I’ve been revising
my science fiction book, and I’ve endeavored to make the scientifically
verifiable elements as correct as possible. Unfortunately this means I’ve had
to activate the evil part of my brain, that enemy of creativity, math. And it’s
been a bear for me.
I’ve had to
dust off long-unused geometry, look up ancient formulas on acceleration, speed,
and distance, and wrap my head around relativistic physics.
I could
have avoided this by creating fictional technologies to deal with some of the more
technical aspects, but I felt that would be cheating. Plus, I’ve learned that
the limitations of physics and technologies allow for some interesting
developments I have exploited in the book. My favorite: the photonic fog of
war. I don’t know what others call it, but that’s what I call it, and it
functions exactly like a fog of war.