Inside Lightsaber!!
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Little Miss Sunshine + Star Wars poster mashup by Josh Lange
“Here’s a mashup poster I made of Star Wars Episode 7 and Little Miss Sunshine, two movies written by screenwriter Michael Arndt. When he was announced as the Episode 7 screenwriter, the poster idea popped into my head and it wouldn’t go away.”
Science Fiction Meets Science Fact: Reddit-Inspired Star Wars Physics Homework
Wired writer Rhet Allain gets into some serious scifi homework I recommend to both science and physics enthusiasts, and star wars fans. Here he offers up a list of objectives in the form of a homework assignment for you to get into a bit of physics (or lack of) through the Star Wars Universe:
I recently did a Reddit AMA on the Science of Star Wars. If you like, you can check some of the very interesting questions (along with my answers). Or even better, I will list some Reddit inspired questions in Star Wars that you can turn in for homework. The usual rule applies, if you wait too long to turn in the homework, I might answer them instead.
-Now for the questions from Reddit. You might want to take a peek at my answers on the AMA, but that won’t be good enough for a full homework answer.
-How hot is a light saber? (from roguepublichealth) I think you have to first figure out what a light saber actually is and why it glows.
-How much material would be needed to build the Death Star (from astanisic) You will obviously need some estimates here. If you want a second question, how long would it take to put this Death Star together. You can answer for both the first (Episode IV) and second (Episode VI) Death Stars – which are different sizes.
-How can you make artificial gravity in a spaceship (other than spinning) (from awhit13). I think this question might be accomplished with a literature review. Surely someone out there has come up with an explanation for how these spaceships could have artificial gravity in them. Oh, and if you just say “interial dampeners”, you will fail.
-What is more deadly, blasters or kinetic weapons (conventional bullets) (from JimmyDeLaRustles). I guess you need to first figure out what a blaster bolt actually is made of. My guess is that it is plasma. Next you need to say how something is deadly – is it the kinetic energy, the total energy, the momentum?
-Why doesn’t an AT-AT fall over when it walks? (from RagingLlamas) You might want to examine the Hoth battle scene from Episode V.
-How far in the past do the Star Wars movies take place? Clearly, there isn’t an exact answer. You can get a range of ages though. Also, how far away is this galaxy – a range is fine too.
-Where is the center of mass for a light saber that is thrown? (from BrooklynKnight) Check out the scene where Vader throws his light saber.
There you go. No cheating.
Oh, a bonus essay question: Compare and contrast the physics of Star Wars vs. the physics of Star Trek.
The art of the science fiction movie poster.
Darth Vader // artwork by Michael Stribling (2010)
Armored Terrain Vehicles - by Alex Prokhoda
Tatooine Moons by Ralph McQuarrie
Alien City Lights Could Signal E.T. Planets
Astronauts in orbit around the Earth often gaze down on a world lit at night by city lights. Now researchers suggest that scientists could detect alien civilizations from similarly bright lights.
Science fiction has long imagined entire planets covered with cities. Examples include galactic capitols such as Coruscant from the “Star Wars” films and Trantor from sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” books.
Assuming that aliens need light to see at night much as we do, theoretical astrophysicist Abraham Loeb at Harvard University and astronomer Edwin Turner at Princeton University reasoned that extraterrestrial civilizations would switch on city lights during the hours of darkness on their world.
“Both Ed and I were attending a conference in Abu Dhabi about novel ways to detect life, and we had a tour guide on a trip to the nearby emirate of Dubai who bragged that it was so bright at night that you could see it easily from space — that’s what gave us the idea,” Loeb told Astrobiology Magazine.
On Earth, artificial illumination comes in two forms — thermal, in the form of incandescent light bulbs, and quantum, in the form of fluorescent lights and LEDs. The spectra or combination of colors from this artificial lighting would likely differ from natural sources of light such as volcanoes, and thus might serve as a lamppost that signals the existence of extraterrestrial technology and intelligent life.
Decline of radio
This new tactic is similar to traditional SETI (search for extraterrestrial life) strategies that hunt for alien radio transmissions. However, given how radio emissions from Earth have declined dramatically in recent decades due to the use of cables, fiber optics and other advances in telecommunications technology, a switch to looking for extraterrestrial light pollution might not be such a far-fetched idea after all, the researchers suggested.
To see how feasible hunting for alien light beacons might be, first Loeb and Turner calculated how well it might work within our solar system. They began with an imaginary alien world in the Kuiper Belt, a region of our solar system beyond the planets that is likely home to a trillion or more comets and extends from 30 to 50 times the distance of Earth to the sun, or 30 to 50 astronomical units.
