Spindizzy

The spindizzy is a fictional anti-gravity device invented by James Blish for his series Cities in Flight. This device grew more efficient with the area being lifted, and this was used as the hook for the stories -- it was more effective to lift entire cities than it was something smaller, such as a classic spaceship. This is taken to extremes in the final stories, in which an entire planet is used to cross the galaxy in a matter of hours using the spindizzy drive.

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According to the stories, the Spindizzy was based on principles contained in an equation coined by P.M.S. Blackett, a British physicist of the mid-20th century. Several other Blish stories involving novel space drives contain the same assertion. Blackett's original formula was an attempt to correlate the known magnetic fields of large rotating bodies, such as the Sun, Earth, and a star in Cygnus whose field had been measured indirectly. It was unusual in that it brought Newton's Gravitational constant and Coulomb's constant together, the one governing forces between masses, the other governing forces between electric charges. However it was later disproved by more accurate measurements, not to mention new discoveries such as magnetic field reversals on Earth and the Sun, and the lack of a field on bodies such as Mars, despite its rotation being similar to Earth's.

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Blish's extrapolation was that if rotation + mass produces magnetism via gravity, then rotation + magnetism could produce anti-gravity.

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The spindizzy has made appearances several times since then, notably in pop culture such as the cover of the first Boston album, where a city (presumably Boston itself) is depicted being flown off on what appears to be a flying guitar from an exploding planet.

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It is also the name of a popular Commodore 64 maze game, particularly notable for its use of an isometric perspective.

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Anti-gravity: Anti-gravity is a hypothetical means of countering or otherwise modifying the effects of gravity, typically in the context of spacecraft propulsion. Such systems are limited to the realm of science fiction given the current understanding of the way gravity works, but this has not stopped legions of ...

James Blish: James Benjamin Blish (East Orange, New Jersey, May 23, 1921 - Henley-on-Thames, July 29, 1975) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr....

Spaceship: Spaceship can refer to:...