Inertia--The New Wheel

Inertia is the central force for all things: speed, time, space, gravity. If we could figure out how to manipulate inertia, a brand new age would be ushered in that hasn't been seen since the beginning of time...it will make cavemen of us all.

So what is Inertia? Really?

Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, lack of skill, from inert-, iners
Date: 1713
1 a: a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force b: an analogous property of other physical quantities (as electricity)
2: indisposition to motion, exertion, or change

The one everyone is familiar with is, "An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force. Or, a motionless object will stay motionless unless acted upon by some other force." -Newton's First Law

So here's the problem with inertia, it kills! The reason you go through the windshield in a car accident is because you are in motion, and stay in motion, until you've bounced down the street a ways and friction has stalled your momentum. Inertia is central to all concepts concerning movement of anything. In bowling, pins fall, because of the bowling ball, which moves because of the person bowling, who moved because of muscular contraction, which moved due to electrical impulses, which were caused by stimuli from the brain, which was acting according to visual cues.......bottom line, something's gotta cause the movement.

Things don't just move. Why? Mostly because of gravity. So the question is, what happens if there is no gravity? In space, where there is no gravity, things still have to have a force of some sort applied to it before it moves...otherwise it remains motionless. The difference is that the motion is proportional to the force applied. In space if you step off of the shuttle, you move proportional to the force and direction from which the force was applied; i.e., strait out. If you step off of a building on earth, gravity causes you to fall disproportionately to the force applied and you fall downward at increasing speed until you hit terminal velocity. The bigger problem is when you land...the force at which you land is very disproportionate to the force applied to move you in the first place and is therefore quite detrimental to the body. So think about this: if there wasn't inertia, in other words, if we could manipulate the force/movement equation, force would become a non-binding requirement for movement. You could move and stop moving without being affected by force. Is it possible? Is it mostly fiction? Well, cloaking devices used to be considered pure fiction...

Inertia...We've Figured Out the Universe!

"There is nothing new under the sun."
Ecclesiastes 1:9

In a world where technology rules all new ideas, there really isn't anything new. Today's Palm Pilots are really nothing more than yesterday's computer's. The advent of Nano-Technology is nothing more than another industrial revolution (make more things faster, with more efficiancy). The idea of a possible cloaking device http://people.ee.duke.edu/~drsmith/cloaking.html being developed is nothing more than high tech Cammo. Flying has obviously changed over the years, but really the concepts are the same as when the Wright Brother's got things started. Rocket propulsion is just hyped up fireworks that have been around for centuries, etc.....

Admittedly, all things must have a beginning; it's called discovery. For instance, some broad discoveries that changed the world: Electricity, Vaccines, The Engine...basically Fire, Medicine, and Transportation. From the beginning of time, Fire, Medicine, and Transportation have driven discovery. All discoveries since the beginning of time have been used to enhance our use of the big 3. Still, the discoveries that have been made have mostly affected already existing technologies and merely been used for the purpose of creating a better mousetrap. Yes, the technologies discovered, even in the past 10 years, are nothing short of amazing and important.

But are we looking for the next discovery that will change life as we know it. If you were to tell someone from the Roman period that we could see the body without looking in it, or tell someone from the Romantic period that there are "waves" in the air that you can put your voice on and send it to someone thousands of miles away, you would be called a sorcerer! However, radio waves are the most taken for granted technology we live with today, and X-Rays don't freak us out anymore. So what is it today that seems so far fetched that only magic has an answer for? And what technology is out there that will make those discoveries possible? I think its Inertia. What do you think?

To be continued....

The Beginning of Think Box

This blog is meant to be a place where thinking outside the box can be done in a box, The Think Box. Ideas are meant to be shared, so this blog allows those ideas to have a place, so that they can be seen in print and tested by the comments of others. If you don't think big, then don't think here. Be the first to make a comment, submit a topic to be pondered, and whatch the idea grow. Go ahead, you know you want to! Hope to hear from you soon!