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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 139532" data-attributes="member: 177">Oh, I forgot something else.&nbsp; Edena's device is not portable.&nbsp; It cannot be &quot;moved about at will&quot;.&nbsp; I think Edena did not read the description of Reverse Gravity closely enough.For one thing, Reverse gravity will only make things fall up, not in any old direction.&nbsp; The device will function only when the gates are perfectly aligned along the local up/down line, or the ball will wander off the path, and the device will fail, possibly violently.&nbsp; Reverse Gravity accelerates the ball up.&nbsp; What happens when you set off the device?&nbsp; What does the ball hit?&nbsp; All the ball's momentum is upwards.&nbsp; The ball flashes into the sky at the speed of light, far exceeding a planet's escape velocity.&nbsp; Based upon Reverse Gravity, the thing can't actually target any object that isn't directly overhead.&nbsp; If you want to break a hole in a crystal sphere, this might be useful.&nbsp; But it won't hurt anything on the planet.Let's say that Edena's wizard creates the spell &quot;Generate Gravity&quot; instead.&nbsp; He can arrange so that the field accelerates the ball from one gate to another, no matter the orientation of the gates.What happens if you start this mechanism and the ball's path is horizontal (or anything other than perfectly vertical)?&nbsp; Well, the local planet's gravity still pulls the ball down.&nbsp; Again, the ball quickly deviates from the prescribed path, and the device fails.Let's say the spell negates local gravity, so we don't have to worry about that deviation.&nbsp; What happens when anyone rotates, or moves the device along a line other than the ball's motion?&nbsp; The relativistic ball has a heck of a lot of momentum.&nbsp; The device moves sideways, and the ball doesn't.&nbsp; Again, it fails.&nbsp; The thing cannot be moved after the ball begins to accelerate.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 139532, member: 177"] Oh, I forgot something else. Edena's device is not portable. It cannot be "moved about at will". I think Edena did not read the description of Reverse Gravity closely enough. For one thing, Reverse gravity will only make things fall up, not in any old direction. The device will function only when the gates are perfectly aligned along the local up/down line, or the ball will wander off the path, and the device will fail, possibly violently. Reverse Gravity accelerates the ball up. What happens when you set off the device? What does the ball hit? All the ball's momentum is [i]upwards[/i]. The ball flashes into the sky at the speed of light, far exceeding a planet's escape velocity. Based upon Reverse Gravity, the thing can't actually target any object that isn't directly overhead. If you want to break a hole in a crystal sphere, this might be useful. But it won't hurt anything on the planet. Let's say that Edena's wizard creates the spell "Generate Gravity" instead. He can arrange so that the field accelerates the ball from one gate to another, no matter the orientation of the gates. What happens if you start this mechanism and the ball's path is horizontal (or anything other than perfectly vertical)? Well, the local planet's gravity still pulls the ball down. Again, the ball quickly deviates from the prescribed path, and the device fails. Let's say the spell negates local gravity, so we don't have to worry about that deviation. What happens when anyone rotates, or moves the device along a line other than the ball's motion? The relativistic ball has a heck of a lot of momentum. The device moves sideways, and the ball [i]doesn't[/i]. Again, it fails. The thing cannot be moved after the ball begins to accelerate. [/QUOTE]

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