The Expanse

Cybsled said:

Newtonian physics still apply in space (every action opposite but equal reaction). As long as thrust is constant, then G forces will be equivalent to the amount of thrust being generated. So if they use the equivalent of half a G of constant thrust, then everything inside the ship pushes back with half a G of force opposite to the direction of that force, thus creating the sensation of half Earth gravity. Once thrust is cut and they coast, though, then the G forces would no longer apply and they would be in freefall (weightless).

Person in ship pushing against direction of thrust---><-----Ship thrusting forward

The game changing nature of the Epstein drive is the fact that it is so efficient, that you can maintain constant thrust for very long periods of time. Not only does this let you gain tons of speed over time, but it also has the advantage of negating 0g environments for the duration of the active thrust (which is better for the human body).

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Hmm I guess that makes sense. I just never really studied or even thought about the implications of space physics.
I always assumed G force would be a multiplier of force of gravity in the sense that if you were in 0G you could not create Gforce by way of acceleration but I see the hole in my thinking already in if that was the case rotational force wouldn't generate any gravity through centripetal force.
As I said I hadn't given it much thought. I did study which breadcrumbs makes meatloaf taste good without tasting like a nutrient block though!

Also he was accelerating extremely fast. I didn't see the speed at the end but it was way up there. How long until he hit light speed and what happens after that?
Loaded up the DVR, he was going 2454750 MPS and had used up 10.9% fuel supply 4 hours and 8 minutes and 26 seconds into the burn. 2 seconds later he was going 2543250mps. Now since it was such a fast acceleration and we don't know the exact point in each second I froze that it will be off but he was accelerating roughly 50,000 mps per second from that.

Now Light speed is 299 792 458 m / s or 186000 miles per second. I assume for the show MPS was meters per second.
If true and he would have hit light speed in 100 minutes more.
But that is also wrong. Earlier he was at 337749MPS at 59 minutes 59 seconds in and 10.3% fuel used up.
At that rate of fuel burn he would not run out of fuel for 500 hours. But he was clearly accelerating slower at 30000 mps at that time. Now either way after 3 additional hours and 8 minutes is 11,160 seconds and even at the 30000MPS he should have been going at least 334800000MPS or 334million mps not 2.5million mps he was after 4 hours passed.
Unless time is not linear and 4 hours wasn't really 4 hours, or they just made a fancy gadget and didn't actually make it real.

At 2 minutes 26 seconds in he was going 13300mps with 10.1% fuel used up and gaining at 500mps
The Gforce of thrust increased as he gained speed and at the final scene was 9.6 it appears and climbing.

This is why I stick to meatloaf I suppose, the math after being up 24 hours is nuts.
Somewhere a Vulcan saw a flash and said what the bloody hell was that.

I didn't check the math of the show version, but in the books they indicated that his ship accelerated for 37 hours straight and when it finally ran out of fuel, he got all the way up to 5% of the speed of light and his ship was still going to "this day", which means his ship would travel 1 light year every 20 years. That means that by the time the show takes place (137 yrs later), his ship would have traveled close to 7 light years away from the solar system.

I'm going to guess Solomon Epstein zipping out of the Solar System at a nice clip is going to be relevant at some point. While part of me thinks it would be cool to just have this mini vignette on the narrative science/engineering, I can't imagine they would have filmed it if it wasn't significant for other reasons.

Cybsled said:

I didn't check the math of the show version, but in the books they indicated that his ship accelerated for 37 hours straight and when it finally ran out of fuel, he got all the way up to 5% of the speed of light and his ship was still going to "this day", which means his ship would travel 1 light year every 20 years. That means that by the time the show takes place (137 yrs later), his ship would have traveled close to 7 light years away from the solar system.

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Ya the shows numbers don't make sense. Well I mean they do but he would have hit light speed much sooner. They gave basically 3 points I marked which was 2 minutes, an hour and just over 4 hours into the drive. In 4 hours time he had only used .8% fuel so in 37 hours he would have only used 7.4%ish percent and would have still been over 80% fuel supply.
Obviously the show numbers were not meant to be accurate and I put way too much thought into nothing.

Speaking of those military-grade drugs... what are they supposed to be? From the very first episode I have been trying to wrap my brain around what they are meant to do, I mean besides looking like Ketracel White from the Jem Hadar.

Yeah the drug part gets me a bit too. I read that they help "cope" with the stress of high g travel. The pill the Martian took in the first episode or two that allows him to mind read? Or some heightened sense of concentration to react to slight facial expressions given off by people when confronted with accusations?

Qhue said:

I'm going to guess Solomon Epstein zipping out of the Solar System at a nice clip is going to be relevant at some point. While part of me thinks it would be cool to just have this mini vignette on the narrative science/engineering, I can't imagine they would have filmed it if it wasn't significant for other reasons.

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I'm thinking he eventually runs into aliens who then back trace his route and find the solar system.

The book tries to explain both the pill and the "juice". The pill the Martian dude popped was a focus drug. Basically it is like super Ritalin and lets the user have super focus. The usage in interrogation would be so they don't miss the "tells" that the person they are talking to is lying. Basically that + training would allow you to become a super lie detector.

The juice/anti-G force juice basically is there to prevent a person from having a stroke/aneurysms and ensure they can still function (ie, blood can still flow a bit better). The stuff they get injected with is supposed to significant reduce the chance of that happening, but it never really reduces it to 0 and the longer you stay in high G, the more toxic the drug becomes and the higher probability that you will still have a stroke/aneurysm.

Ganymede stuff is confusing, to me it seems there wasn't a battle involving Bobbie but rather that her squad was wiped out by debries falling from the battle in orbit. And we really have no idea at this point of what went on in orbit.

LachiusTZ said:

Dear god, if you are going to do math plz don't put it in paragraph form. Give us some equations and graphs. Lol

As far as spoilers, I know the entire line of the story (broad strokes), I know the risk of spoilers etc. Access to the conversation is worth the risk of missing some detail. When it comes to the new books etc, I'll either take a vacation from the thread until I catch up, or take the risk.

Also, and w/o knowing the #s etc, the ship would slowly stop accelerating no matter if the fuel ran out or not.

Ganymede could have been done better imo, I thought the book showed that moment for Bobby much better. Having her understand the earthers were running FROM something and TO her for help etc.

Amos is the man.

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Sorry, I had been up a day+ again and was updating as I went backwards in the show. I think in the end the math is right, it just doesn't match what the book had. The rate of energy was still growing in the last scene showed and the fuel consumption was off compared to the books. I think it only was done that way to show he was going freaking fast and going faster. He was already .8% of light speed in just 4 hours on the tv version.

Gurgeh said:

Ganymede stuff is confusing, to me it seems there wasn't a battle involving Bobbie but rather that her squad was wiped out by debries falling from the battle in orbit. And we really have no idea at this point of what went on in orbit.

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Yeah. They aren't doing a fantastic job of making it clear what's going on half the time. I only know what happened because I read the books. If I hadn't, I'd be confused as hell about several things right now. All I can say is be patient and it will eventually become clear..

Qhue said:

Speaking of those military-grade drugs... what are they supposed to be? From the very first episode I have been trying to wrap my brain around what they are meant to do, I mean besides looking like Ketracel White from the Jem Hadar.

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Cybsled did a good job explaining what each of the two drugs are. The "military grade" thing just means that they are the high end and clean (and $$$). You can get lower end juice for cheaper, but it's not as potent (and probably adulterated) and bad shit could happen. Without spoiling anything, that comes into play later.

Qhue said:

I'm going to guess Solomon Epstein zipping out of the Solar System at a nice clip is going to be relevant at some point. While part of me thinks it would be cool to just have this mini vignette on the narrative science/engineering, I can't imagine they would have filmed it if it wasn't significant for other reasons.

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Could come into play later, but I bet it doesn't. I think think it's as you described it- a mini vignette on not only science/engineering, but also on the history of the Earth/Mars/Belt paradigm. They go into detail about that stuff in the books and I think they are trying to find a way to work in backstory info into the show. I like it.

Gurgeh said:

Ganymede stuff is confusing, to me it seems there wasn't a battle involving Bobbie but rather that her squad was wiped out by debries falling from the battle in orbit. And we really have no idea at this point of what went on in orbit.

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I think it was deliberately confusing, but my take was that Bobbie told her ship they were under attack just as it started going over the orbital mirror. The ship captain opens fire on the mirror to destroy it so he can see what's going on on the ground, and then the UN ships fire on him because he is shooting up the mirror.

Basically Bobbie caused a total cluster fuck.

little too confusing episode I think, between trying to cliffhanger that last few seconds and the weird tonal shift of avasarala from background manipulator to avenging angel of wrath, it wasn't my favorite episode of the season. I bet it'll get better once we actually see what happened on ganymede next episode, but I think they were trying to be a little too cute maybe. Not a fan of avasarala's speech either, it just didn't fit the actress or the way she talks, to deliver a Jules from pulp fiction speech.

I don't think it was so out of character for her to say that, it's just that the acting wasn't really up to it.