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Putting Star Wars to the MythBusters Test
DangerTenor writes "The cast of the show MythBusters chat about their pasts with ILM, talk about some Star Wars myths (Can you avoid freezing to death in a blizzard overnight by gutting a dead animal like a tauntaun and getting into its carcass?) and why R2-D2 is the perfect sidekick." Not as cool as our interview, but pretty neat.
I kind of like this article on howstuffworks.com, on how light sabers work: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lightsaber5.h tm
This is the page on practical uses of the light saber around the home.
Can a weapon like a lightsaber actually exist?
Even the most uninformed fan knows that it's not just the light, but it's plasma being shaped into a cylindrical shape approximately 1 meter in length (according to the Episode III novel) that gives the lightsaber its power. (Yes, and the Force, but let me just talk about the saber for the moment...)
One of the problem has to do with the state of the plasma, often called the fourth state of matter. It is by no means solid, and yet the fact that the lightsaber has a distinct shape when activated and the fact that two lightsabers can clash in a duel mean that there is a solid-like boundary to the blade that is inviolable. On the contrary, often we see the blade cutting through other objects and body parts with frightening ease. (Just ask Count Dooku.)
Which brings me to another issue: The power required to confine the plasma in a blade-like configuration (be it magnetic or otherwise) may well exceed the power to generate the blade in the first place. It seems almost redundant for a weapon of this type to be built, as the builder can control and direct the flow of plasma with a device no more than 30 centimeters in length. As someone else said regarding construction of Dyson Spheres, "If you can build it, you don't need it."
I'm going to ruin it for you... In episode IV, the Storm Troopers set their blasters for stun and fill the room up with blaster energy (it was represented as concentric circles), and capture Princess Leia. Why on Earth wasn't this the default setting? Much is made in the movies about the Jedi's ability to block blaster fire with their light sabers, (and in Vader's case his hand). It seems like the obvious tactic against a Jedi is set for stun, knock the Jedi out, set for kill, kill the Jedi. No muss, no fuss. But they never do this...
My other sig is extremely clever...
Just an interesting point, Yoda's form of speech actually belongs to a class of languages termed OSV (Object Subject Verb) whereas English is VSO (Verb Subject Object).
m ar/grammar_VSO.htmrel=url2html-20202http://www.ake rbeltz.org/beagangaidhlig/gramar/grammar_VSO.htm> and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_order
In fact there are real human languages that have OSV order.
More info at ahref=http://www.akerbeltz.org/beagangaidhlig/gra
2000 Turbolasers and 2500 laser cannons isn't that much when you consider the size of the deathstar. A sphere with a diameter of 120km (according to Wikipedia) would have a surface area of over 45,000 sq.km. That leaves more than 10 sq. km. per weapon.
I guess that's why Darth Vader had to send out the TIE fighters...
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There are twelve known physical types of ice. Look at the phase diagram carefully. Even at 10,000 gigapascals there are forms of ice. Most of these types are denser than water. What we typically think of as "water ice" is specifically called Ice-1 (there are two subtypes, cubic and hexagonal). Ice-2 through Ice-10 are all denser than water, with Ice-10 being 2.5 times as dense. That's some heavy ice. Ice-11 is less dense than water, but Ice-12 is again denser.
Our observations of water here on earth are not really representative of all the forms of H2O in nature. On the contrary, a big part of the reason why life is able to exist on this planet is that we are almost exactly at the triple point of water. By the weak anthropic principle, we only observe those forms of water that are conducive to the existence of life.
What about ftl (faster-than-light) travel? I think they might want to ask about that.
Weeks of coding save hours of planning
No mention of the absolute Worst. Star Wars tech. Ever. I suppose midichlorians are so bad they needn't be dignified with a debunking.
I nearly walked out on Episode I because of them. Reducing The Force to a symbiotic critter in your bloodstream is just plain wrong. I don't know what kind of crack Lucas was smoking when he came up with that concept. But I suspect it would do permanent brain damage, hence the quality of the Prequel Trilogy.
Lack of exposure to this substance would explain why Genndy Tartakovsky actually did a good job on the Clone Wars shorts.
Midichlorians. I hate those guys.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
...Dig a cave in a snowbank, pack the snow down nice and hard, wrap up in as many blankets as you can, and light candles. The temperature will get up around 40 or 50 and you'll be ok. It's an old trick, but a good trick -- snow is an excellent insulator.
:)
An alternate technique, if the snow is deep enough, is to dig a circular pit around a tree, down to the base of the tree, and tie a tarp around the top of the hole to keep the wind out. The snowbank trick is better, though, especially because you can pile up your own snowbank, pack it, and tunnel into it.