G forces in artificial gravity?

[Rhysis]

Alright so here it is...

G forces are a measurement of force on a craft's occupants caused by acceleration and rapid change of direction. They are largely dependent on the weight of the individuals being affected, though not entirely so. Thus, in a zero-g environment, while it is possible to obtain some level of G forces on the occupants of, say, a RL space craft, it's not a big threat.

What about in artificial gravity? Is the artificial gravity on a fighter pilot in SARP equal to the measure of the planet's gravity? Would there be an adjustment?

 

[Zack]

Nearly all star ships have inertial dampeners. I could take a stab at how the technology works but basically: It mitigates the effects of high acceleration.

So the ship can internally produce some number artificial Gs on the pilot to compensate for the amount of Gs their engines are putting onto the craft.

For some ships, when on a planet, the ship automatically adjusts the anti-gravity so that it pushes you in the correct direction all the time (for example, it'd push you towards the floor even if you were upside down on a planet. Yamatai also has Zero G passageways that use anti-gravity to keep things suspended even if you're planetside.


---


I also imagine really cheap ships don't always get it right, so gravity always seems a bit too much or a bit too little. Or perhaps they just always put 1G worth of acceleration towards the ship's floor, so if you land upside down the entire interior of the ship is in zero g.

Totally might use that later.

 

[Wes]

I think Zack and Navian have provided good answers to this, and I agree with those.

 

[Navian]

I misunderstood the question; I thought it was about what effect artificial gravity had on G-forces experienced, but it seems to be if a reduction in artificial gravity could reduce the weight of starship crews, and thereby diminish the effects G-forces would have on them.

The simple answer is no, since gravity isn't fundamentally different from other G-forces. It's mass, not weight, that determines how much inertia something has. A person's mass doesn't change when the local gravity does. Weight is the amount of G-forces in a given direction acting on something multiplied by its mass. Assuming a ship doesn't have any systems to compensate for it, if it has engines that provide 2Gs of continuous acceleration, the local gravity on board it would be twice standard while it was underway, and directed toward the back of the craft, on all decks.

Most sci-fi ships are built like naval vessels or airplanes, with a 'down' direction that's perpendicular to the direction they propel themselves in. So, when they have powerful engines, they need a way to reduce or negate felt acceleration from outside the craft, to make sure the 'down' direction is toward their floors, instead of their rear walls while the engines are in use. They also need artificial gravity to make sure there still is a 'down' direction when the ship is stationary.

While being able to compensate for the forces created by the engines is basically necessary, it helps if the same or a similar system can compensate when the ship tumbles, dodges, or collides with something, so that the crew never need to strap themselves (and everything else on the ships) down unless the systems are at risk of failing. This is even more important for craft that can pull high-speed manoeuvres in atmosphere, or that have some way to create drag in order to do the same in outer space, since that's what's normally most dangerous to fighter pilots.