Higher Gravity Levels

I found this to be pretty insightful, as I've seen many make the mistake of humans being able to cope with 2g and higher worlds with no problem. In reality, as pointed out, anything more than 1.5g would definitely prevent humans from surviving as we are (e.g. as completely erect bipeds). Figured this would be useful insight for anyone who is creating planets with higher gravity levels who may have been misled by the use of gravity in DBZ.

That's useful. Thanks.

No problemo. I know a lot of tropers write spec fic, so I figured this would be useful to them when creating planets and such. It helps add a little bit of realism to even the softest sci-fi.

I like Honorverse portrayals of that. You get full heavyworlder cred from coming from a 1.3g planet, the heaviest that's ever been colonized is like 2.6 and they have to live on high mountaintops because at sea level the air is too thick to breathe.

That sounds pretty interesting, actually. It's nice to see when this and the sapient/sentient think are portrayed at least semi-accurately.

edited 1st Feb '12 2:28:28 PM by Firebert

I'm curious where they get the notion that designs are inherently unusable at certain gravity levels. Have we observed heavyworlder aliens on a 1.5x (E) gravity level? I'm pretty damn sure all of this is just complete conjecture based on likely faulty models.

/has a super-earth where the gravity is comparable (~2.1E) to an actual super-earth recently discovered outside our solar system. (Kepler-10b to be precise.)

edited 1st Feb '12 3:09:55 PM by MajorTom

Not inherently unusable, but unlikely to arise, maybe. Humans, with the proper support, could probably exist on a 3g world, but upright bipeds are unlikely to evolve there (at least on a human scale; maybe cat-sized ones could).

Yeah, without some very major modifications, there's no way bipeds could flourish on such planets.

^ The same could be said here. That there's no way a bipedal animal with inferior physical strength or speed to 90% of the animal kingdom could become the dominant species on Earth. 90% of the environs humans are found in are hostile to bipedal creatures.

Remember, calcium as a mineral is a lot stronger than you think it is. The bones of a 3g heavyworlder are probably several orders of magnitude denser and more massive than ours.

There's no known evolutionary trigger for a lack of bipedalism. Gravity (and physics in general if the entire Feline family is anything to go by) doesn't seem to have any influence on evolution.

What's with the interest in evolving bipeds on a 3g planet?

^ To counteract the preposterous thought that just because a ball falls at 29 m/s² acceleration on a 3g world it equals instant pancake for a biped.

edited 1st Feb '12 4:00:41 PM by MajorTom

Gravity (and physics in general if the entire Feline family is anything to go by) doesn't seem to have any influence on evolution.

... what? I'm sorry, what?

^ There have been a lot of creatures that have evolved who's abilities or designs seem to defy physics. Cats for instance seem to have the innate ability to tell gravity to fuck off.

edited 2nd Feb '12 4:18:34 AM by MajorTom

Which is why I have to keep my own pet cat from floating out of the window at every opportunity.

Having a good sense of balance is not 'defying physics'.

Humanity isn't a planet-scale apex predator because of physical characteristics.

You mean apart from our enormous brains, and our forelimbs that are well-adapted to tool-using?

Animals adapt according to their environment, which is why, among other things, birds have hollow bones, seals have blubber, and fish have gills. Why is it so hard to accept that a high-gravity planet might require a rather different evolutionary approach?

They called me mad when I patented the cat anchoring device, but it looks like I may yet have the last laugh.

To be fair, it'd be pretty hilarious if cats somehow defied the laws of physics rather than just being very good at balance.

CATY! WHY ARE YOU TURNING INTO A BALLOON AGAIN?

The toastcat device will yet succeed.

The secret to FTL travel is the distortion in space-time that occurs when you drop a cat with toast on its back.

I tell a lie, cats can defy gravity. It's right there in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, regarding Macavity the Mystery Cat: "his powers of levitation could make a fakir stare".

Though that's just an expression of his overall criminality.

I seem to recall hearing somewhere that cats can actually survive a fall at terminal velocity, which would be cool, if sounds a little unlikely.

I recall something similar. It has to do with a cat's natural tendency to spread itself out while falling, which increases air resistance and lowers its terminal velocity to a survivable speed. But, according to the Other Wiki, a study of High-Rise Syndrome proposes that it takes about five stories for a falling cat to reach terminal velocity, but six stories for the cat's muscles to relax, thus reducing the damage sustained.[1]

edited 3rd Feb '12 11:11:46 AM by Winglerfish

So wait, they can survive any fall except one between five and six stories?