# Honor Harrington's Impeller Wedge -- conundrums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026 "2011-06-02T00:53:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026/21 "2011-06-02T19:35:02Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > I didn’t mean the Impulse Drive used gravity-control technology to acheive propulsion – I meant that the starship had to engage an _internal_ counter-gravity field in the opposite direction to keep the tremendous thrust of the Impulse Drive from turning everyone on board into crepes. (I believe they referred to it as the Inertial Dampener.) Sorry, I misread your post. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026/22 "2011-06-02T19:47:39Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Still doesn’t explain why, if they can violate the Conservation of Energy like that, they don’t built impeller-powered Power Plants. It doesn’t violate CoE, it just draws energy from outside the ship from hyperspace. That’s not a violation of CoE any more than a sail or solar panel is. And normally all that energy goes into maintaining the wedge and moving it; it doesn’t actually cost them a significant amount of energy to accelerate, the wedge does all the work. In a grav wave in hyperspace though they get enough energy that they can just shut off the fusion plants and draw power from the sail. As for using it for power elsewhere, I expect they just don’t bother. With their version of fusion power they get plenty of cheap energy out a neat, compact power plant without some bulky & elaborate method of getting energy indirectly from an impeller. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026/23 "2011-06-02T20:09:15Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > As for using [impeller technology] for power elsewhere, I expect they just don’t bother. With their version of fusion power they get plenty of cheap energy out a neat, compact power plant without some bulky & elaborate method of getting energy indirectly from an impeller. The Graysons were stuck with _fission_ power plants before their alliance with Manticore. Tying an impeller-driven starship to a rotary generator would have been a Godsend for their power needs. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026/24 "2011-06-03T01:04:24Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > And since we already KNOW they can generate gravity fields – it’s why the crew can walk around on board a docked starship, instead of floating through the hallways – all a starship accelerating at 450_g_ needs to do is generate a 450_g_ field directed toward the front of the ship. Slight amendment - in order to accelerate a starship, all you need to do is create a gravity field at the front. The gravity field does all the acceleration of both the ship and the crew, thus avoiding any squish (I suppose you would need to have an extra 1 g gravity “down” for comfort). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honor-harringtons-impeller-wedge-conundrums/584026.md?page=1)