How to "defy" physics on a sci-fi?

Sci-fi readers and fictional world fans are often very concerned how stuff works. Adding new element is popular choice to explain certain unusual phenomena like FTL travel speeds, teleports, energy shields and weapons. However there is very little space to develop your new element. Theoretically, there should not be anything before hydrogen, but for example Mass Effect put Element Zero there. Zero because of zero atomic number. This element, called eezo in the universe,

when subjected to an electrical current, releases dark energy which can be manipulated into a mass effect field, raising or lowering the mass of all objects within that field. (viaME Wiki)

This can easily bend Newtonian and Einsteinian physics to allow said phenomena. Stargate uses Naquadah in similar manner, but does not explain where in periodic table would be Naquadah found (maybe it does and I don't remember it, I suggest confirmation).

As was said before, if you want to use some new element, place it somewhere in the island of stability. Or you can place it before Hydrogen (I would not suggest that solution since ME already did that).

Generally I can say that best way to bend physics to your will and make it believable is to find some real scientific theory, that would be working for you and use it. If you have basic understanding of physics and what keep us from doing things you would like people in your universe to do, you can identify the obstacles and design your new element so it renders these obstacles non existent or irrelevant.

posted over 10 years ago

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Delltar‭

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A hint where you could actually place the new elements: You could put them in the island of stability. If some people expect half-lifes of millions of years, it's not much of a stretch to also put some stable element there (although a very long half-life may be good enough; after all, uranium is instable, and yet we even have quite a bit of naturally occurring uranium).

If you want to be more future-proof, you can also put your elements in the second island of stability (see near the end of the Wikipedia article).

posted over 10 years ago

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celtschk‭

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This is one of those instances where understanding the history of things matters. If you're building a science-fantasy world with the equivalent of modern chemistry, have some fictional elements with distinct properties, and have any concern at all for the periodic table, you really only have four choices:

1. Make the new element something strange and apart, so it doesn't have to fit into the categorization at all.

   What's the atomic weight of Victorium? We have no idea.

2. Make the new "element" really an isotope of an existing element.

   Thanks to Victorum, which is a strange isotope of Aluminium, we can build radiation-proof starships

3. Pick a spot on the periodic table and slap the new element there. Anything above 54 with a name you don't recognize is fair game to be replaced, especially if you're going to substitute "magic" for "radiation."

   Good Witch Curie discovered Victorum's mana-like properties in a lab.

4. Abandon the periodic table. If there were elements that simply did not fit into the framework when it was being devised, it would never have been adopted.

   Alchemists even claimed once that elements could be arrange neatly by their number of protons. As if Victorium didn't even exist!

The same practice is true for any aspect of world-building in which you deviate from the modern day. In a draft awhile back I realized that I couldn't use the world "commute" to describe a daily journey to and from work without some historic installation of public transportation, since said usage derives from the "commuted" fair offered those who bought train-tickets in bulk.

You don't need go to overboard of course, but a significant part of high fantasy or non-terrestrial sci fi is very much the world-buliding, and it's worth spending some time thinking about how to get it right.

posted almost 11 years ago

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DougM‭

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