Silverbullet wrote:Inertial dampers. What in Hell are they.
Inertia is the property of matter that resists a change in velocity (an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by a force). The more matter in an object (mass), the more force required to start or stop it (acceleration). The force required is proportional to the product of the two (Force = mass times acceleration.) In other words, an object of 1 kilogram travelling at a speed of 10 meters per second would have to be acted on by an acceleration of 10 m/sec^2 (approximately 1 gravity) to come to rest in 1 second. That's a force of 10 newtons. It would need a force of 100 newtons to stop it in .1 seconds, and a force of 1000 newtons to stop it in .01 seconds. (the more powerful the force, the more sudden the stop.)
But remember, Force = mass times acceleration, so as mass approaches zero, so does force. A 1 Kg object moving at 10 m/sec requires a 1000 newton force to stop in .01 seconds, but a 1 gram object only 1 newton.
An inertial damper reduces the inertia of an object, which makes it look like a smaller mass to the forces acting on that object. So, in the example above, my inertially-damped 1 Kg object can be brought to a stop with very little force. No broken bones.
Too bad there is no known way in real life to do this...
That's why it's technobabble.
Actually, I'd love 