1 (edited by Invid 2014-10-15 14:20:55)

Topic: Any Engineers in the house?

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

My advice would be to look at a 101 awesome science tricks for kids type book and see if anything looks useful. Also research on Tesla, Edison, Newton, DaVinci... Certainly steam engines and probably some electricity generation could be made with sufficient manufacturing skills. A lot of it depends on the available materials. Presumably they would have copper.

Definitely calculations relating to navigation and projectile motion could be done. That could give someone a distinct advantage in some scenarios.

There is also medical stuff like ibuprofen from willow bark or penicillin from bread mould.

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3 (edited by Zarban 2014-10-15 18:58:41)

Re: Any Engineers in the house?

Re: Any Engineers in the house?

Degreed.
Audiobook version would work better for me in getting familiar with your world, but I'll have a look.

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Any Engineers in the house?

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

That's very true, I'll echo the episode of the new Cosmos, regarding the major advancements that happened once they actually had proper refined glass for making telescopes and microscopes.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: Any Engineers in the house?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm aware of metallurgy and manufacturing limits, one reason I was hoping for an advisor on such things. After some time thinking on it, I have my characters and basic structure, but the science is still in the air. I do have the two children playing with some Tinker Toys their father invented, though, so that's something smile

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10 (edited by drewjmore 2014-11-10 13:42:12)

Re: Any Engineers in the house?

Finished reading the trilogy. Can't really see a way to critique it without spoiling, but I enjoyed it. I had several sessions of, "can't put it down, sleep can wait."

Here's just a few on topic things that pop to mind as I type them:

If you can make plate armor, you can make steam engines. That might explode at any moment.

Drawing metals into wire can help with mastering electricity. Generators, wet cell batteries, capacitors, etc.

Heavier than air flying machines seem obvious, presuming a high-specific energy fuel source and engine. Airships are low tech. Submarines as well, it's keeping the crew alive that's the problem.

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I found my advisor, and posted a first chapter to the new book (If I don't treat things like a TV show and post as I write, nothing gets done). The idea of hot air balloons will probably come up eventually, probably for military usage. Wind and water power will dominate, as I can't see the King wanting to even deal with electricity until much more important things are dealt with.

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Re: Any Engineers in the house?

Hey!  I'm a mechanical engineer.   If you need any more help let me know!

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