Why Catapults?...

No, ether wouldnt cause that. The only explanation is that it was an fx shot that the Digital Anvil team thought would be cool. It doesnt fit in, but they did pull it off well. Its a part of their WWII theme for WC.
 
The fighter dropped since htere is gravity on teh flight deck, and they were pushing it down a compactor for recycling.
 
If it were affected by gravity of the flight deck (which is under the fighter) the sudden lack of gravity would cause the fighter to jerk up not down.
 
I don't think you understand what he was saying... The ship has a gravity field... this gravity field extends over the edges of the flight deck. Therefore, when pushed off the flight deck, the fighter fell a short distance.

TC
 
Wouldnt that indicate that the gravity field was stronger on the edge that extended beyond the flight deck?
 
Originally posted by Supdon3
If it were affected by gravity of the flight deck (which is under the fighter) the sudden lack of gravity would cause the fighter to jerk up not down.
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Thats an interesting analysis of the physics of the situation, however incorrect. . . The force acting up on the rapier is the normal force, the second half of the action/reaction pair that includes the force due to gravity, weight. The allows the net force on the rapier to be zero. Without the deck, there is no normal force and the net force on the rapier is downward in relation to the plane of the deck.

If such a gravity system were to extend beyond the edges of the flight deck, the fighter would indeed feel a force and therefore experience an acceleration in the direction of that force until it left the effect of the field, i.e. someone suggested a few meters beyond the deck.
 
Originally posted by TC


Um... why?
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For the fighter to fly evenly across the flight deck it would have to use a certain amount of thrust to stay level, but when it reaches the end of the flight deck it suddenly gets pulled down. Unless the pilot likes bumpy rides and cuts the thrust, the pull of gravity would have to have increased beyond the flight deck.
 
Originally posted by Supdon3
the pull of gravity would have to have increased beyond the flight deck.
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Yeah, maybe in the Stupid Universe...

By your logic, the reason my feet touch asphalt when I step off the sidewalk at a crossing is because somehow the gravity is increased beyond the sidewalk.

The reason I descend to a lower level (such as the crosswalk) is because there's nothing holding me up. Kinda like the friggin' flight deck for the fighters, which ends, much like the sidewalk does for me, allowing them to drop a little bit.
 
I get the feeling you two are not talking about the same thing.
Indeed if a fighter is flying (not touching the deck) level over a flight deck with gravity and then drops down after the end of the deck it's either pilot error (perhaps overcorrecting for the lack of gravity after the deck?) or the gravity is indeed higher.
But if a fighter is lying on the deck and then pushed off no higher gravity is needed to make it fall since the normal force is gone. In fact, I think they might extend the flight deck gravity intentionally so objects fall down from it when pushed off intentionally, otherwise pushing a fighter off would just have it float in front of the flight deck, still obstructing it.
<Edit>I remember seeing only the latter (pushing off then falling) in the WCM.</Edit>

Oh, and in space all objects fall all the time. Weightlessness in fact means not the lack of gravity, but the fact that gravity is the only force at work (everything else is therefore falling at the same rate). We are not weightless because gravity is countered by the normal force of the ground. Skydivers are almost weightless but not quite because of friction but especially at high altitudes where the air is thin they get pretty close.
 
Originally posted by Unforgiven

But if a fighter is lying on the deck and then pushed off no higher gravity is needed to make it fall since the normal force is gone. In fact, I think they might extend the flight deck gravity intentionally so objects fall down from it when pushed off intentionally, otherwise pushing a fighter off would just have it float in front of the flight deck, still obstructing it.
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Uhm... I fail to fully understand how this works...
In the movie... we see the fighter which is pushed off the edge fall "down", right? Well then in that case, it means a force pulled it "down", and by what most people have been claiming, this would be the gravitational force generated artificially by the space ship...
Nonetheless, I really wonder how the gravity field can be "extended" beyond the edge of the ship itself... :confused:

Also, another thing I'd like to know, is how the artificial gravity field onboard the capital ship is generated, and also if there's a gravity field inside a spacefighter as well (or if the pilot is just belted to his seat).
My knowledge is very limited on the subject, but I took a course which included a deal of astrophysics last year, and they were talking about impacts of prolonged weightlessness on the human body... From there, the lecturerer went on talking about ways of creating artificial gravity onboard spaceships, one of these including "rotating the cabin along an axis", much like a centrifuge (as we can see in the movie Red Planet). Though, I fail to recall any other efficient processes...
 
Originally posted by mpanty

Uhm... I fail to fully understand how this works...
In the movie... we see the fighter which is pushed off the edge fall "down", right? Well then in that case, it means a force pulled it "down", and by what most people have been claiming, this would be the gravitational force generated artificially by the space ship...
Nonetheless, I really wonder how the gravity field can be "extended" beyond the edge of the ship itself... :confused:
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I don't know how they could do it. But there are three possible solutions as to why we see the Rapier fall off the flight deck even though there is no gravity (or more exact - as per my previous post - the same gravity works on both the Tiger's Claw and the fighter):
1. The WCM is in error.
2. The artificial gravity field extends via some unknown way beyond the reach of the deck.
3. The Tiger's Claw pitched up (although since it remained fixed from our viewpoint, that means the camera also pitched which we would've seen as a move in the starfield)

Also, another thing I'd like to know, is how the artificial gravity field onboard the capital ship is generated, and also if there's a gravity field inside a spacefighter as well (or if the pilot is just belted to his seat).
My knowledge is very limited on the subject, but I took a course which included a deal of astrophysics last year, and they were talking about impacts of prolonged weightlessness on the human body... From there, the lecturerer went on talking about ways of creating artificial gravity onboard spaceships, one of these including "rotating the cabin along an axis", much like a centrifuge (as we can see in the movie Red Planet). Though, I fail to recall any other efficient processes...
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The Confed Handbook says jump points are found by means of generating anti-gravitons. If you can generate antigravitons, it stands to reason they can also generate gravitons, which would in effect 'create' gravity. How to generate gravitons, I haven't a clue. As far as I know, centrifugal force or constant acceleration are the only ways we know of now to simulate gravity.
One other thing. Starships in WC, like in Star Trek, have Inertial Dampeners. This means some method is used to counter acceleration force. If you can somehow do that, it stands to reason that you can also compensate too much and create some sort of force in any direction you'd want. Since the human body cannot destinguish between gravity and acceleration that would in effect be a method to generate gravity. Conversely, any form of gravity generator can be used to serve as inertial dampener (if powerful enough). Since the maneouvers WC fighters do would kill any person in less than a second without Intertial Dampeners, this means that fighters have at least equipment on board that could be used to generate gravity. Whether or not they do this is open to debate.
 
I don't know if this point was already raised and I really don't feel like reading through the entire thread to find out, but the Tiger Claw was fairly close to planet 415 when those fighters were launched. It's possible that the planet and/or its rings exert an unnaturally high force of gravity. That would explain why the fighters were pulled down upon clearing the flight deck.
 
Originally posted by mpanty

Nonetheless, I really wonder how the gravity field can be "extended" beyond the edge of the ship itself... :confused:

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But it doesn't! If you watch, you'll note that the flight deck on the tiger claw ends atleast 50 ft. before the ship does. That little bit withe what llook like jets on the end stick out past it.

If there is some kind of gravity generator, kinda like a warp feild generator, given that one can artificialy create gravity and/or that gravity exists as a particle (theorized gravitons) they could in theory have an artificial singularity (micro-mini black hole) that would make a gravity feild that extends beyond the ship.

However if it wasn't tuned right flying in an asteroid field would be hell.
 
He he , yeah. If my mind serves me right, the concordia took quite a pounding when she did it evassivly in WC2
 
Originally posted by Unforven
{b]The Confed Handbook says jump points are found by means of generating anti-gravitons. If you can generate antigravitons, it stands to reason they can also generate gravitons, which would in effect 'create' gravity. How to generate gravitons, I haven't a clue. As far as I know, centrifugal force or constant acceleration are the only ways we know of now to simulate gravity. [/b]
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If antigravitons create antigravity when coming toward you, then wouldn't they create gravity if they were going the other direction?
I say WC artificial gravity is created in the same way. An antigravity field is created between the ceiling and the floor in the direction of the ceiling. This would cause anything in it to generally move towards the floor, thus creating the perception of gravity towards the floor.

Now to answer AD's and mpanty's points. As anyone who studies electomagnetic fields can tell you, the fields is warp around the edges of the electrodes that create them. You can see this warping if you put iron filings between two magnets. The same thing happends with gravity/antigravity fields. The gravity field is wrap at the edge of the flight deck, ane the field lines extend a distance foward of the deck. This is why there is gravity thre, and why the fighters dip when taking off.
 
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