Engineering!

[EDG]

The ability of the circulatory system to keep blood where it belongs (when that blood is suddenly five time denser) becomes an issue. Depending on what "rapidly" means, even if the circulatory rush for the floor doesn't kill, it will still take a bit for circulation to resume "normal service" to all parts of the body as the mass effect drops off. You may actually want to fall over, provided you can avoid a concussion, as the blood will then pool across more of your body and be closer to your brain when normal circulation resumes.

"rapidly" means "over a few seconds". 30 secs tops, probably.

And yeah, this has stumped me for a while too. I didn't think of the circulation issue but that's a darn good point. I don't think anything "rushes for the floor" though, because if there's no gravity (it'd be a bad idea to have artificial gravity on if this happens!) then everything just gets more massive/denser, there's no specific downward pull.

It's true that momentum would be adversely affected - increase the mass and the velocity has to drop correspondingly to preserve it. So yeah, circulatory systems (including hydraulics for machinery) would suffer because the fluids would slow down.

Not sure if the increased density would mean that supporting structures would be able to support the increased mass too - I'm not sure if there's a direct relation there. Could a suddenly denser object become more brittle even?

 

[GypsyComet]

If there is no environmental gravity but just the mass effect, then the momentum/inertia effects mentioned by Simon are the most predictable. Nothing that was moving will move as easily or stop (or change direction) as easily. This applies to the living beings and the shipboard plumbing. Mechanical pumps will be working harder and may break as a result. The chance of people's hearts exploding is not small, and people may find that the muscles that handle breathing are insufficient to shift the suddenly much heavier ribs.

So the shape of the mass effect curve will determine the fatality rate. A total zero-to-zero time of 30 seconds will likely cause a couple missed breaths, several fatal "heart attacks", and some incredible headaches.

On the ship it will shred most light-duty centrifugal pumps and cause problems in most other types.

 

[EDG]

If there is no environmental gravity but just the mass effect, then the momentum/inertia effects mentioned by Simon are the most predictable. Nothing that was moving will move as easily or stop (or change direction) as easily. This applies to the living beings and the shipboard plumbing. Mechanical pumps will be working harder and may break as a result. The chance of people's hearts exploding is not small, and people may find that the muscles that handle breathing are insufficient to shift the suddenly much heavier ribs.

Hm, but the muscles themselves are denser and heavier too... I guess that doesn't necessarily make them stronger? Either way though - medical problems a go-go!

So the shape of the mass effect curve will determine the fatality rate. A total zero-to-zero time of 30 seconds will likely cause a couple missed breaths, several fatal "heart attacks", and some incredible headaches.

And this is just talking about just doubling the mass of everything, right? If it goes up even more then the problems are more fatal...

On the ship it will shred most light-duty centrifugal pumps and cause problems in most other types.

Unless they're built to compensate for this sort of thing, if it happens on a regular basis...

 

[GypsyComet]

On the ship it will shred most light-duty centrifugal pumps and cause problems in most other types.

Unless they're built to compensate for this sort of thing, if it happens on a regular basis...

Then they stop being "Light Duty" pumps. Pumps and plumbing designed to withstand the mass effect won't have as many issues.

 

[EDG]

True .

Would it affect electronics at all? or fusion power? Ooo. Er, what would be the effect of increasing the mass of subatomic particles? That might be bad!

(sorry, kinda derailing things here a bit!)

 

[GypsyComet]

Would it affect electronics at all? or fusion power? Ooo. Er, what would be the effect of increasing the mass of subatomic particles? That might be bad!

Not really my area of expertise, and I'm not sure even an Atomic Physicist could answer with much certainty.

Electronics and electrical (and thermal) conductivity work because of the electron's position in atomic structure. The conductivity equivalents of momentum and inertia are due more to bonding issues than to mass, and individual electrons rarely go very far to begin with, especially in alternating current.

I suspect you'd see an amperage drop, but how severe is anyone's guess. Again, if the equipment is built with the mass effect in mind, the secondary effects will be reduced by design.

As for fusion... Hmmm.

The inertia/momentum flux in the reaction chamber is going to cause some odd changes in the behavior of the fusing atoms. On the balance, I would expect the reaction itself to continue with little change, as there is a lot of energy available for what are, even multiplied, tiny masses. What may change is the reactor's ability to extract useful power from the reaction. Again, I suspect that mass effect specific engineering will minimize the secondary effects, but the first few times would be... interesting.

 

[kristof65]

I suspect you'd see an amperage drop, but how severe is anyone's guess. Again, if the equipment is built with the mass effect in mind, the secondary effects will be reduced by design.

Hmmm. The answer to that would be interesting - it would be kind of ironic if the amperage went down, since in most cases, increasing the mass (size) of the current carrying wire or circuit traces actually increases it's amperage carrying capabilities. I admit, my understanding of the physics behind electronics is very weak, but I've been dealing with electricity and electronics on a practical, technical level for 20+ years - which gives me my own questions about this would effect electronics.

I'm wondering if that could have an effect on the thermal situation - would the conductors sudden ability to handle more current combined with less current running through cause temperature changes? And would the thermodynamics change fast enough to be noticable? Perhaps this wouldn't be a problem when the mass goes higher, but what about when it returns to normal?

 

[GypsyComet]

Larger conductors can handle more amperage because there are more electrons available, not because of a mass difference. The mass effect doesn't increase the number of electrons, just the mass of the electrons already present.

The reason I posited an amperage drop is the whole issue of momentum and inertia. More energy required to move those electrons in the first place means fewer are actually moving, or they are all moving but not as far.

 

[EDG]

Wait a sec. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a ship's mass increase if approaches the speed of light? Isn't this basically the same thing, except that the ship isn't actually approaching lightspeed? Or does the ship's mass only increase as seen by an outside observer in the relativistic scenario, and not as seen by those inside the ship itself (as I'm postulating here)?

 

[simonh]

Wait a sec. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a ship's mass increase if approaches the speed of light? Isn't this basically the same thing, except that the ship isn't actually approaching lightspeed? Or does the ship's mass only increase as seen by an outside observer in the relativistic scenario, and not as seen by those inside the ship itself (as I'm postulating here)?

It only increases for observers in a different inertial frame of reference.

Simon Hibbs