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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.
(Yeah, I am a Star Wars Geek.)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Does talking backward smarter make you sound? Hmmmmm?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Does the Deathstar run Linux?
Indeed, the pressure *would* be significant, and the water would either be in a solid or supercritical liquid phase - it'd be pretty unlikely that you'd find it possible to drive a submarine through it in either case, though, even if the submarine itself would be constructed to withstand the pressure and temperature at the core.
Of course, IANAP, though, so YMMV.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Practical jokes? I'm thinking the SW angle is an excuse to get Kari into a slave Leia outfit.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
because third grade english, pass I did not.
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.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Contrary to what you've just seen, war is neither glamorous nor fun. There are no winners, only losers. There are no good wars, with the following exceptions: The American Revolution, World War II, and the Star Wars Trilogy. If you'd like to learn more about war, there's lots of books in your local library, many of them with cool, gory pictures." -- Bart Simpson
Developers: We can use your help.
Huh? Jamie Pierre just broke the skiing cliff-drop record with a 245-footer in Grand Targhee. I haven't seen the video yet, but supposedly he didn't even land it cleanly. (The New Zealander who previously held the record hit a 225-footer into slush, landing on his back with a backpack full of foam.)
C'mon, a 50-footer won't even get you into a movie nowadays unless you throw at least a 720...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
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."
The tauntaun was already dead.
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...
assuming you can use The Force.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Water Phase Diagram
Note regions VIII-XI. With enough pressure yes, water will solidify. HOWEVER there is a temperature point at which the water will no longer solidify (not shown on this scale although you can see the "liquid dome" is increasing as temperature increases. Eventually if you go far enough to the right there is a point where only vapor exists, regardless of pressure.
So while GP is correct that pressure will solidify water there is also extreme temperature that will counteract the pressure. One must wonder why water cores don't exist in real life...
(Personally I suspect some post-Imperial propagandist doctored the data).
My dad was in the paratroopers (I was born at Ft Campbell). On one jump, one of his fellow paratrooper's chute didn't open, and neither did the reserve.
Dad says the fellow fell 2000 feet (divide by three for meters), landed in a muddy, plowed field, and didn't break a single bone! He was in the hospital for his bruises for only 2 days (this was in 1951).
OTOH my Grandfather worked for Purina, and went four floors down an elevator shaft onto a concrete bottom (roughly fifty feet) in 1959. He lived, but he would have beeen better off if he'd died; he was a complete cripple and severely brain damaged, but he lived. But he didn't land in snow or a plowed, muddy field.
So yes, it's completely plausable to not only fall fifty feet into a snowdrift, but to get up and ride that funny looking horse.
-mcgrew
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...
Help find a cure for cancer. Join the [H]orde
I find your lack of faith disturbing...
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
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.
Can mobs of various primitive, semi-sentient beings repeatedly defeat large imperial armies (presumably with state of the art training and equipment), by throwing random objects at them?
Can ships exploding in space not only make a lot of noise, but also not annihilate other ships in close proximity?
Can you really cover the same distance in varying numbers of parallax seconds?
Can all religion be explained with symbiotic micro-organisms?
sic transit gloria mundi
Do ANY of the myths they debunk involve Kari wearing that bronze bikini princess leia wore in Ep 6? If not then I really don't see the point in any further discussion.
And if any of the discussion DOES involve that bikini for GOD sake please take pictures!
Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
BORING! Why don't we do the first round of tests MY way:
HYPOTHETICAL SATIRICAL SITUATION:
Lab Technician: "Hello, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, are you ready to participate in the test?"
Bush: "I dunno. Guess so."
Cheney: "Get on with it!"
Lab Tech: Yessss.... Allllrighty, then. Here are your implements, gentlemen..." (Hands each of the men a plastic serrated butterknife and a spork).
Bush: "What're these for? Is it lunchtime? I like lunchtime."
Lab Tech: "NOT exactly, although it COULD be. It depends. We'll see how it goes. Ok, gentlemen, in your hands are a plastic picnic knife and spork. Once I leave the room, we'll dial the temperature down to around 50 below, and you'll use your implements to cut open and prepare a large, hairy animal to use as an emergency sleeping bag. We'll open the doors in the morning. Good luck!" (dashes out of the room and slams a door).
Cheney: "Hey, FUCK YOU! What the hell's going on around here? This was supposed to be a meeting with lobbyists!"
Bush: "I'm ascared, Mr. Cheney. Somethin's not right around here..."
Cheney: "Oh, for God's sake, grow a spine already. HEY! LAB NERD! WHAT ARE YOU UP TO UP THERE??"
Lab Tech (in a glass enclosed observation deck): "Ah! You noticed me! Well, I'm preparing your sleeping bag."
Cheney: "What the hell are you babbling about?"
Lab Tech: "Look to your left, gentlemen, I'd like you to meet Mama Jones. She's a 1,000 pound polar bear who has been chased out of her environment by your energy policy. She hasn't been fed in several weeks and we've put her cubs in a room a few hundred yards from here. We took the liberty of spraying you with some of their scent, just to make things more interesting."
Bush: "Wait; you what?"
Cheney: "Bullshit! This is nuts. Open the door or I'm going to rip your nuts off and feed them to you!"
Lab Tech: "That's the spirit! Well, good luck, gentlemen. Ah, here's Mama Jones now."
Mama Jones: "ROOOOOAOR!"
Lab Tech (to fellow grad students): "Ok, I've got twenty to one that Cheney shoves Bush at the bear within the first five minutes, do i have any takers? Yes! Apu, for fifty! I can cover that...
I always wondered why Luke didn't just stick his light sabre in the snow to create a nice, toasty light sabre Jacuzzi.
No Inflation Taxation without Representation
Things to know about Chuck Norris: 1. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. 2. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits. 3. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs. 4. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain. 5. Chuck Norris defines love as the reluctance to murder. If you're still alive, it's because Chuck Norris loves you. 6. Chuck Norris isn't hung like a horse. Horses are hung like Chuck Norris. 7. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death. 8. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. 9. There are no disabled people. Only people who have met Chuck Norris. 10. Chuck Norris can win a game of Monopoly without owning any property. 11. There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Thank you