While watching a documentary posted by our good neighbor ash55, a scientist mentioned the creation of artificial gravity via centrifugal force. This led me to wonder how ships in science fiction[namely the UNSC] can generate earth like gravity without a significant mass that is required. I considered the idea of centrifugal force[I am looking at centripetal force, but I can't really make sense of most of it], but then I realized how ridiculous it would look for the UNSC Infinity to spin end over end in space. I considered mass, but then I realized that if an earth sized mass was on the ship, the ship would probably cave in on the mass. Another idea is the creation of a gravitomagnetic field, this is an actually plausible idea; I'll give you what I know of it via Wikipedia: [spoiler] [quote]Gravity generator/gravitomagnetism In science fiction, artificial gravity (or cancellation of gravity) or "paragravity" is sometimes present in spacecraft that are neither rotating nor accelerating. At present, there is no confirmed technique that can simulate gravity other than actual mass or acceleration. There have been many claims over the years of such a device. Eugene Podkletnov, a Russian engineer, has claimed since the early 1990s to have made such a device consisting of a spinning superconductor producing a powerful gravitomagnetic field, but there has been no verification or even negative results from third parties. In 2006, a research group funded by ESA claimed to have created a similar device that demonstrated positive results for the production of gravitomagnetism, although it produced only 100 millionths of a g. String theory predicts that gravity and electromagnetism unify in hidden dimensions and that extremely short photons can enter those dimensions.[/quote] [/spoiler] So I considered gravitomagnetic generators. It's probable though that it needs a monumental amount of energy to function and create earth gravity environments. I'm not sure as to how much however, it might even be able to be sustained via nuclear reactor. I also began to wonder if a gravity generator [that creates gravity equal to that of Earth's] was powered up on Earth. Needless to say I'm pretty sure the results would be devastating. On UNSC ships, if such a system were used, wouldn't entire asteroids and moons be flying[exaggeration, more like moving towards them steadily, disrupting its orbit] at them? If the gravitomagnetic system were to be used, then the result would be disastrous still. But while playing the first mission of Halo 4, I noticed Cortana stating, "Grav Generator 1, 2, and 3 are offline, Chief!" or something along the lines of that. So the UNSC would use multiple gravity generators, huh? This leads me to believe that multiple, weaker gravity generators were used. However, I encountered another problem: how could earth gravity be simulated in that area if it isn't generating Earth gravity? I thought that there must be some way to [i]contain[/i] gravity, to inhibit it. So if the UNSC found a way to restrain gravitational forces, then they wouldn't generate catastrophes on planets by creating such powerful gravity. It could also be an explanation as to why EGEs[Extreme Gravity Events, or High Gravity Events (HGEs), not sure which] such as Black Holes, don't seem to be a problem for them. However, this does still leave the question of how the craft isn't caving in on itself. Maybe it's just that sturdy? On a side note, I would like to theorize what exactly would happen if someone did activate a gravity generator[which produced Earth force gravity] right here on Earth (or whichever planet you live on {looking at you, Vien}). [spoiler]With that kind of additional gravitational force, I would suspect crazy things to happen. Most notably, earthquakes, tsunamis (every ocean in the world would probably be heading right for the generator) and the entirety of Earth's crust would likely be gravitating towards it. Conversely, the generator and the Earth's core may just gravitate towards each other. Theoretically, if you could mesh it with the Earths gravity in someway, Earth would have 2x the gravity. The generator would make humans double their weight, and the moon would likely just come flying at us[for real this time]. I really have no more ideas, maybe the generator and the Earth could go into orbit or something? Artificial Gravity used to work out? You guys help me on this one.[/spoiler] [b] What are your thoughts on this?[/b]