Bad Physics in Star Wars

What scenes can you think of in Star Wars that violate known laws of physics? This doesn't count things like hyperdrive. Hyperdrive you just have to assume is based on principles of physics that we don't know about yet, so you have to just accept it for the story and you can't really criticize it based on present day physics. But there are scenes that clearly violate known physics. Of course you have the standard things like fiery explosions, sound in space, etc. Probably the most blatant example in ROTS is in the initial space battle when the big capital ship is damaged and starts to tilt over. What could possibly be providing the torque? Also, when it tilts you see the floor in the docking bay starts to tilt and R2-D2 slides into the junk pile. This is even sillier. Since they're out in space, the only gravity should be the artificial gravity from the ship, which should always be pointing down toward the floor no matter what direction the ship is pointing. And then you have the battle on the floating platforms over the lava on Mustafar. How are they controlling the platforms? It would make sense that if they got on two platforms which are next to each other, and they are both moving with the same velocity, they would be in the same relative position sand so stay near each other. But this isn't what happens. They circle around each other, clearly indicating that they're somehow controlling how the platforms are moving. Also, the platforms should float away from each other the first time they push on each other's lightsabers, just like how if you're on one of those floating things in a pool you can push off on someone else and you'll float away from each other. Finally, once one of them jumps off the platform onto the ground the other platform abruptly stops! How did it know to stop?

 

In regards to Grievous' ship, the gravity generators got desynchronized during the Republic ship's assault. It's a fairly simple explanation.

 

There is no logic. There is only the Force.

 

Also, another major source of bad physics: the Podraces.

First of all, are the cables that connect the pod the driver sits in to the engines rigid or not? I think they aren't because I recall that at the beginning of the race (when the cars were lined up on the starting line) they were slack. However if this were the case then whenever a podracer slowed down the pod would fly forward relative to the engines. Also, whenever you steered (I assume the steering is done through differential thrust because there is no evidence of any thrusters that are oriented in any direction other than forward/backward, but that doesn't matter for what i'm about to say) you would still be going in the same direction you were before, because unlike with a ground car, there's no friction with the ground, so you would basically slide off into oblivion unless you had another thruster oriented in a different direction to get rid of your excess velocity in the direction you were previously going. For example if I was going north and I turned right 90 degrees to face east, I would still be going north and would have to get rid of my velocity in the north direction. Also the turns they are making are ridiculously fast. I think the pods are supposed to go at about 700 mph (about 300 m/s) so a turn at 1 rad/sec (About 57 deg/sec, reasonable given what we saw) would be a 30-G turn (this is approximately the amount experienced during a NASCAR car crash, plus it's sideways, so they would need some kind of restraint in order to stop their neck from snapping). Another absurdity is that they're supposed to be going near the speed of sound in a completely open-cockpit vehicle, so probably even breathing would be hard with all that wind, plus all it would take is one pebble or something to hit them in the face and they could easily get seriously hurt.

 

The space fight scenes were modeled after WW2 dogfights in atmosphere. Spaceships don't do u-turns, it's a waste of delta-vee. Well, not unless they have some sort of inertialess drive...

 

-being able to walk on an asteroid with no space suit

-"gravity machines" on ships.

-corucant

-mustafar (you would die at that heat)

-lightsabers

-blasters

-most of the ships

-pod racers

-and stuff

 

I'm pretty sure telekenisis, telepathy (sp?) and "laser swords" are all bad physics.

 

this sounds like a convo to take to the basher's sancuary

 

There is no sound in Space.

But as Lucas said, he wanted it so there is in the Star Wars universe.

 

Its's a movie damnit! Does it really matter? Enjoy Star Wars for what it is!

 

It's real! It's all real! Star Wars is real!

 

It's Star Wars science. Watch the AotC Commentary about Dooku's sailship.

 

you people looks at it all too logiclly. it just is. dont question it, just beleive. anything is possible with the force.

 

It's more space fantasy than science fiction. This isn't Star Trek.

 

This is why Star Wars is fantasy, not Sci-Fi. It doesn't have to make sense.

 

We could have had Han, Leia and Chewie get into space suits before traveling outside the Falcon, but that would have taken too much time.


We could have had all the occupants of space ships float from one place to the next, but that would have been sort of cumbersome.

We could have had Coruscant be just a regular planet with only a city the size of NY, but that would have been less impressive.

Anakin could have died falling into a bar-b-que, but that wouldn't have flown too well.

We could have had all the Jedi using real steel swords instead, but that would have been boring.

We could have had all the troopers using real guns shooting bullets, but that too would have been boring.

We could have had rockets instead of sleek ships, but who would want that?

We could have had the Boonta Eve race be a running race, but that would have taken days.

Stuff is stuff.


All of the bad physics have a purpose in these movies: ENTERTAINMENT.

 

I agree with this

 

WHO CARES!!

It's a fracking movie for god's sake!!

 

Classified, your problem here is that you're looking at this from the standpoint of modern day science/technology. Why couldn't it one day be possible to create gravitons (if they exist) to create artificial gravity on a starship? How do you know that Anakin and Obi-Wan weren't using the Force to protect themselves from the lava? Why couldn't scientists create atmosphere on Coruscant? We have examples of that happening in the GFFA on Kessel. And regarding your ships comment, you don't need wings in space, because the lack of air makes aerodynamics meaningless. You need to open your mind and think outside of the bonds of modern science.

Warrior_of_Mandalore Strikes Again!

 

Just take a cursory glance at some literature for your answers. For example, engineers realized that the amount of carbon dioxide on Coruscant would be deadly (at least to oxygen-breathing species). Thus, atmospheric dampeners were placed in orbit to rid them of this problem.

 

So you have a lot of carbon dioxide.
Maby they have macheins that remove the carbon atom from the molecule,
creating a cheap fule source = carbon
and leaving you with either O2 = Ozone or 2 oxegan molecules.
I'm gonna invent a machein like that and be a millionaire.

 

Just invent a new pet rock. It'd be easier. And you'd probably make more.

 

Probably the most blatant example in ROTS is in the initial space battle when the big capital ship is damaged and starts to tilt over. What could possibly be providing the torque?

Most or all of the ships were doing battle within the upper limits of the atmosphere; wind resistance. This is also the reason the Buzz Droid falls off towards the back of Obi Wan's starfighter when it was killed.