gfish: (Default)
gfish ([personal profile] gfish) wrote2007-04-10 10:00 am

daydreaming

I spent the busride into work this morning playing with a very silly scenario: what would I do if gravity turned off? (With the immediate qualifications that the atmosphere doesn't get sucked away and large bodies of water somehow stay put.) I'd want to go find [livejournal.com profile] vixyish and get back home, but that would be 6 miles of leaping from handhold to handhold. A single mistake could leave me floating off into the sky, probably dying of dehydration or exposure long before rescues could be organized. People in cars would be in trouble, particularly those on the freeway. I'd have the 50 feet of rope built into my belt, so I could create a kind of grappling hook. If need be, I could tie one end to a solid object, push off for the next one, tie it off, then go back and untie from the first one. Slow and steady. But since we're in the realm of fantasy, it would be very tempting to raid a bicycle store and hack up some kind of pedal-driven propeller vehicle. It wouldn't need to be much, just blades from a boxfan and either a gimbal mount or 2 rudders for control. Getting two counter-rotating blades would probably be beyond the scope, so I'd end up spinning a lot. Work from a recumbent, if they had one available, to keep the CG issues simpler. Use the grappling hook for landingsdockings. Failing that, maybe I could get a pair of diving fins and bodge on some extra surface area. Better than nothing...

So, yeah, silly. But fun. :)

[identity profile] bakeme.livejournal.com 2007-04-10 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
yeah. diving fins. that'd be the way to go.

as for the spinning, you could branch off another fan to the side that blows down on whichever side wanted to drift down. sync up a 90 degree branch from your main drive line? have it function like a helicoptor tail.

as for the rope, indiana jones's whip would probably work, if you could get the hang of hooking it on things and then unattaching it, like he always does. if you got good you could cruise around like spiderman. sorta.