philmophlegm: (Watford)
philmophlegm ([personal profile] philmophlegm) wrote2014-04-28 10:34 pm

Star Trek health and safety

Quick Star Trek thought. Given the poor quality of inertial damping on your typical starship, why the hell do the bridge crew not wear seat belts? Or at least sit down?

[identity profile] ozisim.livejournal.com 2014-04-29 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Space-age Velcro.

[identity profile] steer.livejournal.com 2014-04-30 09:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oh look, it's not what you think. I know it seems like the inertial damping is poor but actually it's very good. It's just that when there's a shockwave or similar the crew gets very excited and jiggles about plus the distortion causes the camera to distort and jiggle. If you correct the camera jiggling you can see what's really happening:
http://www.wimp.com/camerashake/

See -- no need for seat belts at all. (I think David Langdon raised this question in the 1970s.)

Why do so many space-going vehicles and bases have platforms over large drops with no guard rails?