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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Magnetic Soles | ||
| Magnetized footwear for easy walking on low gravity metal surfaces. |
Those who enjoy modern science fiction shows like The Expanse will surely appreciate this item, the only one that I know of that explicitly talks about how you're going to walk in them (see the other references also).
| I got out of the flitterboat, and walked across the dome, my magnetic soles making subdued clicking noises inside the suit as they caught and released the metallic plain beneath me... |
| From A Ship Named McGuire,
by Gordon Randall Garrett. Published by Analog in 1961 Additional resources -
|
Garrett adds this description of walking in low-gee:
Remember that dream—almost everybody's had it—where you're suddenly able to fly? It isn't flying exactly; it's a sort of swimming in the air. Like being underwater, except that the medium around you isn'tso dense and viscous, and you can breathe. Remember? Well, that's the feeling you get on a low-gee planetoid.
Your arms don't tend to hang at your sides, as they do on Earth or Luna, because the muscular tension tends to hold them out, just as it does in zero-gee, but there is still a definite sensation of up-and-down. If you push yourself off the floor, you tend to float in a long, slow, graceful arc, provided you don't push too hard. Magnetic soles are practically a must.
Compare to magnetic-soled shoes from Space Tug (1953) by Murray Leinster,
magnetic sandals from The Warriors (1966) by Larry Niven, magneslippers from Accidental Flight (1952) by WF Wallace and magnetized boots from Lost Rocket (1941) by Manly Wade Wellman.
Walking under low-gee conditions is like nothing else in this universe. I don't mean trotting around on Luna; one-sixth gee is practically homelike in comparison. And zero gee is so devoid of orientation that it gives the sensation of falling endlessly until you get used to it. But a planetoid is in a different class altogether.
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