Can energy be destroyed over time or lose its potency? For example, I have seen many anime and video game examples of attacks that just seem to keep going unless they strike something. If this energy were fired off into space, would it continue on forever if it never struck anything, or would it lose strength over time as it gained distance from its point of origin? Would it matter what the energy was supposedly made of? Just from Pokemon, I can pull three different kinds. Hyper Beam, Ice Beam, and Solarbeam. Obviously that last one is probably made of light. Would a laser keep going or could it lose strength? I wonder because I thought about the beam attacks in several anime being shot into space, many of them devastating in strength. If they struck another planet after traveling who knows how many light years, would it still be just as strong and do damage to that planet?
Can lightning strike something that won't conduct it in the least? Such as a pole of rubber? What if the pole of rubber was the tallest thing around? Would it try to strike it and then go lower for a target it can hit? Can a lightning bolt be divided or hit multiple targets at the same time? Why is it we don't try to farm lightning for our electrical needs?
On that note, how do solar cells and solar energy work? Do hurricanes and tornadoes do anything beneficial for nature, or are they purely destructive forces? The only thing they do to benefit nature, and it's a bit cynical, is to rid the planet of humans, who do the most damage to nature. If they were to be disrupted so they don't cause damage, would that screw up some big atmospheric pattern?
On a similar note, how do back burns work? That might not be the right term, but setting a fire so it consumes a previous fire and they burn themselves out. I'm now wondering if you could do something similar to that with an earthquake. Probably not, but if you had enough warning...?
How are forest fires fought? They always seem (at least where I live) to be in really hard areas to get vehicles and even to climb on foot, especially with all the gear a firefighter would need to wear just to stay alive. The planes and helicopters dropping chemicals and water on the fires just seems inefficient. I just wonder if there could be a better way to do it. Of course, my idea involves hercules beetle mechs armed with cannons firing mud and water and a chainsaw horn designed to cut through trees that have fallen over, or to remove fuel from the path of a fire. The horn can also grasp, able to pick up and move trees that may have gotten in the way. Six legs help it keep balance even on steep slopes, while the pilots are safe inside the armored cockpit. The biggest problem I see is energy concerns, and then of course, having water to fuel the cannons and create the mud. You'd need pretty big tanks just to carry that. I'd like to know if there were a way to steal energy from the fire you'd be facing and turn that into fuel for the beetles, but I'd have no idea how to accomplish that. Would the beetles be able to move quickly enough to actually fight the fire, or would they end up having to be used to contain the fire at areas fire trucks and other vehicles can't reach?
Another idea I had for resisting forest fires involves merely protecting the homes and buildings threatened by the blazes. Would there be a way to magnetize dirt and have it rise into the air to create a wall of dirt and earth, blocking the progress of flames? The reason I suggest just for protecting buildings is that the energy costs would probably be fairly high. If that weren't a concern, perhaps you could circle an ongoing fire with the dirt, activate it so the fire doesn't spread, and then you have the fire just burn itself out. Acres of forest and habitats for people and animals could be saved with something like that. Alternately, if we could figure out force fields and not just have them be science fiction, you could probably use those instead. I'd just be worried about a spark escaping through something most forms of media suggest can only hinder physical forms. The dirt would be scorched, but it couldn't catch on fire either.
So much I want to learn, and all of this the result of a few thoughts driving home from work.
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