Questions tagged [science-based]
For questions that require plausible (better than suspension-of-disbelief) answers based on Real World science that are not necessarily constrained to the known limits of Real World science. Contrast with the hard-science, science-fiction and internal-consistency tags. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, hard-science, or internal-consistency tags.
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What color would the sky be in a multi-star system?
In this scenario, an Earthlike planet is situated in a quaternary solar system clumped into two binaries--a Parent, in which the planet orbits, and a Grandparent, in which the Parent binary orbits.
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What would sunsets look like around different star types? [migrated]
I have always wondered what a sunset would look like around different types of stars. I have tried to do some research into the types of light refraction, but I cannot find any answers anywhere, and ...
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Reasons/excuses to evolve and retain handlike manipulatory appendages [closed]
As you may know, humans' arms and hands are a direct callback to the times when our ancestors lived in more arboreal settings (monkey swing on tree type stuff)... we needed to be able to grip branches ...
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The Lost Continents of Atlantis and Mu reappear: Disruption to Transport
In a single event, the lost continents of Atlantis and Mu arise from the deeps over the course of about half an hour, accompanied by a low-magnitude earthquake felt worldwide.
For the purpose of this ...
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Is it possible for plant life to evolve (and adapt) on a low CO2 planet?
C4 photosynthesis, which can operate in Carbon Dioxide levels as low as 10ppm
A question related to these two questions:
Habitable inner planet with large oceans, fast rotation and earth-like ...
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How would I calculate the damage someone suffered from various strikes? [closed]
So, I’ve been developing a TTRPG and am wanting to present a realistic fantasy world. This doesn’t mean fantastic things wouldn’t happen - demigods can swing swords at the speed of light. But when ...
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Would human-shaped sperm cells work?
After looking at videos of sperm cells, they reminded me of someone swimming. I've decided this was a neat idea for me to integrate in my worldbuilding.
For lore reasons, I have a group of people with ...
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Natural mechanism behind burning oceans
I have an alternate Earth with no humans where massive patches of the oceans are supposed to be burning. The fires do not come from artificial or man-made causes. The flames themselves:
have lasted ...
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What factors can I use determine if my runaway greenhouse planet will have a thick water vapour atmosphere?
A question related to this question
When Earth’s oceans evaporate, one of two feedback situations could occur:
The "moist greenhouse" where water vapour dominates the troposphere while ...
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How will the monsoons work in this boomerang-shaped supercontinent?
Back and forth, I have created a fantasy supercontinent shaped in the likeness of an asymmetrical boomerang, with its elbow enlarged to resemble a fish’s head pointing westward, its lifting arm long ...
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Point defense weapons on bio-mechanical spacecraft that part of von Neumann machine horde
I am currently working on a concept for a science fiction novel about interstellar warfare in the 24th century.
I am wondering about the best point defense weapons for biomechanical space combat ships ...
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Role of mouth size in ability to replicate human phonemes
(If you're uninterested in any of the background info, boiled down question is in the second paragraph)
As part of my worldbuilding, I have become very interested in conlanging; of particular interest ...
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Is it reasonable that my human-habitable alternate universe look different?
In the story I am planning, I wanted to have two universes, one just like ours, in which humans evolved, and another that is sufficiently similar to our own that humans may survive, but in which ...
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Mechanism behind a pink human skeleton
I have a group of genetically engineered humans with pink $\color{#fe019a}{\text{(#fe019a)}}$ skeletons. The humans are naturally born with it so it isn't transplanted. Furthermore, the skeletons are ...
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In a fantasy world with an inconsistent atmosphere, which latitude would have an atmospheric density of 1.0 Earths?
Imagine, if you will, a fantasy world so fantastical in regards to physics that one of its telltale signs of disregarding the laws of physics is how atmospheric density is tied to latitude. At zero ...
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Habitable inner planet with large oceans, fast rotation and earth-like atmosphere
According to several articles (such as this post), a habitable inner planet (more than 1.1x Earth’s insolation) could realistically form with liquid water (and avoid turning Venusian) through the ...
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Is it possible with modern-day technology to expand an already built bunker further below without the risk of collapsing the entire bunker?
In my fictional setting, albeit close to real world, there is a research facility built on a remote island in a form an underground multi-floor bunker.
This bunker does not look like a mine - it is, ...
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Why are metal ores dredged from coastal lagoons rather than being extracted directly from the mother lode?
Why are metal ores dredged from coastal lagoons rather than being extracted from the mother lode?
I want to arrange a situation where the easiest /cheapest way of obtaining metal ores is by dredging ...
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What scientifically plausible apocalypse scenario, if any, meets my criteria?
After several of my existing worldbuilding projects hit dead ends, I needed a new setting to work on, so I thought I'd try a post-apocalyptic one. The problem is that I can't decide what kind of ...
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Collateral damage of a speedster running at full speed
In my story I have a speedster that has the ability to move superhuman speeds. This story is slightly based in science so the superpowers and how they work aren’t explained by science and are just ...
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climate control and carbon sequestration via bulk air liquification
When there's a stationary high pressure ridge heat domes can form that increase the air temperature and decrease precipitation. But what if one were to kinda suction the air out of the atmosphere, ...
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How to arrange three identical habitable planets in one solar system in similar or, if possible, same orbit?
Reading these three questions
-Can 3 planets rotate around each other like this?
-Can multiple similar planets share the same orbit without interfering with each other too much?
I gather that we can't ...
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What industrial footprint is needed to manufacture ample medieval-era work uniforms?
I'm a time traveler from 2024 who has set myself up in the medieval era as a local lord, and I wish to provide cheap, high-quality uniforms for laborers in my lands, namely: unisex tunics, and hooded, ...
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I may have made an error in calculating my spin-orbit resonance
I have a very warm planet named Phoenix I'm worldbuilding that's 1.2 times the mass of Earth, with a density somewhat smaller at 5.2 g/cm^3, orbiting at a distance of 0.1 AU from it's star in 10.2 ...
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Could asteroid mining be made viable if there were a resource rich asteroid in orbit just beyond the moon?
Two of the biggest issues with asteroid mining is the issue of actually getting materials from the the asteroid in question back to earth, and the relative abundance of resources on earth vs in space. ...
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Effects of Day/Night divide on airflow patterns on a binary planet
I'm currently working on a project with a binary planetary system (both planets are around .8 earth mass with some variation), and naturally, the planets are tidally locked to each other, leading to a ...
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Air magic only used to decrease humidity and improve living conditions?
I'm writing a world with an overall warm and very humid climate (Eocene-adjacent, although it does not have to be 100% realistic). Population is very low compared to Earth. Humans generally live in ...
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'Bulk, high-ish purity carbon' sources in a mostly contemporary-adjacent setting
Basically what it says on the tin. A society mostly like ours as far as it's technological base goes recently discovers a way to synthesise very useful 'crystals' with carbon, with applications in a ...
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Is the proposed solar sailing race course possible?
This is an idea that's been banging around a couple of universes in my head for quite some time, the idea is to have solar sail racing yachts that have to traverse an asteroid field. This could be ...
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Would this telescope be capable to detect Middle Ages Civilization?
Imagine the aliens of Prettyfaraway had developed deployed the PrettyHuge Space Telescope.
This pretty impressive array of gravitational-lensing space faring telescopes was capable of resolving Earth ...
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What evolutionary pressures would lead to clowns? [closed]
In my world, there is a species scientifically named Homo ridiculus (funny human) (so, they are humans, just not Homo sapiens), commonly named clowns.
Some basic characteristics of them are:
They are ...
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Can a bird fly if the polar atmosphere is this thin?
Imagine, if you will, a fantasy world so fantastical in regards to physics that one of its telltale signs of disregarding the laws of physics is how atmospheric density is tied to latitude. At zero ...
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Airtight beaks?
I have a (moderately) hard sci-fi, in which there is a species (the Bethin) who are based on squids. They have the biological equivalent of a space suit for their skin, and use the mantle cavity as an ...
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Plausible reasons for the usage of Flying Ships [closed]
Inspired by this question, I would like to try a similar question, but for flying ships.
So, assuming that the technology is readily available and that we could build these flying ships as easily as ...
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Methods of determining if an AI takeover on a planet has happened? [closed]
So, in my plot a Galactic Inspector incognito visits a planet (series of planets) with the mission to determine if an AI takeover has already happened there. If the planet is controlled by AI, the ...
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What materials are best for creating a solar sail based of scientific factors [duplicate]
What materials are best to use for a solar sail? Since solar sails function through the transference of momentum from photons, a high reflectivity material would be best, no? Are there any scientific ...
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Can a species transition to ZW from XY (or vice versa) sex determination system through evolution?
In my world, there is a species descended from green iguanas (Iguana iguana) that has ZW sex chromosomes rather than XY like all other iguanids.
In the XY sex determination system (which is used by ...
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Could a jet powered tail-sitter aircraft compete with standard VTOL designs? [closed]
There have been many designs for tail-sitters1 in the past, but they were mostly scrapped for being really hard to land and take off in. However, today this can be easily mitigated with computers. ...
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Would a "plug and play" prosthetic be possible?
A plug and play prosthetic is a type of prosthetic that does not require months of rehabilitation just to use, rather, this type of prosthetic can be used immediately after it is surgically installed, ...
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Weather on a Hot Saturn
So, out of curiosity and for the purposes of a roleplay universe I am making, I am curious about the weather on a Hot Saturn. This planet, nearly identical in mass, composition and size to Saturn, is ...
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Could an azhdarchid pterosaur take off and fly while being ridden by a human?
Could humans theoretically ride any of the largest azhdarchid pterosaurs, assuuming a wingspan of about 10.5m and weight of about 200-250kg for the largest azhdarchids such as Hatzegopteryz or ...
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What are the potential advantages/disadvantages of a hyper maneuverable aircraft that operates similar to Armored Core's mechs?
I'm attempting to writing in a near-future war setting where some new weapon designs are being tested, in an attempt to breakthrough the enemies military strategies by "thinking out of the box&...
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How do you tell if you're in a nebula?
Specifically, how does a civilization tell if their home planet - on which they have always resided - is orbiting a star that is inside a nebula? The way we know that we're not in a nebula is because ...
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Would an industrial level society be able to visually identify orbital debris from a destroyed mega structure?
My world is a very distant post apocalyptic society on earth after the destruction of some orbital mega structure around the planet - like an orbital ring or something. The current civilization(s) on ...
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How much time is needed to judge an Earth-like planet to be safe?
A colony ship has been sent to deep space to colonize an earth-like planet. Through astronomical spectroscopy, the atmospheric composition was found to be suitable for human life. But of course, ...
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Could an Alien decipher human languages using only comms traffic?
Could a hiding alien ship decipher all of our languages only using the comms traffic of our civilization without our cooperation(assuming our civilization has expanded across the solar system, to the ...
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Could saltpeter be discovered from fertilizer?
One day, while going down a black-powder rabbit hole, I stumbled upon the neat historical fact that, in various times and places in the early modern period, urine was used as the source of saltpeter ...
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How would a planet with both global and hemispherical seasons work?
Long ago, I asked a question on how to make Earth's oceans brackish based on Chris Wayans's super-Earth, Lyr. Now we're going back to it because it has another interesting detail which results in ...
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If an otherwise too massive planet rotates fast enough, would the equatorial region become habitable?
Ok, So I'm writing with an eye toward pondering the constraints of terraforming, which are more numerous than most people think, which creates a plethora of fun quirks and constraints for story ...
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Producing A Chosen One Via Eugenics: Is It Possible?
Also Known As: The Ambrosius Problem
Lore if wanted: Long ago, the 12 most powerful mages in the world (the Founders), after gaining a pyrrhic victory against the Eldritch King, performed a ritual to ...
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