Oolite Bulletins

Just came across this:

"FacelessLinuxUser" on libregamewiki.org argues that the motion in Oolite is Aristotelian! ''In Aristotle there is no inertia—every motion must have some cause moving it''

Not quite my area, sadly.

But there is this: Theory of Impetus (which talks a little of Aristotle's views of motion).


I don't really have enough context to be able to assess this appealing assertion. Does anyone else?

Not strictly true - objects in Oolite can have inertial velocities: cargo pods or asteroid fragments, for example.

If the object has no Aristotelian drive, then the inertial velocity will continue indefinitely until another force is applied.
If the object has an Aristotelian drive, then the functioning of the drive will be in part directed to negating the inertial velocity (which is usually near-instantaneous unless the inertial velocity is very large or the Aristotelian drive is very weak), and the functioning of the drive does not itself generate inertial velocity.

Aristotle thinks that objects are naturally at rest. The mover must be acting on the moved, actively and continuously. Otherwise, it wouldn't move.

"The moved" is by definition moved. Nothing can move without being moved. He argues that one thing moves another, and so on, but that can't go on forever, so he concludes that there must be an unmoved mover, which is God.

So he has no notion of inertia. For Aristotle, inertia would basically be motion without any cause. He says that when you throw a ball, the air keeps the ball in motion. (Not his finest moment.)

Spaceships are commonly treated like airplanes in games, they slow down or stop when you turn the engines off. That doesn't really make it "Aristotelian", but that's what they meant.

The escape pod is a funny one in practice if it was ejected at high speed. Its tiny, weak engines take a LONG time to slow it down and change its direction.

Switeck wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 2:51 pm

The escape pod is a funny one in practice if it was ejected at high speed. Its tiny, weak engines take a LONG time to slow it down and change its direction.

You meant that it starts off Newtonian and then slowly evolves into Aristotelian?

Yeah, and it has to slowly burn off its huge velocity vector to do it.
To a lesser extent missiles have to do that if you fire them while injecting away from their intended target.