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"The point sticks in your head: physics rules. Virtue does not triumph unless the physics allows it."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Spherical Tires | ||
| Tires that are shaped like balls, rather than like squat cylinders. |
This is an early mention of this idea, but there was so much innovation already by 1930 in the automotive field.
| The young astronaut approached his tiny space flyer. It was shaped like an egg, except that it was more elongated, and the two ends tapered down to blunt points instead of being rounded. It was mounted upon four revolving metal spheres set into its keel instead of wheels as landing gear. |
| Technovelgy from The Death's Head Meteor,
by Neil R. Jones. Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the smartwheels from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash and the flex-wheels from Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Death's Head Meteor
More Ideas
and Technology by Neil R. Jones
Tech news articles related to The Death's Head Meteor
Tech news articles related to works by Neil R. Jones
Spherical Tires-related
news articles:
- Eagle-360 Spherical Wheel Concept
| The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist |
| Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology |
| Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat |
| Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late |
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'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
