What would a world where gravity is a weather condition look like?

Apologies if this doesn’t fit here, not sure where else to post something like this on lemmy

I think having gravity act like weather might be an interesting concept for a fantasy world, where each country has its own gravity patterns, some tend to be heavier some tend to be lighter, some are all over the place

For a few examples, there could be a desert with gravity so high you can get dragged down into the sand

Could be a country with gravity so low everyone uses personal aircraft that work like bicycles instead of land vehicles

Animals in higher gravity areas would have less dense bones, more muscle, etc and lower gravity would have far larger animals because they can support more weight

In a really high gravity area people might need exoskeletons to prevent long term damage

GarbageShoot,

Maybe my brain is fried, but I think you aren’t think big enough if “long term damage” is the hazard in the highest gravity area vs a person just being flattened like they’re in a press (which means people wouldn’t go there, but it could have industrial uses).

An interesting part is how states of matter would vary due to gravity causing pressure, though with the relation between pressure and temperature I don’t know exactly how it would work.

flashgnash,

Bare in mind in this world this has been the case since the dawn of time, we’re not plopping existing humans with existing human physiology into this world

People would’ve adapted to live under these conditions to begin with so they wouldn’t be immediately crushed

Preventing long term damage would be on a similar level to ergonomic chairs, keyboards etc in extending and improving someone’s life

I suppose as for states of matter, higher gravity areas would likely have higher air pressure, be hotter and more humid

GarbageShoot,

There are things that can be feasible adapted to by a species and things that can’t. If you want, you absolutely can have it be that some places humans cannot really go to, just as there are magma fields that have existed for a very long time and that doesn’t mean humans can live in them, or pockets of virulently poison gas around certain sulfur deposits that will kill you instantly if you inhale that have just been sitting there since time immemorial. Or, you know, the deeper parts of the Artic and Antartic circles.

CanadaPlus,

Lumpy.

Of course, if this is a fantasy world you’re under no obligation to go with a world held together by self-gravitation, and you can even ignore the weight of air. Believable water is going to want to follow gravity as usual, though, so you need to figure out some sort of crazy hydraulic system to move it around. It could be a backstory for some cool canyons and things depending on what you decide.

More interesting questions might be related to how the residents adapt. I imagine lower gravity areas would be favoured, with groups living in the high gravity areas being specialised. Maybe unpredictable gravity could serve as an energy source for whatever civilisations are in your setting - you balance a very large weight somehow (against a non-gravitational force or a weight somewhere else), and have it work machinery as it adjusts to a new equilibrium. If it changes rapidly enough it might even be useful at small scales, like on vehicles.

Tippon,

More interesting questions might be related to how the residents adapt. I imagine lower gravity areas would be favoured, with groups living in the high gravity areas being specialised.

You could go with the low gravity areas being sought after, and mostly owned by the rich. Homes are much larger, with ‘floating’ rooms, where you can float around in the low gravity, similar to a private pool. The high gravity areas would be for poor people and manual workers, where everything is blocky and small to compensate.

On the other hand, the high gravity areas could be the most popular, as physical strength is valued, and the people living in the high gravity areas have underdeveloped muscles, so need support suits to be able to visit other areas, and are looked down on for it.

CanadaPlus,

If OP could give other basic information about the setting that would be good. I was assuming there’s multiple people groups involved here, but if it’s all one society then yeah, gravity could be connected with class. The exoskeleton thing makes me think they’re leaning more futuristic.

On the other hand, the high gravity areas could be the most popular, as physical strength is valued, and the people living in the high gravity areas have underdeveloped muscles, so need support suits to be able to visit other areas, and are looked down on for it.

Usually culture follows necessity. I think it probably comes down to if the residents of heavy areas are a ruling military elite, or there’s a great deal of civilian mobility between areas which allows a civilian elite to migrate to easier conditions, and leave the dirty work for others.

MrFunnyMoustache,

Really cool concept, this is like an extreme version of our planet; Earth’s gravity is not uniform, there are variations in the gravitational field due to uneven mass distribution.

Was this planet artificially created? I think a hollow, planet sized structure with a small black hole inside that is off-center could give a very noticeable variation in gravity.

Overzeetop,

I think I read your title differently - as in, gravity would ebb and flow like wind or rain or barometric pressure or temperature. In normal days the gravity might be mostly constant, or may fluctuate a few percent as the day goes on, rising and falling over the diurnal cycle. But at times a gravity storm could blow through, causing wild fluctuations from just a few percent (or even reversing!) to a couple hundred percent, causing travelers to lose their un-secured cargo or to be pinned in place until the storm subsides. Locals would know the dangers and have things easily tied down, or beds for riding a gravity storm in relative comfort, but any huge storms people would evacuate, praying that the fluctuations wouldn’t destroy their homes or farms. (And now I’m imagining the end of O Brother Where Art Thou with the cow on the roof)

flashgnash,

You read it correctly, that’s what I meant. Both different areas with different gravity patterns but also slight variations day to day like the weather with occasional freak occurances

I think reversal would be rare and restricted to very specific areas

Custom gravity beds would be cool. Personally I’d imagine they’d involve being immersed in some kind of ultra buoyant liquid designed not to cause problems with sustained skin contact

Ergonomic chairs, beds etc would be a must too

Moobythegoldensock, (edited )

Mechanically, I’d modify the weather table in the DMG:

d20 Gravity

1-14 normal for the season/location

15-17 1d4 × 10 percent lighter than normal

18-20 1d4 × 10 percent heavier than normal

Example: a location that is 200% of normal (all weights doubled) could vary from 160% of normal to 240% of normal.

CosmicSploogeDrizzle,
@CosmicSploogeDrizzle@lemmy.world avatar

We already experience this on earth to a degree. The moon causes the tides and shore dwelling ocean creatures have to contend with surviving during the high and low tidal periods. Not really weather per se, but it’s something.

themeatbridge,

Good point, and the tidal currents do affect the weather to a degree. But a massive moon (or four) could be used to explain seasonal or even daily changes in gravity.

LowtierComputer,

Gravity is also inconsistent across the earth, but to a very limited degree.

davefischer,
@davefischer@beehaw.org avatar

Roadside Picnic has gravitational anomalies, but they’re very small, don’t move, and are caused by abandoned alien artifacts.

intensely_human,

You’d need the planet’s core to contain some kind of non-dense material that will not mix with the dense material … like molten rock but also molten something else that’s much lighter than rock. Basically you need “oil and water” droplets that don’t mix, and are of different densities. Then you need some mechanism for them to churn in a turbulent way. The turbulence makes their movements chaotic and unpredictable.

Only thing I can think of to account for the churning is electromagnetic forces being generated by naturally-occurring nuclear reactions.

So to summarize:

  • Mantle composed of two substances. One much heavier than the other, and they don’t mix
  • Electromagnetic forces occurring at random places and times causes these substances to churn in a turbulent way
  • Turbulent churning of these two materials affects the total amount of mass under characters’ feet at different times, causing unpredictable “gravity weather”
  • Those electromagnetic forces somehow result from nuclear reactions happening naturally underground (otherwise where do you get the electromagnetism from?)
flashgnash,

I think this is my favourite idea so far as to explaining the gravity changes, very cool explanation

intensely_human,

If you’re gonna write this book I highly recommend taking a physics class where you study the physics of bounding surfaces and energy flux.

I’m sorry but I don’t remember the exact name of the subject matter. But there are all sorts of interesting properties that different geometric configurations of matter have on the resulting gravitational field (same for sound intensity, electric field strength, etc, anything with an inverse square law).

There are some crazy properties of gravitational fields you wouldn’t expect. Like for instance if all mass was contained in a shell of constant density, then the entire space inside that shell is zero-G, regardless of the shell’s shape.

From outside that shell — say it’s a mickey-mouse-shaped shell of matter that’s uniform in density — you experience the gravitational pull of all of Mickey’s mass toward the centroid of that shape. But from anywhere inside that shell — whether you’re in Mickey’s eye or his heart or the tip of his tail — the pull from all the surrounding matter cancels out and you float in zero-G.

flashgnash,

I’m no writer, just like worldbuilding and character building when I have ideas like this

thebardingreen,
@thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz avatar

!worldbuilding

Ziggurat,

Looks like one more reason to read the 3 body problem by Liu Cixin, which is a masterpiece of Chinese sci-fi. I am not gonna tell you anything more, as it’s a spoiler book sci-fi/cycle, and I advise you against reading anything about-it, just read-it

foggy,

We would have different bones/muscles/joints.

flashgnash,

What kinds of differences are you thinking? I’d have thought existing joints would be reinforced, limbs shorter, bigger muscles for high grav or the opposite for low

Gardienne,

The dwarves live in high gravity, elves live in low gravity. :O

flashgnash,

Lmao yeees would explain why the elves live longer too because their bodies are under less strain

foggy,

Idk, humans couldnt survive gravity changing all the time. Probably have bones filled with material that changes density with gravity fluctuations.

Cinner,

yeah any sort of large change would kill us in our current form, like less oxygen in the atmosphere killing off a number of larger species in Earth’s past. this world would have to have adaptions like you mentioned.

Guy_Fieris_Hair,

The expanse goes into some interesting generational changes between people who live on earth, Mars, and in the asteroid belt. Belters are tall and scrawny and when they go to earth they can’t stand and the gravity crushes their bones, extremely painful. The only way they can be there comfortably is in water. I’d imagine different areas with different "weather " would have different types of adaptations and travel wouldn’t be as common/easy.

lmaydev,

This actually a real phenomenon.

However, gravity isn’t the same everywhere on Earth. Gravity is slightly stronger over places with more mass underground than over places with less mass. NASA uses two spacecraft to measure these variations in Earth’s gravity. These spacecraft are part of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.

But it’s practically unnoticeable on earth in real terms.

So there could be some sort of super dense mineral in some places. Or basically hollow earth in others.

This isn’t realistic really but you said it doesn’t need to be 100%

flashgnash,

The problem with that is it doesn’t account for changing gravity patterns. I think as soon as you explain part of it realistically people ask questions about the rest and that becomes a whole scientific discussion

I’m more interested in the effect it’d have on society, evolution, etc rather than the practicalities of how it could happen in the first place personally

xmunk,

Changing gravity could certainly be explained by super dense mineral clusters. Once you get below the mantel the Earth is essentially a liquid… it isn’t so beyond belief to imagine a world where mantel temperatures are higher and everything below the thin outer crust is fluid… if we then imagine pockets of super dense material with weird magnetic properties it’d be possible for large clumps of that to float through the mantel and cause interesting variations in gravity. Gravity follows the inverse square law so a super density fluid traveling through the upper mantel would potentially cause some really odd effects.

intensely_human,

You should read The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Chobbes,

Shaken, not stirred?

Ulvain,

Sorry if someone else pointed to this already, but this could be relevant for your story:

“Unlike a body circling a single star, a planet orbiting a pair of stars would have to contend with two gravitational fields. And because the stars themselves orbit each other, the strength of the gravitational forces would constantly change.”

Source

flashgnash,

Ooooh and just when I’d kinda given up on a scientific explanation that works rather well

Good idea there

Ulvain,

I’m so glad i could help!!

SubArcticTundra,

Wow that would be bound to have some cool side effects. I wonder what the trees would look like

lolcatnip,

You wouldn’t notice any difference on the surface of the planet, though. The effects of the moon’s gravity on Earth are extreme in comparison.

amio,

In real world terms it doesn't really make sense, so you'll need to dial up the "fantastic" when explaining/handwaving it. Ever read Sanderson? Because he does both "reasonably realistic except X" and "this wind is basically a God, whatever, fuck you" and makes both work pretty well.

flashgnash,

Oh yeah I do like a good Sanderson book

My thinking was definitely not a realistic/ sci fi world where everything has an explanation, it was just “gravity is like this because it is” and leaving it at that

jimmux,

Just brainstorming a semi-plausible explanations here. What if the variation is due to massive portals/wormholes to other planets? If you’re standing near one that goes to a place with much higher gravity when it opens up, it could cause you to be pulled toward it, or increase gravity around that area. If these portals are kept secret, the gravity fluctuations as they open and close might appear to be as random as weather patterns.

Could be an interesting plot point too, if your story includes races that have secretly come through these portals. Their existence could be discovered by triangulating the gravity changes during an event. Lots of interesting possibilities.

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