posted
I've never written anything with hard science before, since I don't particularly enjoy writing or reading it. BUT in the last two weeks my renegade brain has decided to imagine a story that will, unfortunately, require real science research. Stupid brain, grumble grumble.
So, I'm wondering how you folks go about your research, especially on topics with which you are completely unfamiliar. Where do you start? What kind of sources do you use? How do you know when you have enough background knowledge to write plausibly?
---- Addendum:
I'm asking the question as a general one, but just in case anyone happens to know anything about it, my situation is: as a child, my character becomes fascinated with the way timpani drums create sound by the vibrations of their heads. He goes on to study sound waves and wave frequencies (and all the related sciencey stuff that I don't know yet) and eventually becomes a world-famous, ground-breaking, award-winning scientist. (That's not the end of the story...actually, it's prior to the beginning. The story happens at the end of his life, but I need to know all that science stuff.)
I was a history major, and now I'm in a graduate program for archivists. I know NOTHING about wave frequency. Help? Feel free to email me if your info is longer than appropriate for a forum post.
[This message has been edited by sojoyful (edited December 12, 2005).]
posted
When I did research on particle accelerators, I looked up books in the library; went online and looked at a site for an accelerator; and I talked to a physics professor.
And, according to Survivor, I still missed an important detail: that images from the accelerator are not instantly available.
For some good concrete detail on how scientists do their stuff (the organizational stuff, that is), read Bellwether by Connie Willis. It's funny, so the touchy-feely PC stuff doesn't really happen (I think), but the grant proposals, etc., do.
posted
There are plenty of resources for beginners on scientific topics. Introductory books on physics, "Dummies" books, etc. should be enough to learn the basics of waves and sound. You could even ask a local physics teacher.
Sound engineers are familiar with the equipment, positioning, etc., basically the practical aspects of sound and music. Even if they don't know something, they'll know where to look.
In general, hard science is easy enough to find resources for, and there are tons of books on any of the sciences, some more interesting than others, many written for people who don't have a scientific background.
I think you'd only know whether you have enough while writing the story and having it read. Learning the basics, reading some of the things that have been done in the field, should give you some idea of what's plausible. You can look at scientific journals to find things they're experimenting with.
[This message has been edited by nimnix (edited December 12, 2005).]
posted
Nova transcripts are my personal favorite (www.pbs.org/nova) but I'm not aware of any episodes about sound waves. I do recall discussions in physics class about how everything has a resonant frequency and whether you could make a sound ray that would make a person explode. But Ayn Rand, strangely enough, used that idea in Atlas Shrugged.
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posted
What I'd recommend, for starters, is going to the children's section of the library and finding a book for children on sound. There's one at our local library entitled ALL ABOUT SOUND, and another entitled THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS FUN WITH SOUND.
Once you've looked through the simplest of books like these, find some more advanced books. Our library has THE PHYSICS OF SOUND and THE MASTER HANDBOOK OF ACOUSTICS, which would definitely be more advanced.
Starting with children's books on a subject is really a good idea because you get a clear, simplified overview, and that gives you some idea of where to go next.
The internet is your best friend. I've drawn so much good stuff from academic and private corporation websites that I don't bother with paper research anymore.
posted
I usually start with Google... by pulling up a few websites (focusing on the ones with an ".edu" suffix), I can generally access some documents that will throw technical lingo at me. Once I get a grasp of what RESEARCHERS call it, I use that vocabulary to re-run the search engine query. From there you should be able to pick up references to your topic. Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I'm in a waves and vibrations class right now, as a matter of fact. (It was another student who passed along the link above.) Here's the course website: http://web.mit.edu/8.03/fall05/. I suggest looking through the homework sets. All the solutions are right there, so if you see something that strikes your fancy, the answers are all laid out. (This is great for research, bad if you're trying to work the problems and are easily tempted...)
posted
I generally use an encyclopedia of some kind. If I need to get more technical, I try to stay focused on something I have actually studied in depth.
For a novel, I'd do some serious library research, maybe even audit a class at the local college.
For a short story, if I don't know enough about it, I'll find something I know about to write about.
posted
what i think most people fail to understand about science fiction especially "hard" SF is that the science we use isn't labratory science.
SF characters have to know the lingo not tell the process. Rather they need to show the use of X theory.
Who cares if I as the author couldn't tell you with what tools, what lab conditions etc my character needed to discover Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in metoerites from Mars? all i need to tell the reader is that my character found them and that its important to you because of Y which is a Causal link to Z.
posted
You'd be surprised how much university profesors will talk about their subjects.
Usually they are talking to a room of students who don't care. If you call them up (or email) they are usually more than happy to answer your questions.
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Just be careful with physicists--they get spammed constantly by crack pots with pet theories out to dethrown Einstein or Schrodinger, take your pick. Make the subject line very clear or you may get trashed.
Posts: 184 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
As a member of higher Ed (I teach intro soc as a grad student sucks for me fun for them) Let me warn though at least in my "fluffy" field of Sociology there are lots of paranoid people who never give out phone interviews unless they know how their info will be used and how quickly it'll reach publication.
Granted this is always in regards to Journalists of various stripes but still.
posted
Another way to get some scientific answers is to post your questions right here. What exactly is it you need to know about sound waves, vibrational modes, wave propagation? Sound waves aren't my specialty, but I have some background in most areas of physics in general. What specifically is it you need to know?
In general, if you just need a summary of a certain scientific field, you can usually just Google it. For more nitpicky questions, you generally need to find someone to ask.
AstroStewart: I'm actually not sure what I need to know (that's why I need to know it!) Basically, my character has won an Nobel Prize in the field (or some such award) and I need to be able to to think up something that makes sense for him to have done to earn it. Then, the government asks him to work on this big genius project that no one else can do. So I have to think of something for that as well.
Granted, the award project happens before the story, and the government thing...well, he lies and says he's working on it while he's actually doing something else, so I don't actually have to spend a lot of time focusing on it. But I feel I really should know something about the subject so I can come up with realistic projects for him.
It has long been realized that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear. Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place. In a controlled experiment published in September, 2003, people at a concert were asked to rate their responses to a variety of pieces of music, some of which were accompanied by infrasonic elements. The participants were not aware of which pieces included the infrasound. Many participants (22%) reported feelings of anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear and chills down the spine which correlated with the infrasonic events. In presenting the evidence to the British Association, the scientist responsible said "These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound. Some scientists have suggested that this level of sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites and so cause people to have odd sensations that they attribute to a ghost—our findings support these ideas".
posted
This link is for metaphysical/esoteric music. I'm trying to figure out how to use the information for my novel, simply because it looks really cool and scientific. I hope it gives you some food for thought.
posted
The timpani (or any round drum head) will vibrate in the form of a Bessel function. A child undrstanding Bessel functions is a bit of a stretch of credibility for me, but that's how it vibrates. It has to do with the cross-section plane of a cylinder. The drum head is a laminar cross section of a cylinder, despite the fact that a timpani isn't cylinderical. The timpani itself (to simplify) a hemisphere, so the air inside the timpani most likely vibrates as a spherical harmonic forced by the bessel function in the drum head. These functions come out of what is known as a boundry value problem in applied mathematics or mathematical physics, depending on which side of the fence you stand.
If that went over your head, let me know and I'll simplify.
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I'm sure after some research I'll understand more.
