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"in 1974 I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Magnus-Effect Ambulance | ||
| A vehicle that can hover and fly using the Magnus Effect. |
The Magnus Effect is a real phenomenon; as far as I know there are no real-world vehicles that actually use it.
| A bobbing magnus-effect ambulance hovered near one of the massive, blocky tourist hotels, where budget-conscious travelers rented tiny, slotlike units by the cubic meter. The vehicle's spherical gas bag rotated slowly around a horizontal pivot, using small momentum shifts to maneuver delicately near white-suited emergency workers. |
| Technovelgy from Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
The Magnus Effect is the generation of a sidewise force on a spinning cylindrical or spherical solid immersed in a fluid (physicists count gas and liquid here) when there is relative motion between the spinning body and the fluid. It was named after the German physicist H.G. Magnus, who first experimentally investigated the effect in 1853. This is why a ping pong ball or tennis ball will curve when hit with "English."
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
