Re: What is the minimum amount of physics that an SF author needs to know?

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:52:02 +0100, David Cowie <me@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

What is the minimum amount of physics that an SF author needs to know, in
order to avoid gross error and to ease the willing suspension of disbelief?

I'm thinking of a relatively small set of principles and equations for
working out matters such as time taken/needed, energy released/required,
distance, and so on.
Since knowing that something needs to be checked is at least as important
as being able to check it, it might also be useful to have a
cut-out-and-keep list of situations where one should engage the first list.
When replying, remember that I'm not asking for a method of generating
diamond-hard SF, but of *avoiding gross error* and of *easing WSOD*. I
have no objection to handwavium, as long as the author *knows* it's
handwavium.

OK, since most of the previous answers have been a bit weasely:

/gross generalization on
If you aren't writing about some specific area of physics and you
don't need to calculate orbits from scratch or some such, good quality
high school algebra, physics 1, and trig/analytic geometry/precalculus
is enough. A large percentage of your readers fit into this category,
so if you can't fake it well enough for them, you're in trouble.

If you need to get a bit more into it for the sake of the plot,
freshman college physics and calculus. A first couse that covers
thermodynamics is probably also wise, but ME thermo 1 is probably
overkill.
/gross generalization off

Regards,
Jack Tingle
.

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