Physics and Star Wars
From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.
The Star Wars movies use science and technology in their settings and storylines, though they were not considered "hard" science fiction. Star Wars concentrates mainly on the epic drama, not on "technobabble" or keeping the action in line with the laws of physics. It has borrowed freely from the scientific world. The series has showcased many interesting technological concepts, both in the movies and in an extensive line of novels and comics. These vivid imaginings, and the discussions they have started amongst fans, have inspired many people to enter the world of science.[source?]
The Star Wars movies are a vehicle for entertainment and their primary aim is to deliver drama, not scientific knowledge. Many of the on-screen technologies created or borrowed for the Star Wars universe were used mainly as plot devices or as aesthetic elements, and not as elements of the story in their own right.
The iconic status that Star Wars has gained in popular culture allows it to be used as an accessible introduction to real scientific concepts. Many of the features or technologies used in the Star Wars universe are impossible, according to current theory. However, the process of understanding why they are considered impossible can educate people while simultaneously entertaining them.
For example planets in Star Wars are mostly monolithic, containing a single climate or condition on all of their surface, irrelevant whether it be the equator or the poles. A simple 'visit' on a planet is almost always representative to the conditions pertaining all the rest of the planet.
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[edit] Specific phenomena
Specific phenomena from Star Wars are discussed below. This section is by no means exhaustive.
[edit] Tatooine's twin suns
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope contains a scene where Luke Skywalker sits and watches the double sunset of Tatooine's twin suns. Although astronomers have discovered some extrasolar planets, they have yet to discover any that revolve around two stars, though many binary stars exist. Still, a planet orbiting two stars is at least theoretically possible, because such a planet would orbit its stars' common center of mass. However, for Tatooine to do so, it would need to be about four times or more the distance away from the stars as the stars are from each other. Otherwise, gravitational interactions between the three bodies will destabilize their orbits. Additionally, at least one astronomer believes that the double sunset scene should have shown the spherical twin stars with a slightly more oval shape, as their mutual gravitational attraction would have distorted both.[1]
[edit] Asteroid field in Episode V
In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, after the Battle of Hoth, the Millennium Falcon is pursued by Imperial ships through a dense asteroid field. The chunks of rock in the field are moving at rapid speeds, constantly colliding, and densely packed. Ordinarily, an asteroid field or belt is unlikely to be so densely packed with large objects because collisions reduce large objects to rubble that then eventually aggregates into planetoids by mutual attraction. Such a densely packed field could exist if it is either “young and transient” or “dominated by an external force”; there are a few clues that either might be happening in this scene of the movie.[2]
By contrast with Star Wars, Discovery One's course took it directly through the asteroid belt in 2001, without real fear of collision on the part of the mission organizers.
[edit] Sound
Star Wars, like much science fiction, has sounds that are transmitted from one ship to another. But sound, as a wave, must propagate through some form of matter. Since space is vacuous, it cannot carry sound waves. Two explanations have been posited. First, it is possible that the various ships' deflector shields, when hit with radiation from explosions or blasters, cause the ships themselves to vibrate, producing sound. Second, the audio may be synthetically generated by ships' sensor systems. Producing such sound would be beneficial because Humans naturally react to their environment. It would also be an efficient use of a pilot's limited senses during combat.[3]
One line points to some or all of the sound portrayals being synthesized for the benefit of the pilots. In A New Hope radio play, Han Solo tells Luke Skywalker:
- Your sensors'll give you an audio simulation for a rough idea of where those fighters are when they're not on your screen. It'll sound like they're right there in the turret with you.
Furthermore, a throwaway detail in Edge of Victory II: Rebirth seems to similarly indicate that, in-universe, there is no sound in space:
- The three crept through the darkness behind the Yuuzhan Vong repair party. In the vacuum, their feet made no sound at all.
Sound is commonly found in science fiction portrayals of space.
[edit] Ship maneuvers
In space, there is no friction, which means that it is possible to "coast" indefinitely in a straight line. This would theoretically enable starship pilots (particularly of maneuverable craft like the Millennium Falcon) to accelerate to high speed, cut the engine, turn around using maneuvering jets, and open fire on the enemy even while fleeing from them, taking advantage of the fact that they will maintain their high speed even while moving backwards. However, this does not seem to be a widely-used tactic in-universe, while tactics more similar to conventional fighter-jet or naval tactics (except without the concept of "up" or "down" due to the absence of significant gravity) are more often seen.
Some of this may be explained by the theory of an "etheric rudder", first introduced in Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, who no doubt saw the same incongruity with conventional physics. Presumably, the device creates a slight amount of drag, and functions in a manner similar to the familiar ship's rudder.
[edit] Technology
Individual technology is discussed in separate articles:
[edit] Technology
- Weapons
- Droids
- Holography
- Inertial compensators
- Shields
- Tractor beam
- Ion drive
- Cloaking
- Communications
- Power supply
- Repulsorlifts
- Hypermatter
[edit] External links, resources, references
- ↑ Tatooine: A planet with twin stars Retrieved 16 July 2006.
- ↑ Star Wars Technical Commentaries, at [1]. Retrieved 16 July 2006.
- ↑ Star Wars Technical Commentaries, at [2]. Retrieved 16 July 2006.
