slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) (06/09/85)
> > Also, If you are falling at a velocity of say 15m/sec and you > teleport back to your castle are you going to be mashed into the > floor?? If so & if you teleported so you "landed" up-side-down > would you go flying up into the air?? If you were visiting a > planet that was revolving faster then good old Greyhawlk and > then teleported back would you go skipping along the ground at > a few hundred km/hr?? What happens to the air that is displaced > then you teleport in?? Would you make a small thunder-clap when > you teleport away?? > > > Brad Harrington > {ihnp4,sun,ucbvax}!dual!brad > {ihnp4,sun,ucbvax}!dual!vanguard!brad For an excellent discussion of these and other issues, see Larry Niven's essay in _All the Myriad Ways_ titled "Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation". He has an essay on time travel in the same book and with the same sort of conclusions: "It isn't possible for these and other reasons--but its a lot of fun to play around with anyway". (Not a direct quote--just the sense of his conclusions.) (While you're at it catch "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex". Your reactions on watching Superman II may never be the same.) I suppose I personally would ignore the conservation laws in some cases, such as travels between planets. (As Niven mentions, there are problems even between different longitudes on the same planet.) However, if the character were falling when s/he teleported, I would assume s/he is falling at arrival, also. (They can't get out of it that easily!) A thunderclap sounds good. Any magic user would love to create an effect like that. How about a pulsating fushia light about the teleporter before the big event? -- Sue Brezden Real World: Room 1B17 Net World: ihnp4!drutx!slb AT&T Information Systems 11900 North Pecos Westminster, Co. 80234 (303)538-3829 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Send lawyers, guns, and money... -Warren Zevon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
scott@hou2g.UUCP (Danger Mouse) (06/11/85)
[...a discussion of the physics and problems inherent in teleportation...]
-> I suppose I personally would ignore the conservation laws in some cases,
-> such as travels between planets. (As Niven mentions, there are problems
-> even between different longitudes on the same planet.) However, if the
-> character were falling when s/he teleported, I would assume s/he is
-> falling at arrival, also. (They can't get out of it that easily!)
-> A thunderclap sounds good. Any magic user would love to create an effect
-> like that. How about a pulsating fushia light about the teleporter before
-> the big event?
To hell with a thunderclap! How 'bout a sound like, oh say, "Bamf"?
The teleporter could even leave behind an odor of sulphur and
brimstone or something.
And to think some people say I have no originality...
"And meanwhile, somewhere East of London,
in a rent-controlled Victorian Mansion..."
Scott J. Berry
{someplace big}!hou2g!scotthutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (06/12/85)
In article <2979@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes: >> >> Also, If you are falling at a velocity of say 15m/sec and you >> teleport back to your castle are you going to be mashed into the >> floor?? If so & if you teleported so you "landed" up-side-down >> would you go flying up into the air?? This breaks down into several questions, depending on the method by which teleporting is accomplished. If it is "word of recall" the wording guarantees you a safe arrival. "Word of recall" does depend on the benificence of a deity, though. If teleporting via magic, (under the system I run, which is a mongrel many years in the making) the spell may not have the fine control necessary to make it all work nicely. We also have several ways to cast this magic spell. Obviously a tport via a teleportal will normalize motion relative to the frame of reference of the reciever. So, if you are bashed through an active portal, you are still flying through the air when you get to the "other" side. But a tport via a self-cast spell may not work at all under such circumstances; the distractions of falling/being knocked about would prevent the complex gesticulations and so on... If the spell is cast via a focus, an amulet, a sword, a ring, or some other "instant-on" device, it might work, but depending on the skill of the spellcaster who BUILT the article, I would adjust success chances for the more complex conversion between frames of reference. Now, if the teleportation is via some variation on psionic power, it can be trained to a reflex, in which case, the teleporter can use a little more effort and correct for the extra velocity, which she will already have basically learned to do anyway, if your world is round and rotating. (NO assumptions about FRP worlds!) On the other hand, something pretending to be teleportation can be done by snapping onto the etherial or astral plane, a transition which allows the pretender to bleed or steal relative motion from the Gate effect. Yet another variation of teleportation has it being movement in some very non-4space direction. This means that unless the DM decides that you can "lose" inertia by friction or some such process, the return to 4-space will mean exactly what you described: the victim ends up with a velocity vector in some direction which will probably not match the velocity vector of the surroundings, and *splat*. >> ... If you were visiting a >> planet that was revolving faster then good old Greyhawlk and >> then teleported back would you go skipping along the ground at >> a few hundred km/hr?? How did you get there? (wrong question!) Well, I suspect that any long-distance teleportation spells would HAVE to correct for all of angular momentum, or they wouldn't have been passed on since the developers would have died. >> ...What happens to the air that is displaced >> then you teleport in?? Would you make a small thunder-clap when >> you teleport away?? >> >> Brad Harrington >> {ihnp4,sun,ucbvax}!dual!brad >> {ihnp4,sun,ucbvax}!dual!vanguard!brad > >I suppose I personally would ignore the conservation laws in some cases, >such as travels between planets. (As Niven mentions, there are problems >even between different longitudes on the same planet.) However, if the >character were falling when s/he teleported, I would assume s/he is >falling at arrival, also. (They can't get out of it that easily!) Why not? Teleporting isn't that easy, and it has a pretty nasty set of failure penalties associated with it. If one is falling, then it is difficult to exactly state the origin, relative to a "safe" landing point, so I would (under the simplest conditions) just restore those penalty chances. >A thunderclap sounds good. Any magic user would love to create an effect >like that. How about a pulsating fushia light about the teleporter before >the big event? >-- > > Sue Brezden > >Real World: Room 1B17 Net World: ihnp4!drutx!slb > AT&T Information Systems > 11900 North Pecos > Westminster, Co. 80234 > (303)538-3829 If teleportation is instantaneous, I would expect that a thunderclap, or at least a pistol crack, would be likely, even if the same volume of air were exchanged with the teleportee, just because of differences in the density of the atmosphere. If it isn't instantaneous then of course the more gradual fade would just create a faint breeze. Fuscia lights are garish and a sign of incomplete mastery of the spell, and furthermore tend to be ominous of an impending illness afflicting anyone nearby (hard radiation poisoning!). Hutch