19 September 2014

Star Wars and Physics

First of all, let me point out that I love Star Wars. I am old enough that the first three movies came out after I was born, so I grew up with the legacy of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and all the rest. Everyone has already talked about how Han Solo's line about making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs is inaccurate since a parsec is a distance and if the Kessel Run is less than 12 parsecs in distance, then big deal. But that is not what I want to talk about. I'm not going to talk about lightsabers or the force, since they are part of the mythos.

I want to talk about when ships are docking on the Death Star.

In almost every scene I've seen of the Millennium Falcon or the Imperial Shuttle landing in one of the cargo bays on the Death Star, I notice two things.

One, they never show a force field being deactivated, which is not that big a deal since a force field technically is invisible.

Two, when the Millenium Falcon or the Imperial Shuttle is coming in and landing, there are people in the cargo bay. This is important because if the force field is down, the cargo bay will have no atmosphere in it. Granted, the stormtroopers or whomever could have some sort of scuba gear or self-contained breathing in their armor, but when the Millennium Falcon leaves in Episode IV, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca run to the ship without any difficulty breathing. But they leave without deactivating a force field. So did the Millennium Falcon just fly through a force field? Is there something across the opening of the cargo bay that prevents the atmosphere from leaving but allows a ship to go through? That seems a little far-fetched, but again, it is science fiction.

So is there a force field across the opening of the cargo bay to hold in the atmosphere? If there isn't, how are the stormtroopers able to breathe and for that matter, our heroes when they are leaving? If there is, how is the Millennium Falcon or the Imperial Shuttle able to travel through the force field without a problem?

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