I just had a peculiar idea. If supersonic travel were to be permitted, then would it be possible to accelerate to such extreme speeds that the pressure in the air around the minecart would bend the light so much that you would get a rainbow?
Somewhat serious question, and would it be scientifically possible?
3 comments:
1) I feel you're tapping into special relativity there. The starbow phenomenon. That's only applicable to space ships flying at relativistic speeds. With air friction, it will never happen.
2) I suppose under a fantasy situation of ignoring how to get the object to such a speed, how to cope with the temperature associated with it and how to cope with the sonic boom... you possibly could get a very, very small and thin layer of ultra-pressurised air to slightly split the wavelengths of white light into a rainbow (which you probably won't actually be able to see).
3) While you're considering the refraction of light at different wavelengths, you may want to read up on Rayleigh Scattering (the correct answer for why the sky is blue, not because light refracts differently for different wavelengths).
tl;dr: 25% boulder drop rate makes for a very easy balance fix of "4 blocks per 1 boulder".
In addition, you'll also get multiple blocks per stone now.
And so our megaproject worries were put to rest.