Artificial gravity

[Ghrakh]

So, how does it work?

If each deck has gravity plating, wouldn't that pull you up (via the plating on the deck above you) as much as pull you down? Or, if the gravity plating is all on the lowermost deck, wouldn't the "pull" reduce for each deck one is standing on above? Meaning, the bridge would have the least "gravity".

And, what does this do in terms of the mass of the ship?

Never understood how this would work. Any insight appreciated.

 

[kkozoriz1]

The grav field has a limited range, just as far as the next set of grav plates. AFAICR it doesn't affect the mass of the ship although, according to the TNG tech manual, warp drive does. The strength of the grav plates is adjustable as seen in In a Mirror Darkly.

 

[sojourner]

The gravity plate is also one sided. It only pulls you "down".

So for instance, the deck plating on deck 5 is not going to produce any pull to people one deck below on deck 6.

It's quite magical stuff in that 1 square foot of deck plating creates a 1 square foot field in one direction for only about the height of one deck.

 

[Lazarus]

Well the galaxy-class didn't have gravity plating if I'm remembering correctly, but rather a number of gravity generators that were essentially devices that spun at high speed to create a gravity field. I think there was one positioned at the bottom of the primary hull and another at the bottom of the secondary.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think each deck has gravity generators. There may be a network of hundreds scattered across all 40+ decks of a Galaxy-class.

 

[sojourner]

Well the galaxy-class didn't have gravity plating if I'm remembering correctly, but rather a number of gravity generators that were essentially devices that spun at high speed to create a gravity field. I think there was one positioned at the bottom of the primary hull and another at the bottom of the secondary.

Citation? Because this runs contrary to everything I have seen/read.

 

[Lazarus]

Well the galaxy-class didn't have gravity plating if I'm remembering correctly, but rather a number of gravity generators that were essentially devices that spun at high speed to create a gravity field. I think there was one positioned at the bottom of the primary hull and another at the bottom of the secondary.

Citation? Because this runs contrary to everything I have seen/read.

Well since you've asked so nicely...

It's all explained on page 144 of the TNG Technical Manual. It describes the 'superconducting stator' within the ship's artificial gravity generators that spin at 125,540 RPM to generate a downward pull, two in the saucer section, two in the battle section.

Knew I'd read it somewhere.

So apparently you're correct, it does run "contrary to everything you've seen/read."

 

[sojourner]

^interesting, one day I'll have to read that. though it does run completely contrary to how it's depicted on screen.

 

[Timo]

The TNG Tech Manual seems to be describing a system where essentially each deck and room of the ship has its own gravity generator (although all are cross-connected). Essentially, those fancy cyclotrons are gravity plates - somewhat circular plates, but anyway.

Most sources seem to agree that gravity to the ship can be adjusted locally, and is not dependent on a single generator. This is as it should be, because so many episodes (all across the various series) feature exactly that sort of controllability.

Also, most sources suggest a connection between artificial gravity and tractor beams ("created by artificially generated gravitons" is the common handwaving explanation). Tractor beams are highly directional and don't obey Newton's laws (i.e. they don't act like a towing cable connecting two ships would). We could expect deck gravity to be similarly unidirectional and adjustable, then.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JoeFromEarth]

If artificial gravity works any way similar to electric fields, every artificial gravity plate would push everyone down equally throughout to ship, since effectively the plates would be like infinite planes to each individual.

 

[sojourner]

?

 

[Ghrakh]

Hmm well it seems that in-universe explanations aren't agreed upon, whether it's plating or generators, and where and how many they are. Or was it plating for TOS era and generators for TNG era?

Plating: If the plating itself is the "gravity", wouldn't your head be lighter, and the air at that level considerably less dense, than at your feet?

Generators: would have to generate a field of consistent strength to a certain distance, then stop. Also, seems this would create a lot of electro-magnetic radiation? Or for spinning generators, a gyproscopic effect?

t's quite magical stuff...

I think I'll stick with that.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Well the galaxy-class didn't have gravity plating if I'm remembering correctly, but rather a number of gravity generators that were essentially devices that spun at high speed to create a gravity field. I think there was one positioned at the bottom of the primary hull and another at the bottom of the secondary.

Citation? Because this runs contrary to everything I have seen/read.

Well since you've asked so nicely...

It's all explained on page 144 of the TNG Technical Manual. It describes the 'superconducting stator' within the ship's artificial gravity generators that spin at 125,540 RPM to generate a downward pull, two in the saucer section, two in the battle section.

Knew I'd read it somewhere.

So apparently you're correct, it does run "contrary to everything you've seen/read."

^interesting, one day I'll have to read that. though it does run completely contrary to how it's depicted on screen.

There's a little bit missing in the citation from the TNG Tech Manual. "The two in the saucer section, two in the battle section" simply refers to the number of regions the artificial gravity network is divided into throughout the ship. Altogether, though, it is said there are 800 generators in the saucer section and 400 generators in the stardrive section.

These generators are no more the 25 centimeters tall and 50 centimeters wide. It's possible that they may be imbedded within the floors of the individual decks at regular intervals to form "grav plates" of a kind, IMO...

 

[Timo]

It seems clear that a gravity generator isn't a gadget that emulates a great mass. It doesn't pull objects from all directions towards itself: rather, it creates the essence of directional gravity, and then pumps it along some sort of piping to the point of application, where it becomes the desired directional gravity.

This gravity clearly doesn't die out as the function of the square of the distance, since starship exteriors don't attract massive amounts of space dust. Nor do they attract spacewalking heroes who operate close to the ship's outer hull, at least not in ST:FC. Probably artificial gravity isn't a "field" at all, or then it's a field that dies out as the function of the fourth or higher power of distance. Thus, an individual room may lose gravity by intent or accident even though a room beneath does not (as we see on several occasions), or gain extra gravity without affecting other decks (as we see once).

If our heroes can create artificial gravity, they might be able to create artificial antigravity, too. Perhaps the latter sort cancels out the "lower lobe" of any deck gravity field generated? Perhaps it's also the basis of those handheld antigravs that render massive objects weightless in a gravity field, or negate their gravity-based propulsion systems (as may have happened to Nomad to allow our heroes to finally manhandle it to the transporter room).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KJbushway]

The show wouldn't show every little detail, I would take more than the hour that it is on.

 

[kkozoriz1]

We might have seen anti-gravity on the bottom of the shuttle as it landed on Sha-Ka-Re. There didn't seem to be thrusters but it did have those flashing rectangles underneath. Perhaps the same grav plated in the floor of the shuttle are reversed on the opposite side in order to land and take-off.

 

[Ghrakh]

One of the cases I can think of for the gravity to be "inert" plates of some kind is power usage. Unless I missed it, we never see the gravity go out. The ship is under attack, the lights flicker, inertial dampening goes out and people get thrown about, the engines go off line, etc., but that gravity works like a charm through it all. It works so well that it yanks overhead structural elements down on unfortunate crewmembers, pulls that engineering technician over the rail and straight down the warp core shaft. Gravity is a killer on these ships! Heck, even beaming aboard a derelict, adrift ship, we get no lights, stale air, but plenty of gravity.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I just chalk it up that the artificial gravity would probably be the last system to ever go down aboard a starship. Even if warp and impulse go out, the artificial gravity system may continue to operate for considerably longer on emergency batteries (like emergency lights) until they too eventually go out. It'd probably would be extremely rare (but not impossible) for gravity to fail on an entire deck.

Some Klingon ships, however, may be another story...

 

[YARN]

I just chalk it up that the artificial gravity would probably be the last system to ever go down aboard a starship. Even if warp and impulse go out, the artificial gravity system may continue to operate for considerably longer on emergency batteries (like emergency lights) until they too eventually go out. It'd probably would be extremely rare (but not impossible) for gravity to fail on an entire deck.

Some Klingon ships, however, may be another story...

LOL

 

[sojourner]

Yep, for some unknown reason, in the Trek universe gravity is considered more important than life support!?!