True, all kind of depend on how the cutting is exactly being done. The exact thickness of the 'blade'/the width of the 'edge', a meter or few millimeters, would affect the final damage quite much. Other things such as the speed of the propagation of the cutting force (affect the wave it would caused and may cause some ejecta on the other side) and whether or not there's something behind the 'edge' that keep everything being apart for a while and how big it is (in another word, whether it is 'blade' instead of just an 'edge' and how wide the 'blade' is; Two halves of Earth falling back on each other would have different effect from a few metres sized cavity going trough inside of Earth).
Renegade Magica (PMMM/Mass Effect)
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TheBleachDoctor
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Not to mention that the only parts of the Earth that would really be affected by a thin cut would be the crust. The Mantle and everything under it would just melt back into each other.
magic9mushroom
BEST END.
The problem is that gravity is what's known as a conservative force. That is, as you approach a planet, you gain exactly as much kinetic energy as is needed to bounce back out of the gravity well with the same speed relative to the planet. Close approaches don't inherently result in capture; in almost all cases the close-approaching object either is flung back out in a different direction (also known as a gravity whip), or it physically strikes the planet and is added to the planet's mass (which still isn't orbit).
All orbits are stable to a first approximation. When people say "this orbit is unstable", they mean in most cases that a third body (ie, something other than what it's orbiting) will perturb it over many revolutions in such a way that the orbit will end up changing significantly.
It has, which is why I said "to a first approximation". Because the Solar System contains many bodies, perturbations from third bodies can modify orbits significantly over long periods and lead to captures and escapes. But you can't get such a capture in one pass from a significantly different orbit; they'd need to be in an orbit around Aralakh already very similar to Tuchanka's (which they couldn't be, since the mass relay is in an orbit distant from Tuchanka's).
So I guess that the Incubators could have put the ships on a course following the Aralakh system's interplanetary transport network that would have eventually delivered it to Tuchanka orbit in, say, a few millennia. It does sound really like the Incubators to do that, but some clarification should probably be given.
TheBleachDoctor
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Or, even better, the Incubators put the ships on autopilot back to Tuchanka.
Yeah, say that. Interstellar travel requires too many course corrections and dynamic factors to have them coast all the way back to Tuchanka.
Yeah, say that. Interstellar travel requires too many course corrections and dynamic factors to have them coast all the way back to Tuchanka.
It would still cause vibration though. If its big enough it can cause earthquake above. And if there's significantly sized 'blade' behind the 'edge', like several thousand kilometers wide, the core and the mantle would not be able to immediately fuse back, resulted in what would actually look like cutting an orange (being split in two), if only for a moment, instead of cutting an ocean (a small cavity formed behind the blade which closed far before the cutting edge finished going all the way)
Regarding the Krogan fleet,I think the easiest retcon would be to just say that they got send back into the Krogan system. Big margin for error that way and noticing a functioning fleet of spaceships in interplanetary range would not be too hard. Especially if they still have some kind of functioning transponder.
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magic9mushroom
BEST END.
Depends on how thin. As I said, cutting the Earth in half, separating the halves by a mere metre (remember, the Earth is approximately 13,000,000 metres across) and letting them fall back together would be sufficient to end civilisation. The issue isn't the cut (even cutting the crust wouldn't always create new plate boundaries), it's the separation, and the shockwave produced when the two extremely heavy halves collide again after momentarily being in freefall.
TheBleachDoctor
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I was thinking a cut that was on the magnitude of inches. Slowly.
magic9mushroom
BEST END.
Sure, but in the context of someone with "fuck physics" powers like in what I quoted or PMMM, it doesn't have to be slow. And "fuck physics" is basically the only way this is actually happening.
(It's not like you could plausibly actually build a giant hacksaw and saw through the earth with it; even if you could, the giant forces being applied to your very heavy saw to make it actually move in a sawing motion would still kill everyone with earthquakes and probably knock the planet into a different orbit.)
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TheBleachDoctor
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If the Earth was cut with enough force to physically launch the two sides away from each other any appreciable distance, everyone or mostly everyone on Earth is dead already.
magic9mushroom
BEST END.
Yes. This was in fact my point.
Talks like this are why I love this site 
TheBleachDoctor
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It would also likely disrupt the Earth's rotation. Stopping the Earth for even a second would kill everyone.
Except that 'cutting through everything' power doesn't necessarily end up with 'earth being split like an orange cut in half' situation
Huh, why would it stop the Earth rotation? The two halves (if halves did even occured) could just keep orbiting on the center of gravity just fine. It probably would mess with the rotation quite a tad sure, but it would not stop. Also, unless momentum fuckery magic was involved, there is no such thing as 'stopping rotation for a second'. And if momentum fuckery magic is involved, it would not matter that much if Earth rotation stop temporarily.
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magic9mushroom
BEST END.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Pretty easily, they just view it as empirical fact. The issue here is more with our language than Incubator emotions, since it's not designed to handle alien minds like theirs. We say you 'feel' something if it's an opinion you have, but you shouldn't need emotions to have opinions.
Alternately, Incubators are capable of developing emotions (considered madness among their people) which suggests to me that the average Incubator may actually just be incredibly low-emotion rather than emotionless, since it seems more likely that some of them would develop more of something they have than spontaneously gain a new thing, but that's lacking any real canon backing.
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In case that was in response to what I wrote, they are, by every metric that they "value", superior in an observable fashion.
They don't have the same emotional instabilities so they can view events logically and objectively (mostly), they are significantly more technologically advanced, and as far as they're concerned they're one of the only species that has ever really thought in the long term (a real long term).
I do think that they view themselves as vaguely philanthropic for what they're doing, even if they're mostly concerned with their survival as a species. I don't believe that they're utterly emotionless, but any sort of extreme is considered mental instability.
Again, they... really don't feel much of a need to rub things in when it comes to being a superior species. Hell, even after Madoka witched out, Kyubey was still... fairly polite, if I recall correctly. (Well, verbally polite. His actions weren't very gentlemanly at all).
I'll give a more thorough response as it either becomes relevant, I've confirmed a few facts from the show, or I've gotten a bit more sleep.
edit:
Forgot to say, if it's an issue, it's not too problematic to just have the Incubators turn on the autopilot or tossed into the system. I'll think on what edits to make later.
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Technically, this is also a form of earthquake.
Not really - earthquakes don't actually affect the rotational energy/momentum of the planet as a whole.
magic9mushroom
BEST END.
I think we might be getting a little off-topic. If we are to continue discussing Giant Space Hacksaws and what their effects are on planets, I'd suggest we make a new thread.
IIRC, it does. I think I've read some NatGeo articles about how the Sendai earthquake reduce the Earth rotational enery by a minuscule fraction.
Well, if you guys still want to continue, sure. I'll make one. What subforum though?
Nope. It changed the mass distribution, like a figure skater moving their arms during a spin.
EDIT: And I'm done now, until a new thread is made.
The Sandman
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Assuming that the Incubators are a naturally evolved species, I'd say it's not so much that they're emotionless as that they no longer need them. Their conscious minds operate swiftly enough that they can use them to process everything, instead of having to rely on the biological equivalent of programming shortcuts.
If one of them really, really wanted to feel an emotion, it probably could, but it's likely seen as something between an indulgence and a perversion by most Incubators. And not having active control over their emotions is, as Kyubey said, a form of mental illness.
If one of them really, really wanted to feel an emotion, it probably could, but it's likely seen as something between an indulgence and a perversion by most Incubators. And not having active control over their emotions is, as Kyubey said, a form of mental illness.