds of torturous odysseys of failed remembrance will be trivial to resolve.

It will be a loss.

Thus far I've dug into The Closet Of Dooooom to retrieve my two Saberhagen books, and speed-flipped through them to see if I can find any references. I've slowed down to devour a few choice chapters, then moved on to wikipedia to see if I can get a sense of which author would have written such a thing, or if any titles ring a bell. Thus far I suspect it was written somewhere in the 50s to the 70s, by one of the New Wave-or-adjacent authors. However, I recall the story being more prosaic than something that Delaney or Bester would have written. Somebody functioning in the space between New Wave and Golden Age SF. I've re-familiarized my self with quite a few authors who I now KNOW didn't write it.

Taking a journey and chasing down rabbit holes and dead ends is fun and enriching. I hope people always find ways to continue to be driven mad by their own obsessive curiosity.

In any case, if there's any two other people here who I think might know the answer, it's @Gargamel and @NovaSilisko. (Sorry for the ping fellas, there's a literary conundrum afoot--You know how it is.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

5 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

I know I've read this, but it's such a common trope, I can't remember. My gut is saying Saberhagen, but I've never read the Empire of the East. Perhaps this event was referenced in the later Swords books, which I HAVE read.

I've flipped through Empire of the East... and I know I read several books by Saberhagen.  Empire doesn't 'feel' right... nor do the Swords books (I know I read one or two)... but it might be.  Timeline works out (recovered near-future calamity)... I just don't think it had magic and demons.

The scene had a chamber or container adjacent to the 'box' the guy gets into; and the dust (cellular detrius) swirls in the chamber.  I think he uses it a couple of times.  I have the feeling that the guy thought he was getting into or hoped he was getting into a stasis generator/cryo-storage thing and was disappointed it did not work.  

The other part that is sticking in my head has the protagonist early on clambering over a vine covered hill - and then he falls into it.  Turns out it was an old 'our world' or 'near future our world' house or building.  (I know, another trope).  Shanarra did that too, if I recall.  Now that part may have been something directly from Empire...  

 

Anyway, 30 year old memories of a novel I read looong ago.

7 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

Thus far I've dug into The Closet Of Dooooom

I did that very thing!  Cannot tell you how annoyed my wife is that I keep these old books - but frankly, I love them!

Thing is - I cannot rule out Saberhagen - but it has a kind of Niven or Baer feel; but I think you're right on the timeframe!

(Appreciate the continued brain-wrangling!)

[Gargamel]

@FleshJeb I’ve been following this one, and have no clue. 
 

But I have been fully expecting @kerbiloidto post a clip from “2010” in regards to aero braking on Jupiter.  

[kerbiloid]

55 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

But I have been fully expecting @kerbiloidto post a clip from “2010” in regards to aero braking on Jupiter.  

Alas, I'm not a fan of the Clarke's Odyssey, so even didn't remember about that moment.
His books were interesting for me in late-school/early student years, but later I got hooked on more hardcore things, so they are too romantic for me.

[FleshJeb]

11 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

The scene had a chamber or container adjacent to the 'box' the guy gets into; and the dust (cellular detrius) swirls in the chamber.  I think he uses it a couple of times.

The mechanism is exactly as you describe it in World Out of Time, and he uses it twice, but the setting is different. I have the book and re-read the relevant parts this morning.

We might be conflating two (or more) different stories. "Falling into a hole and discovering magic" is older than Merlin.

11 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Cannot tell you how annoyed my wife is that I keep these old books

My ex wife let me keep a big chunk of her extensive science fiction collection.  I should call her and go bum some more.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

16 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

exactly as you describe it in World Out of Time, and he uses it twice, but the setting is different. I have the book and re-read the relevant parts this morning.

I need to dig into that.  Like I wrote - the Character name seemed really familiar; but not the 'went around the galactic center' part.  Or the length of time that passed.

 

It might be - I'll try to find an excerpt.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:16 PM, FleshJeb said:

know I've read this

 

On 4/21/2022 at 10:24 PM, magnemoe said:

World out of Time you will remember

 

20 hours ago, Gargamel said:

I’ve been following this one, and have no clue

So kudos to FleshJeb!  He got it on the first try! 

It really was World Out of Time.  However - and perhaps weirdly - I don't remember anything at all about the first part of the book that magnemoe describes.  Like nothing.  But the scene I remembered - as did FleshJeb - was from the second part of the story.  He dug out the old paperback and found the passage I remembered. 

Anyway - thanks everyone for playing... This has been fun! 

[ARS]

In video games, there's often a case where a different weapon with same type has different attack power despite using same type of bullet. I know this is for the sake of game balance, but what I want to ask, does this kind of difference also true in real life? A same bullet used in 2 different (but same type of gun) has different penetration, force, and destructive power (note: not ballistic properties like trajectory/ grouping, etc.) for example, using .50 cal bullet on different anti-materiel rifle produce a result where one is more powerful than others, or instead, using the same bullet is just as effective as shooting it from different gun

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

7 minutes ago, ARS said:

In video games, there's often a case where a different weapon with same type has different attack power despite using same type of bullet. I know this is for the sake of game balance, but what I want to ask, does this kind of difference also true in real life? A same bullet used in 2 different (but same type of gun) has different penetration, force, and destructive power (note: not ballistic properties like trajectory/ grouping, etc.) for example, using .50 cal bullet on different anti-materiel rifle produce a result where one is more powerful than others, or instead, using the same bullet is just as effective as shooting it from different gun

Absolutely!

Easy for you to do: read the problems the US Army had with the M4 Carbine in Iraq in 2003 vs the M16A2 used by the Marines (and why the US has since then been searching for a different caliber).

The answer is how the weapons systems themselves are different from one another.  In the above case - take the USMC rifle, the M16A2 and compare it to the US Army's M4.  They both fired the exact same 5.56mm round - but the terminal ballistics (killing/wounding power) of the two were markedly different.  The Marine's rifle would drop someone who'd been shot - whereas the Army's rifle just poked holes in them, often leaving them able to continue the fight.

The M4 is basically just a shorter barreled version of the M16A2... so why did that matter?  The differing length of barrels resulted in different chamber pressures and muzzle velocity for the exact same round.  For the M4, the MV was 910m/s while the M16A2 got 960m/s.  That very small difference was enough so that the bullet from the M4 wasn't as frangible as designed and did not tumble: whereas the M16A2 fired round performed as expected.

So you can extend this to different weapons as well - where barrel length, quality of construction, age of the weapon, maintenance status, and a whole host of other issues will have some slight effects on the performance of an otherwise identical round.

oh.

And game balance, of course!

[kerbiloid]

Some people clean barrels better than others...

Some barrels are older than others.

Edited April 23, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

11 hours ago, ARS said:

same type of bullet

Let me also add that ammunition choice within a caliber can make a  surprising amount of difference as well.  Tarkov showcases this well, and other games may too. 

You can have 3 different 5.45 or 7.62 rounds (IRL or in game) - all have the same diameter... But depending on the manufacturing quality, length and composition of the bullet and the quality, composition and quantity of the powder - you can get a pretty wide range of terminal ballistic performance and even accuracy from the different ammo even when fired from the exact same gun. 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Can someone who knows the history maybe explain the dramatic difference between the US and Soviet flight cadence shown in the graph? 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_spaceflight

Between 1967 and 1995 the Soviet launch cadence dwarfed that of the US. 

[SunlitZelkova]

19 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Can someone who knows the history maybe explain the dramatic difference between the US and Soviet flight cadence shown in the graph? 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_spaceflight

Between 1967 and 1995 the Soviet launch cadence dwarfed that of the US. 

The USSR's space program was run by the Ministry of Medium Machine-Building and the RVSN. These organizations had many artillery officers in their ranks as a result of the way Soviet ballistic missile development worked. So they took their "fire it off a bunch of times" testing strategy and applied it to space, in contrast with how American aviation companies had their "build a careful prototype and make sure everything works" strategy. This is why the Soviet would build two space probes and launch them in pairs. This accounts for part of it.

Another thing is ballistic missile development. The USSR in the 1970s was in the process of developing their third generation of ICBMs. IIRC ballistic missile test flights get counted as part of spaceflight records. In contrast, the US was sticking with the good 'ole Minuteman and Titan from the mid 60s. Detente and the (political) cost of Vietnam combined to slow strategic modernization in the US.

Next, we have satellite quality. Soviet reconnaissance (at least their early warning satellites) had a number of issues in development, and some failures, causing need for replacements to be launched.

Finally, the Space Shuttle and the Salyut programs may play a part. The Shuttle was supposed to replace every single expendable launch vehicle in the US- they did make an effort to put this in to practice. This obviously would cause severe cadence issues. The Soviets didn't do this, instead launching Salyuts, Soyuzs, and Progress' like crazy using Proton and Soyuz.

Another thing- space was justified in the USSR based on security and some prestige concerns. Apollo and Mariner were basically it for American space exploration- Congress wanted very little to do with it after Apollo 11. Thus two Vikings in 1975 instead of eight Voyagers throughout the decade, and the Soviets sent multiple probes to Venus while the US sent a single Pioneer and a lone Mariner flyby. The Space Shuttle was stuck repeating two week Spacelab flights while the Soviets built Mir.

Now of course, this wasn't something that applied specifically to space. It came with a cost, too. All across the Soviet Union, bureaucracies, whether they be space organizations or weapons manufacturers, took advantage of ideological and political quirks to advance their interests while ignoring severe core issues. Thus why the US is planning to land humans on the Moon in 2025 while the USSR is... dead? *glances nervously at the internal political situation in Russia*

[kerbiloid]

Better semiconductor electronics in US making possible long-lasting unpressurized satellites.

1. A typical Soviet sat needed a sphere with atmospheric pressure inside to keep electronics working.
As this means that the halves of the sphere are pushed apart with ~(100 kPa * 1 m2) ~= 100 kN ~= 10 t force, the attaching screws get deformed, the rubber gasket stops sealing the gap, the air leaks, and several months later the pressure falls below critical level, and the electronics dies, 
So, mass launches of short-living sats.

2.For the same reason, focusing on unguided spysats with film capsules instead of real-time TV transmission like KH-11.
The Vostok-derived sats were in use till early 2000s (and required a launch per "week" of flight), and more advanced Yantar-like ones with capsules still were limited with 2 to 20 film capsules.

3. Absence of hi-tech spyplanes like RB-36, U-2, and SR-71, so greater need in spysats.

4. A need in aircraft carrier termination tools, so a need in orbital recon sats and the orbital antisat things to protect them.
Also the need to replace them more often for the electronics.

Actually, the electronics killed all space romantics, making spacemen unnecessary.

[DDE]

12 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Can someone who knows the history maybe explain the dramatic difference between the US and Soviet flight cadence shown in the graph? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_spaceflight

Between 1967 and 1995 the Soviet launch cadence dwarfed that of the US. 

At least some of it is going to be as simple as "the Soviets conducted an enormous global mapping project with film return recon sats". 500+ Zenits would pad anyone's statistics.

[kerbiloid]

500+ crewless Vostoks as photosats, and just 6+2 Vostoks with crew.

(And about a hundred or so as biosats, etc.)

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

@SunlitZelkova

@kerbiloid

@DDE

Guys - thanks for the answers! I had no idea and really appreciate the info 

[kerbiloid]

53 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I had no idea and really appreciate the info 

Of USSR and all progressive humanity first spacesat: 82 kg.
Of USA  first spacesat: 8+ kg.

Onboard tools are +/- same,

Because the American sat was on vacuum-proof electronics and didn't require a pressurized capsule.

Edited April 29, 2022 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

the American sat was on vacuum-proof electronics and didn't require a pressurized capsule

Yeah - that's something I had no idea about... Never even dawned on me that they'd be significantly different 

[monophonic]

How amenable would common utensil steel be towards cold forging? e.g. hammering a teaspoon flat for use as a makeshift arrowhead. You may consider the suitability of a common household hammer at your discretion, too.

Asking to satiate a morbid curiosity.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, monophonic said:

How amenable would common utensil steel be towards cold forging? e.g. hammering a teaspoon flat for use as a makeshift arrowhead.

Bad people in their place sharpen even plastic teethbrushes without forging.

Let alone the sharpened cigarette filters.