Gravity Fruit

An homage to the deadly fruit found in abundance in a certain frustratingly difficult freeware platformer, I get the feeling it might actually fit in a Felaryan setting as well.

Anyway, here it is:

Though at first glance they may resemble apples, in reality they are more accurately described a giant cherries.

Their name comes from their bizarre behavior when exposed to a strong gravitational pull. They will sometimes fall towards the ground, but for reasons unexplained, they just as often will "fall" up towards the sky, paralell to the ground, or any number of directions! They also have a higher terminal velocity than is possible for any other object, and will thus fall faster than other objects and with greater force.

There are records of unlucky adventurers having been struck by a falling gravity fruit, and blows to the head are usually fatal due to the high speeds at which the fruits fall.

It is possible to "disarm" a gravity fruit by skewering it with a spear, sword, or other sharp tool, rendering it harmless, though the disturbance will often cause the fruit to fall. The fruits are very delicious and not too uncommon, but the danger posed by them make them hard to obtain and thus very valuble.

itsmeyouidiot wrote:

An homage to the deadly fruit found in abundance in a certain frustratingly difficult freeware platformer, I get the feeling it might actually fit in a Felaryan setting as well.

Anyway, here it is:

Though at first glance they may resemble apples, in reality they are more accurately described a giant cherries.

Their name comes from their bizarre behavior when exposed to a strong gravitational pull. They will sometimes fall towards the ground, but for reasons unexplained, they just as often will "fall" up towards the sky, paralell to the ground, or any number of directions! They also have a higher terminal velocity than is possible for any other object, and will thus fall faster than other objects and with greater force.

There are records of unlucky adventurers having been struck by a falling gravity fruit, and blows to the head are usually fatal due to the high speeds at which the fruits fall.

It is possible to "disarm" a gravity fruit by skewering it with a spear, sword, or other sharp tool, rendering it harmless, though the disturbance will often cause the fruit to fall. The fruits are very delicious and not too uncommon, but the danger posed by them make them hard to obtain and thus very valuble.

Strong gravitational pull? Like a planet?
From what I read, they would be constantly falling because they would be constantly exposed to the gravitational field of Felarya. (Felarya is not a planet, but it has the same gravity as one).

Anime-Junkie wrote:

From what I read, they would be constantly falling because they would be constantly exposed to the gravitational field of Felarya. (Felarya is not a planet, but it has the same gravity as one).

Until the fruit hits a solid surface. Or, if "falling" up, until it escapes the gravitational field of Felarya and exits the plane.

itsmeyouidiot wrote:

Anime-Junkie wrote:

From what I read, they would be constantly falling because they would be constantly exposed to the gravitational field of Felarya. (Felarya is not a planet, but it has the same gravity as one).

Until the fruit hits a solid surface. Or, if "falling" up, until it escapes the gravitational field of Felarya and exits the plane.

The only way it would be "falling up" would be if there was something upwards that it had as stronger gravitational attraction with. Stronger than that of Felarya's gravitational attraction with it. I don't see this happening very easily.

I'm not sure how the idea coud work in term of physic ( I'm not very good at it and science in general ), but the base idea look just funny and original to me. I like it

I suppose you could always go for the fall-back explanation.

Magic.

Karbo wrote:

I'm not sure how the idea coud work in term of physic ( I'm not very good at it and science in general ), but the base idea look just funny and original to me. I like it

The fruit could produce negative mass matter inside it. Negative mass matter repels normal matter. Therefore, it repels the ground, causing the fruit to fall up.

A solution to the falling problem:
Positive mass falls down. Negative mass falls up. Nuetral mass falls to the side.* Different mixes within the fruit determine the direction and speed of fall, so a mix of 50% positive and 50% nuetral would fall as far to the side as it does down.

*Nuetral mass is only stable when near itself. When a Gravity Fruit with nuetral mass splats, the nuetral mass quickly spreads and decays into positive mass.

As for what causes the fruit to fall: Nearby vibrations. Such as those created by humans and animals.

Why does the fruit fall the way it does?
Fruit falling mostly down protects the tree. Fruit falling to the side spreads the seeds. And fruit falling up...maybe they don't like birds or harpies? I don't know.

Why does the fruit kill?
The tree gets nutrients from the bodies.

Uses for the fruit
Negative mass fruit make the eater weigh less. Nuetral mass fruit make the eater faster, though much harder to change direction. Positive mass fruit are delicious.

Description of fruit
Like apples giant cherries, most are about the size of a human's head, though some can be as big as a human's torso. They have a tough exterior that is easily cut with a sharp knife. They also have a large mass, making the weight misleading. A fruit weighing 5 pounds might be as hard to move as a 10 pound mass.*

Numbers are chosen for example, no ideas for actual weight/mass

Neutral mass makes no sense. It's not the kinda thing that could exist.

Why exactly is such a complex explanation necessary, anyway? Isn't this supposed to be a magical worl?

FalconJudge wrote:

Yes it is. That's what magic IS. One big handwave for shit that physics don't work for.

FalconJudge, you're a great guy, but I seriously disagree with you there.


Using magic as scotch tape for things that don't make sense otherwise, and then not explaining how magic works or at least giving the idea that it has rules or follow this or one of these is lazy, and tends to leave people (at least, people like me) unsatisfied, especially when there's a better way it could be done or it doesn't seem to adhere to any rules or logic.

While magibabble isn't everyone's cup of tea, it can be skipped for those who want to get to the killing/voring/end of the story. For those who do like it, it should be there. It also can be useful later in story, sequels or fanfics. This is especially true if the fanfic writer wants to know if something is possible. If the explanation is there, they can get on with writing. If it's not, then they risk doing something wildly out of the canon or accepted fanon.

Besides, both magibabble and a reasonable sounding mechanical explanation (technobabble) or at least one of them that is extremely advanced are required for MagiTek. Since pretty much all of Useful Survival Tools Inc's products are magitek in one form or another, I'm very much for having good, consistent explanations for things.

That's where I like to differentiate my technobabble and magibabble from the TVtropes definition. Since it defines technobabble as a handwave and fuzzily defined, I prefer my technobabble to be at least 75% techno and 25% babble.

Since Felarya has it's own physics, this means we can do a lot of things, if we explain them properly and don't shoot ourselves in the foot by contradicting ourselves later.
Creating an entire physics system is hard, time consuming and sometimes involves backtracking.
Hell, creating a world/universe is hard work and involves what I've mentioned above, as I'm sure any who have done so can attest to. Most, if not all of us are here because we think that Felarya is a great world and deserves to be developed to the fullest. In every way.

I'm not really one for developing through stories, since I have real difficulty coming up with a good idea for one. If you are, more power to you. I am awed by people who can write original stories. I wish I could too, but I know I can't, so I don't waste time trying

However I am, good at explaining things and creating logical systems. I will make my contribution to Felarya, by helping others make their ideas better and creating a consistent base for them.
Another plus for all this is that it's harder for haters or skeptics to poke things full of holes.

Not taking the time to create a consistent magic/technology system, even if it is more babble than techno is lazy.
If you can't create one, don't try to dismiss people who attempt to do so.

Personally, I take great pleasure in trying to make an explanation for things like gravity fruit and 60ft tall man-eating women.
Why? Because I enjoy the intellectual challenge. I like having to think hard and use my mind to come up with things like this.

Why shouldn't we have a decent explanation for 60ft tall beings & gravity fruit? why shouldn't Magic A be Magic A?
If your answer is something like "Because it's magic," "60ft tall creatures don't have to make sense" or "Because it's a fantasy world."
Well.. You'll lose a fair bit in my eyes.

If people are willing to create a physics and magic system that works and it satisfying why shouldn't they?

If people are ask questions about cell size in giants creatures or how magic works they should be able to get a decent explanation.
This has taken me over an hour to write, please take the time to read it.

I read it. Thing is... the systems here are inconsistant. Magic, technology... Felarya is a melting pot. It's like the cell size thing- there IS NO acceptable explanation! If memory serves, all that happened on the Cell Size thread was a bunch of people arguing about explanations that ended up sounding wierd or unnatural anyways. Magic babble... sometimes, there's no REASON to have it. It's just... think about it. Some things are made more awesome by it- magic armor, for example. How do the spells work together? (Insert explanation). Awesome. But basic physics of a magic world? It just sounds wrong, or at least illogical, to assume that it would behave in ANY kind of predictible manner. It's magic. Magic is funny that way- it's NOT technology. It has rules, but beyond those, explanations are wasted time. It's not the same as technology because it doesn't need to be physically possible.

You're right in this thread. Stuff like this can be explained by physics and magic both, which could end up interesting. I was just responding to your saying that magic ISN'T a handwave. IT IS. It's a way of saying that "physics don't apply here". That is what magic is. You can explain some things, like this, and add to the explanation... I'm just saying, you made it sound like magic is never a good handwave. It's always a way to say f__k you to physics. Period.

Oh, and you're a great guy too. But I disagree with you.

The idea is really funny i immagine an apple rain^^.
As matter of facts it can't be explained under the rule of physics of our world so you should put magic in it.
The negative mass can0t be the solution. I'm pretty sure that if join together matter and anti matter it would give as a result a qauntity of electromagnetic waves to cause more dammege than lots of nuke.

For the problem on how to use magic i think that some rule should be put on this else everyone could do almost everything
even if it would be hard to make rule on something that isn't real .
Well may be we should try to give physics explanation to some new idea at first, if it can't be done we can give a magic one but justifying the use of magic(magic somewhere with a reason is cool, magic everywhere as if it's free umh.. i wouldn't like it)

Crivella wrote:

The idea is really funny i immagine an apple rain.

They're really more like giant cherries.

FalconJudge wrote:

I read it. Thing is... the systems here are inconsistent. Magic, technology... Felarya is a melting pot. It's like the cell size thing- there IS NO acceptable explanation! If memory serves, all that happened on the Cell Size thread was a bunch of people arguing about explanations that ended up sounding wierd or unnatural anyways.

That ended up the way it did because some people posted things that were less about the topic and more aimed at other people.
If we were to have another thread on cell size, would it end up the same way? I don't think so.

FalconJudge wrote:

Magic babble... sometimes, there's no REASON to have it. It's just... think about it. Some things are made more awesome by it- magic armor, for example. How do the spells work together? (Insert explanation). Awesome. But basic physics of a magic world? It just sounds wrong, or at least illogical, to assume that it would behave in ANY kind of predictible manner.

The basic physics of a magic world would behave in a predictable manner, you'd expect rocks to fall down, not up, unless huge amounts of magic are involved, as I say below, magic bypasses normmal physics, but it has it's own physics/rules.

FalconJudge wrote:

It's magic. Magic is funny that way- it's NOT technology. It has rules, but beyond those, explanations are wasted time. It's not the same as technology because it doesn't need to be physically possible.

Yes, that's why it's magic.
I don't think that saying "it's magic damnit" and then just leaving it at that is a good explanation for anything.

FalconJudge wrote:

You're right in this thread. Stuff like this can be explained by physics and magic both, which could end up interesting. I was just responding to your saying that magic ISN'T a handwave. IT IS. It's a way of saying that "physics don't apply here". That is what magic is. You can explain some things, like this, and add to the explanation...

I don't think of magic like that. More like "Different psychics apply here, physics that allow me to levitate a rock and throw it at Anna's head" and things like that.

FalconJudge wrote:

I'm just saying, you made it sound like magic is never a good handwave. It's always a way to say f__k you to physics. Period.

Oh, and you're a great guy too. But I disagree with you.

True, in stories, etc where magic isn't really a major thing then it can be handwaved, but in a world that is saturated with it, I don't think so.

Unfortunately, we're going a bit off topic with all this.

Crivella wrote:

The negative mass can0t be the solution. I'm pretty sure that if join together matter and anti matter it would give as a result a

Negative mass matter =/= antimatter.
Antimatter is affected by gravity in the same way as normal matter.

itsmeyouidiot wrote:

Crivella wrote:

The idea is really funny i immagine an apple rain.

They're really more like giant cherries.

yeah sorry i got misconfused^^

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Crivella wrote:

The negative mass can0t be the solution. I'm pretty sure that if join together matter and anti matter it would give as a result a

Negative mass matter =/= antimatter.
Antimatter is affected by gravity in the same way as normal matter.

I'm not english soo i misconfused the concept we were speaking about sorry

But speaking of negative mass we still have some problem:
Even if the negative mass is only teorically and came out from the discussion "why elttric charge can attratct and repusle and mass can't", if you don't put magic in it it couldn't change his mass/negative mass value so abruptly to make it fall so hard after having flighted.

Moreover if this +/- mass would became so high to fly and fall so fast i think the fruit would blow from the repulsion between +/- mass.

I really think this is one thing that really cant be explained with our physics law^^ magic is needed here

*sigh*
Okay, how about this, AJ?

When the fruit drops from the tree, be it by someone cutting it or just because it's too ripe, a reaction happens inside the fruit that switches the fruit's reactivity to gravitatorial fields to a similar one it would have to magnetic fields. And therefore the gravitational force becomes perpendicular to both the fruit's trajectory and the gravitational field. During the reaction, the fruit acellerates perpendicularly to its trajectory, faster while the reaction grows more intense, until the reaction is finished and the fruit is governed by normal physics again. By then, however, the fruit is moving really fast.

itsme, if you're willing to concede the fruit stopping for a moment and spinning in place, here's your handwave.