When I was six years old and in Kindergarten, I was very interested in space. One of my favorite movies when I was in Kindergarten was Star Wars! The story of Star Wars is good and entertaining, but my favorite parts were the space ship battle scenes. All of the explosions, shooting, guns, and lasers were very cool to me. As I have gotten older, I now question if the space movie scenes that I loved as a kid were physically correct or physically incorrect. In my college physics class, I have been given an article called, “The Physics of Space Battles” to read and talk about in this very blog. I am going to form an argument for both cases, and whether space movies are physically correct or incorrect as to what is shown during a space movie. I will explain which side is more realistic compared to the other side by using my prior knowledge of energy and work, which I will explain what these two words mean in the following paragraph. Space movies are very cool and great to watch, but there may be some movements that don’t make physical sense, according to physics.
As you turn the page of your book, you use energy and do work. In space movies, like Star Wars, there is both energy and work present. Energy can be thought of as what is needed to produce work or more simply when you want to eat a hamburger you need to pick it up. The process of going to pick up your hamburger requires energy. Work requires this energy to perform a task/work. Work actually moves an object or performs a certain motion, such as actually placing your hamburger in your mouth to eat. The work of moving the hamburger requires energy from your arm and hand.
In a space movie, there are many places in which a movie of this type can be thought of as physically incorrect or just generally does not make a whole lot of sense. The article that I was given to read helped to bring the physical incorrectness of space movies to my attention. In space, there is no acting gravity. The main difference between Earth and the moon or any planet is a difference in gravity, which the Earth has. The space ships on Star Wars look really cool, but they are not realistic. In space, and enemy craft could come at you in any direction, this happens because of the difference in gravity in space verses here on Earth. What the movies should actually have would be battle space ships that look like a sphere or a ball. This would be the best shape because an enemy craft can attack from any angle due to no gravity, so it makes sense to be able to move in any direction to avoid the enemy. And a sphere or ball shaped ship makes the most sense. Also, the energy used would be decreased in a ball shaped ship because it would require only the same amount of energy to move no matter what direction. When the ship avoids the enemy, energy is used to perform work which is running away from the enemy. The other incorrect thing about space movies are the explosions in space ship battles. In space, a ship needs to keep all possible energy to keep travel and avoid enemies. This energy needs to be kept so work can be done when it is important to do work. All of the explosions in the space movies are not realistic because it would take a lot of energy away from the ships. From the article, I read that “Explosions are basically a waste of energy in space.” It would make more sense to have small flashes or lasers that would cause sight differences in the pilots of the other ships. The energy requirement would be much less, which would be important in surviving space travel. The last problem with space movies that I will talk about deals with protective shields or bubbles. It does not make sense to have these on ships because starting launch weight would be so heavy that a great amount of energy would be lost, that same energy needed to do important work in space, just like the hamburger example explained earlier. You would be able to pick up the burger but would not be able to put it to the mouth because all energy was lost in picking it up, the same thing applies to the launch of the ship if it had shields and unnecessary weight.
A space movie that shows something to be physically correct is one that takes gravity into consideration or in the case of space, no gravity. An example that I think of is when one views a movie where the astronauts in a space ship float around the cabin. It is as if they are almost flying or gliding from place to place. This makes complete physical sense because there is an absence of gravity in space. You are sitting in your chair or standing in place because of the gravity pulling one’s body to the Earth’s surface. This is why we fall and not float when we trip on something. It is accurate when a space movie shows the people in the movie floating in the ship because gravity is not a factor, not pulling the crew of the ship to any specific surface.
It is very clear that space movies are more physically incorrect than they are physically correct. Clearly, and based from the article that I read and talked about, I am able to say that the superior side of my argument is that space movies are, for the most part, physically incorrect. They are very cool and entertaining to watch and I am a huge fan of Star Wars. By using my understanding of work, energy, and space concepts I can say that a lot of it is for show and to entertain an audience.
Luke Wilson
11/11/10
