James Daley - The Science of Fortnite: The Real Science Behind the Weapons, Gadgets, Mechanics, and More!

This book is not authorized or sponsored by Epic Games, Inc. or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Fortnite name, trademark, or copyrights.

Copyright 2019 by James Daley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photograph by gettyimages

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-4962-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-4963-4

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

H i, parent. I say this because most people who play Fortnite are kids, and most kids dont read prefaces (if they read at all). If you are a kid and youve actually decided to read this preface of your own volition, congratulationsyou are an even bigger nerd than me, and I just wrote a book about the science of Fortnite!

Anyway, whether you are a parent or a kid, I just want to say hello, welcome you to the book, and introduce you to the overall themes and concepts youll find in the following chapters.

The aim of this book is simple: to explore the various science-fiction elements of Fortnite and try to find where they meet, overlap, and depart from actual scientific realities. To this end, we will explore the environment of the island where the game takes place, looking at the storm, the volcano, physics, and some strange otherworldly phenomena that you find all over the island. We will also look at some of the weird and wonderful technologies that exist in the Fortnite universe, such as Driftboards and jetpacks and the iconic Battle Bus. We will go into great detail about many of the weapons used in Fortnite, making sure to explain not only the scientific concepts behind how some of these weapons work, but also to discuss how understanding the science behind these weapons can help a player do better in the game.

While it is my sincere hope that you find this book entertaining, and that you do pick up a few things that help you get a few Victory Royales every once in a while, the real purpose of this book is to teach you a little about the fascinating science underpinning the world of Fortnite.

Many of the concepts explained in this book could easily be the subjects of their own books (and most of them are). Thus, I hope you will forgive any oversimplification in these pages, as it is necessary to provide a general understanding of these concepts to the casual reader and Fortnite player, hopefully without straying too far from the wacky, fun world of Fortnite that brought you here in the first place.

Enjoy!

James Daley

PART 1

The Physics of Fortnite

GRAVITY

Y ou might not think about it while too much while youre wandering around the island, trying not to get killed and searching for some sweet loot, but gravity in Fortnite, just like in every other video game, is one of the most important scientific concepts to understand if you really want to master the game.

Just like in real life, most people take gravity for granted in video games. If you jump up, you fall back down. If you accidentally slip and fall off a cliff, you drop until you hit the ground beneath you, and if that cliff is high enough (and you dont have that weird special ability where you glow a little and dont take any fall damage), you will die.

But why? Whats actually happening when gravity is pulling you down toward the ground, both in Fortnite and in the real world? How is gravity different in Fortnite than it is in the real world, and how do the laws of physics applyor not applyin the Fortnite universe?

Before we get into all of that, we need to have a little history lesson. Gravity is one of the most interesting concepts in the history of science, and it all started with Sir Isaac Newton, and the apple that fell on his head while he was sitting under a tree... okay, not really. The story goes that Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head, and this made him decide to figure out what gravity is and how it works. In truth, this probably never happened. Much like Benjamin Franklin and the story of how he discovered electricity by flying a kite in a lightning storm, the story of Newtons apple is a nice way to illustrate a complex scientific principle, but it is most likely just a story. What is not just a story is the fact that Newton did, in fact, completely change the way humanity understood the world and the universe when he came up with his Universal Theory of Gravitation.

Though the apple-falling-on-the-head story is apocryphal, apples did play a role in the development of Newtons thinking about gravity. Newton had been interested in how gravity functioned even before he went to university, and this interest greatly informed his studies. He was especially intrigued by the role gravity played in the movement of stars and planets, and much of his academic work was focused in this area. Even with all of his scientific education, it wasnt until later in his life, when he observed some apples falling from a tree (no, they never actually landed on his head), that he first realized that the same force that kept apples from falling sideways (or even upward) could be responsible for the moon revolving around Earth, Earth revolving around the sun, etc.

What was it about that apple falling from the tree that gave Sir Isaac Newton the idea that eventually led to his Law of Universal Gravitation? Unlike the story, it wasnt merely the fact that the apple came down that made him wonder about the forces acting on it; it was the fact that this particular apple made him realize that any apple that fell from any tree at any spot on the surface of the Earth would fall in a slightly different direction than all of the others.

Now youre probably thinking, wait a minute, that doesnt make any sense! Any apple that falls out of any tree is going to fall down!

Well, yes. All apples do travel more or less straight toward the ground when they fall from a tree, but not all trees point in the same direction, do they? No, of course not. In fact, every tree is pointing in a slightly different direction, depending on where it is on the surface of the Earth.

Think about it this way: Imagine you have two apple trees planted on exact opposite sides of the Earth. Lets say one tree is in Wellington, New Zealand, and the other is just outside of Alaejos, Spain. Now, imagine that an apple were to fall from each of these two trees at the exact same time. What direction would each of these apples be traveling? Would the apples be going in the same direction? After all, theyre both falling down toward the Earth, right?