this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
336 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

243 readers
95 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/1104168

top 32 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 89 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Isn't the emperor's tower and all the surface guns oriented toward the second option?

Seems like it's a little of both

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 months ago

That's only at the top of the death star.

[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 59 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

I know we'd all like some scientific actualisation of Star Wars but I mean:

  • They made noise in space 'cause that's fun.
  • There was always gravity on pretty much any ship.
  • I don't really recall any spacewalks so we don't see any instance of 'no gravity'
  • There's hyperspace since lightyears is a bit of a long time.
  • Stormtroopers seem very scientifically and inefficiently accurate

At this point I think the Star Wars movies (the oldies) pretty much ignored a fair bit of the science.

But if it was a death star literally put there in our universe, I think there would be a bit of structural considerations for gravity, but not huge due to it being quite hollow. Gravity is pretty strong when the sphere is entirely comprised of dense rock and no air. A mostly hollow sphere of air where air is something close to 1/1000 that of rock (yes, used the density of water lol) is not going to get much of a rollicking from gravity.

Edit: an interesting 'expose' on the moon landings claim one thing: why were the photos so relatively boring? Because they were real and that's all they could get for all the limited resources they had at the time.

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Lightyears measure distance, not time.

[–] DarkenLM@kbin.earth 13 points 7 months ago

Quantum Physics joined the chat

When time is measured in meters you know you're in for one hell of a ride.

[–] Gestrid@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And parsecs measure distance, not time, and yet here we are.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] Cube6392 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I hate that retcon. Let Han Solo be a sleazy piece of shit conman. Stop trying to make his lies real via retains. Don't make him shoot in retaliation. In the original edit he has an arc. He goes from sleazy piece of shit to respected rebellion leader. Almost like he was a metaphor for how a lot of insurgents have backgrounds as pieces of shit. Now the cannon has him as a squeaky clean guy always doing the right thing even when sometimes he doesn't realize he's doing the right thing

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

How do you feel about Jar-Jar being a Dark Lord of the Sith?

Or midichlorians being attracted to the Force rather than being the source of it?

Do you have other retcons you don't like?

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago

okay guy-on-the-way-to-Brock

[–] Gestrid@lemmy.ca 8 points 7 months ago

There's plenty of spacewalks in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. They don't have gravity there and instead have to use thrusters or magnetized boots.

[–] Sordid 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I don’t really recall any spacewalks so we don’t see any instance of ‘no gravity’

Leia did one in the sequels.

[–] Admetus@sopuli.xyz 9 points 7 months ago

I don't deny the star wars universe is getting a bit more of an update in the cinemas, especially post-Interstellar and whatnot, but space opera in the 80s was really intent on ignoring the stark reality of space for both constraints of filming and viewership. Goddamn fun though.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 5 points 7 months ago

Spacewalks are a bad example anyway. A ship's artificial gravity could extend outside its hull. Conversely, the lack of spacewalks doesn't mean we aren't shown the absence of gravity, since we see the ships themselves maneuvering in a way that suggests a lack of gravity.

Gravity in SW is still kind of fucked, but not "gravity in deep space" fucked.

[–] Redfox8@mander.xyz 3 points 7 months ago

Spoilsport! But like you say this is fiction, and entertainment, it is a fantasy world! :)

But yeah, the last one bugs me in soo many films and tv shows. They have super advanced AI robots tech, they can regrow a hand in a day, no more disease and live 257, transport living moving organisations across great distances, have developed telepaths and telekinetics, and can fold space-time, but are fucked if they can shoot straighter than a drunk badger with one 'arm', balancing on a log going down a rapids!

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

I think the animated shows had a few more space realistic moments like space walk repairs and such.

Best battle scene in the whole series from clever tactics PoV IMO was Anakin deploying his artillery into a planetary ring system and then using his capital ship to bait Greivous into a pin between the ring mounted tanks and the capital ship.

Best battle overall is obviously the siege of Mandalore just for the absolute knockdown drag out chaos in the middle of a domed city megastructure that's probably meant to be a seed for an eventual ecumenopolis.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

These guys are supposedly in a vacuum outside the first DS:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Zero-G_assault_stormtrooper?file=A_New_Hope-_Joe_Johnston_as_Spacetrooper.jpg

There's a whole Legends thing for Spacetroopers. New canon is pretty much just the guys above.

[–] Kalkaline@leminal.space 29 points 7 months ago

It's not gravity, it's the Force^TM^

[–] frezik@midwest.social 23 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Besides technical diagrams from supplementary stuff, the Falcon lands in a docking bay that's oriented towards the first option. There could be some kind of transition point to the second option, but we don't see it and it'd be really awkward.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 18 points 7 months ago

There's no way they used that much of the interior. Where do all those giants pits go?

[–] callyral@pawb.social 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

i don't know much about star wars, but wouldn't gravity be weaker near the centre as you'd have less mass below you and more above you

Assuming the mass is evenly distributed the mass above you doesn't contribute any additional gravitational force. The mass above you can be described as a hollow sphere. Inside such a sphere all gravitational components cancel out. So its just important that less mass is below you

[–] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 9 points 7 months ago

The first one because luke fell off the bottom.

[–] LordGimp@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago

The second one, but standing on the outside of the sphere. It rotates around the gun.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 7 months ago

Get your science out of my Star Wars

[–] BlackLaZoR@kbin.run 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I imagine they were shaping gravity anyway they wanted to.

[–] Malgas 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, faster-than-light travel is an older technology in Star Wars than agriculture is in the real world.

I'd expect a little thing like artificial gravity to be a solved problem.

[–] SSJMarx@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

If we take KOTOR into account, then pretty much everything that's possible to invent in the SW universe has been invented, and technology only changes when knowledge gets lost or rediscovered.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago

Left.

Look at the windows.

[–] Zozano@lemy.lol 3 points 7 months ago

Everything reminds me of her.

[–] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

to answer this question, ordinarily, i would just reach for the nearest sci-fi game and tell you how they implemented it, but the only game that comes to mind is Space Engineers and that game has both of these