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1500 questions
82
votes
22 answers
Why do supervillains feel compelled to tell heroes their plans?
Stark: What's the vibranium for?
Ultron: I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan...
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
A pervasive trope throughout literature, television, and film is that the Big Bad…
In Hoc Signo
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82
votes
21 answers
Is it physically possible for a planet to have seasons of different lengths?
Those of you who have read Game Of Thrones will know that in the GOT world seasons do not have a fixed duration, e.g., a winter might last three times longer than the previous one.
I find most interesting how can this be possible (if it can), from a…
Garoal
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81
votes
18 answers
Is there any real reason for Dwarves not to have cavalry?
It's a fairly common trope in fantasy worlds/stories that dwarves don't use cavalry.
But is there any real reason why?
Off the top of my head the two most likely ones seem to be:
Their size. Except children ride horses, and jockeys tend to be quite…
adaliabooks
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81
votes
5 answers
How many cows would you need to drop on Mars to successfully terraform it?
The concept behind this lies in three primary points:
It has been theorized that one could increase the heat of Mars' atmosphere to a suitable level by guiding meteors into the atmosphere and crashing them into the surface. Assuming this is…
Ian C
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81
votes
17 answers
Random body shuffle every night—can we still function?
Imagine a world where every time you wake up you wake up in a randomly selected body from among the bodies that were asleep at that time. There are some limits—the body should be in at most a roughly 5 mile radius of the body you went to sleep in.…
danxinnoble
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81
votes
15 answers
How can Santa exist when adults buy the toys?
This really gets to me when I watch modern-day Christmas movies.
These movies usually present the notion that Santa exists and adults don't believe in him. From what I've seen, it's either because of one incident where someone didn't get what they…
Bret
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81
votes
5 answers
How quickly and accurately should news travel in a rural medieval setting?
I'd like to have a realistic idea of how, and how accurately, ordinary people in a rural low-tech (medieval-equivalent) setting should expect to hear news from outside their own communities. If you don't personally travel (which, I believe, most…
Monica Cellio
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80
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16 answers
Could astronauts find their bearings in the Universe after being transported 6 gigalightyears from Earth?
In my world, humanity reaches their new home among the stars by way of a portal that pops into the solar system one day. This portal instantaneously transports those who enter to a place that is located a jaw-dropping 6 gigalightyears (six billion…
Junkey McKrat
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80
votes
25 answers
What would be the possible issues with an IQ based voting system
I'm thinking of a world that values freedom but rates intelligence and logic so much that it dominates the entire society. Pupils take tests during school and this is averaged out and then given a value.
Various SCI-FI cultures are based on logic…
JamesD
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80
votes
27 answers
Concealing my earth-changing invention
Imagine it. I've invented the single greatest thing since Fire. A machine that can turn matter into energy and energy into matter with almost absolute efficiency. Sure, it violates a couple of the laws of thermodynamics and yes, you can get around a…
Joe Bloggs
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80
votes
19 answers
Stealth in Space: How realistic is it?
This has been considered other places on the net, but I thought it would be good for the hard-science challenge, since it is often an example of the subtle difference between soft and hard science.
Okay, so you have your spacey ship in outer space.…
Christopher King
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79
votes
15 answers
Why would a country make a declaration of war instead of just invading?
So a declaration of war is made when you wanna go to war with someone else (duh).
For example, country A hates country B's guts. A declares war on B. A and B go to war. One side wins, unless the whole world gets embroiled in it, then things get way…
Skye
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79
votes
41 answers
What is the fastest way for a robot with superhuman capabilities to make money?
An alien robot comes to Earth and determines that part of his plan here involves geting set up with a lot of cash in as short a time span as possible. He has a number of physical and mental attributes exceeding that of the average human to assist…
Hydrothermal
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79
votes
12 answers
How does the government cover up alien crash landings?
One night a spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin crash-landed in the densely populated city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The force of the impact leveled the entire city within a radius of 1 kilometer from the crash site. The death toll is…
user6760
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79
votes
37 answers
What (modern) weapons could be used to destroy skeletal enemies as completely as possible?
As per the cliché, after getting hit by a truck, our protagonist finds herself in a 'swords and sorcery' fantasy world. Also as per the cliché, she is granted an overpowered ability to make her new life easier. In this case, she gains the ability to…
Loid Thanead
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