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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
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| Inertia Screen | ||
| A device that canceled out the law of inertia to help decelerating space craft occupants. |
This is a very handy thing to have, when you are slowing down from interstellar speeds.
| Six days out from Earth found the Little Falls decelerating as it approached Rigel VI, its crew of ten protected from instant annihilation by the inertia screens, screens that permit humans to survive accelerations so stupendous that the stars were brought within easy reach of the Solar System. |
| Technovelgy from Space Rating,
by John Berryman. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1939 Additional resources -
|
I believe that ol' 'Doc' Smith thought about canceling inertia in a somewhat different context several years earlier; see the entry for drop shafts.
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'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'
''OVERRIDE,' the City Fathers said suddenly, without being asked anything at all.'
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
