NationStates Jolt Archive

A candy for SW fans.
Albert Einstein says that the Millennium Falcon kicks ass!

I'll explain.

In "the Empire strikes back", the Millennium Falcon travels between two different systems (Hoth and Bespin) without using the hyperdrive.

Meanwhile Luke goes in hyperdrive from Hoth to Dagobah, stay there with Yoda and is trained by him, then goes in hyperdrive to Bespin - this must have taken some time: let's say at the very least 1 year, but no more than 5 years. The "min 1 year" is because Vader later says Luke "Obi-Wan has trained you well" (or something like that, what the hell, it's Vader complimenting someone's training!), and the "max 5 years" is because Luke looks quite the same age when he departs Dagobah. I'll choose 1 year, so I'll minimise the tentavite evaluation of the Falcon's speed.

The Millennium Falcon is a small craft, and it departed Hoth in a hurry, while still under repair - that's why the hyperdrive isn't functioning. Let's say its food supply is able to support Han, Leia and Chewie for 30 days. Looks reasonable.

Now, let's assume that Hoth and Bespin are CLOSE. VERY close. EXTREMELY close. 1 lightyear. To give you a rule of thumb, the distance between the Sun and Proxima Centauri is about 4 lightyears. 1 lightyear is incredibilly close for two different systems, expecially in the Outer Rim of the SW galaxy. Anyway, let's assume just 1 lightyear.

Ok, now Albert Einstein kicks in.
Let's call S1 a inertial system placed on Dagobah, with t1 its local time (the time lived by Luke). Let x1 be the distance between Hoth and Bespin in this inertial system. v1 is the speed of the Falcon in the S1 system (we can assume it as "fixed", when compared to the Falcon's accelerations).
Let's call S2 the inertial system that moves with the Falcon. t2 is its local time.
c, of course, will be lightspeed in vacuum.
Uncle Albert's special relativity tells us that t2 = (t1 - x1 * v /(c ^2))/((1 - (v1 ^2)/(c ^2))^(1/2)) .
(I'll be using the international system, no Gauss or imperial units.)
Now we know that: t1=1 year=365*86400 s=3.1536*10^7 s . t2=1 month=30*86400 s=2.592*10^6 s
x1=1 lightyear=c*t1=9.45425*10^15 m . c=2.997925*10^8 m/s
By solving the above formula for v (I'm so old-fashioned that I used Derive), and by substituting our data, we find that the Falcon traveled at 2.95769*10^8 m/s (in respect to the Dagobah inertial system). That is, 0.98658 c . More than 98/100 of the lightspeed in vacuum!
Sorry for the ST ships: they're are credited by their own fans as max 0.75 c with their famed sublight impulse drives. I'd say that SW ion engines are quite faster .

And I've supposed just 1 lightyear between Hoth and Bespin... had I supposed, let's say, 20 lightyears (about two times the distance between the Sun and Sirius, that's not a lot), we'd have the Falcon going FTL on its sublight drives. WOW!


My, what a nerd I am.

errata corrige: in the equation and in the following sentences, i've written "v" instead of "v1" as I should have.

My, what a nerd I am.

QFT.

My, what a nerd I am.


and we thank you for it

Star Wars kicks ass, the Enterprise is no match for the Executor or the Devastator.

My, what a nerd I am.

Yay! Nerdage!

I printed out the text and it's now sitting next to my "My other transport is the Millenium Falcon" bumper sticker tacked to my cubicle. :D Brilliantly done!

Yes, I remember when I had my first beer... :rolleyes:

I seriously doubt that Einstein's equations entered into George Lucas' head at any point in time. Events in all six movies appear to happen with no time dilation at all (otherwise it might appear that Darth Vader had spent over an entire year waiting at Bespin, and that the Rebel fleet had remained at their emergency rendezvous point for the same amount of time). And besides, Bespin and Hoth could have been in the same star system.

And yes, you are a nerd.

surely if you go by the other assumption, that it took 5 years, then that number would be 5 times slower?

i'm not sure you've proved anything, other than working under big assumptions is a bit silly.



besides, ST is still better. ;)


edit:
plus, that...

I seriously doubt that Einstein's equations entered into George Lucas' head at any point in time. Events in all six movies appear to happen with no time dilation at all (otherwise it might appear that Darth Vader had spent over an entire year waiting at Bespin, and that the Rebel fleet had remained at their emergency rendezvous point for the same amount of time). And besides, Bespin and Hoth could have been in the same star system.

I seriously doubt that Einstein's equations entered into George Lucas' head at any point in time.
Of course. Who cares?

Events in all six movies appear to happen with no time dilation at all (otherwise it might appear that Darth Vader had spent over an entire year waiting at Bespin, and that the Rebel fleet had remained at their emergency rendezvous point for the same amount of time).
This would lead to the Falcon running FTL like crazy on its sublight drive, do you realise that?


And besides, Bespin and Hoth could have been in the same star system.

No. Hoth is a system. The ice planet is Hoth IV or something like that.
Bespin isn't in the same system, clearly (else, chances are that Bespin would have been called "Hoth III" oslt). Plus, Leia asks Han where's "Lando". This means, one of the chief rebel officers doesn't know WHO runs the tibanna gas operation (precious, my precious!) in the very same system where she and her fellow insurgents have hidden their "main secret base"? Extremely unlikely.

There are a few problems with this, the first being that velocity doesn't matter in space as there is nothing in space to slow you down. It's all about change in velocity. To achieve .98 c would require dumping an amount of fuel bigger than the Falcon. A lot bigger. And you'd never do it with an ion drive because while those POS can get good exhaust velocity they aren't so good with the delta V because the exhaust is so thin/sparse/whatever. They're efficient but low thrust.

The second thing you failed to account for is that time slows down for the crew of a ship as it accelerates. The faster you go the slower time moves for you and the faster it moves for those standing still...from you perspective. For the Falcon to get to another system 1 ly away using sublight engines would mean that it would take 1 year of travel at c but by the time they got there hundreds if not thousands of years would have passed. Luke would be dead, the crew of the Falcon would have died a month into transit except for Chewy who lasted another month by chewing on the others, and the rebellion would be over one way or the other. It is impossible to cover 1 ly in anything less than a year or travel at c and since you can't travel at c with sublight engines without just about infinite energy and cooking the universe in waste heat. To cover a ly's distance in 30 days requires some way of going faster than c.

Remember, if it takes light a year to travel the distance between two points it'll take even longer for something going even slightly slower. And everyone you know will be long dead by the time you get there.

This is what we call a plot-hole. They covered more ground/space than was physically possible. Lucas and SW have never been known for their scientific accuracy. ST may not be much better (ignoring waste heat, any starship is a kinetic super-weapon, etc.) but it occasionally tries (ST6 with detecting the cloaked enemy by its engine exhaust, etc.).

and we thank you for it

Star Wars kicks ass, the Enterprise is no match for the Executor or the Devastator.

The Sun Crusher 0wns every other ship!

If you haven't heard about it, you're not nerdy enough! :p

surely if you go by the other assumption, that it took 5 years, then that number would be 5 times slower?

No. It's relativity. v=x/t isn't true anymore. I gave you the equation for time contraction. Do the calculation assuming 5 years: v1 will be greater, because you'll be having a greater time contraction (1 month in the Falcon = 5 years on Dagobah).
Do your calculations before posting in a nerd thread...:D


i'm not sure you've proved anything, other than working under big assumptions is a bit silly.

You can't feel the Force of the Nerds...:p


besides, ST is still better. ;)

Oh yeah. They haven't even developed such ultra-hi-tech devices like SEAT BELTS and SURGE PROTECTORS.:rolleyes:

*automated message from forums.jolt.co.uk: NERD LEVEL ALERT*
;)

The Sun Crusher 0wns every other ship!

If you haven't heard about it, you're not nerdy enough! :p
I had the displeasure of actually reading that guys work. And it's not like the Federation doesn't have that technology. It was the central plot device of the 7th movie. And I say plot device because STARS ARE ANCIENT THINGS THAT CANNOT BE DESTROYED BY SOMETHING SO SMALL.

Of course. Who cares?


This would lead to the Falcon running FTL like crazy on its sublight drive, do you realise that?


What do you mean? If a year goes by for Luke (at rest on Dagobah), a year will also pass for Vader and the Rebels (who presumably avoid any time dilation through the magical hyperspace drive, and remain in the same intertial frame as Luke in all practicality).

No. Hoth is a system. The ice planet is Hoth IV or something like that.
Bespin isn't in the same system, clearly (else, chances are that Bespin would have been called "Hoth III" oslt). Plus, Leia asks Han where's "Lando". This means, one of the chief rebel officers doesn't know WHO runs the tibanna gas operation (precious, my precious!) in the very same system where she and her fellow insurgents have hidden their "main secret base"? Extremely unlikely.

Interestingly enough, you're right. The star wars wiki gives their locations in two different star systems, 1000 light-years apart. Damn.

Or, possibly, they fixed the damn hyperdrive :p

There are a few problems with this, the first being that velocity doesn't matter in space as there is nothing in space to slow you down. It's all about change in velocity. To achieve .98 c would require dumping an amount of fuel bigger than the Falcon. A lot bigger. And you'd never do it with an ion drive because while those POS can get good exhaust velocity they aren't so good with the delta V because the exhaust is so thin/sparse/whatever. They're efficient but low thrust.

The second thing you failed to account for is that time slows down for the crew of a ship as it accelerates. The faster you go the slower time moves for you and the faster it moves for those standing still...from you perspective. For the Falcon to get to another system 1 ly away using sublight engines would mean that it would take 1 year of travel at c but by the time they got there hundreds if not thousands of years would have passed. Luke would be dead, the crew of the Falcon would have died a month into transit except for Chewy who lasted another month by chewing on the others, and the rebellion would be over one way or the other. It is impossible to cover 1 ly in anything less than a year or travel at c and since you can't travel at c with sublight engines without just about infinite energy and cooking the universe in waste heat. To cover a ly's distance in 30 days requires some way of going faster than c.

Remember, if it takes light a year to travel the distance between two points it'll take even longer for something going even slightly slower. And everyone you know will be long dead by the time you get there.

This is what we call a plot-hole. They covered more ground/space than was physically possible. Lucas and SW have never been known for their scientific accuracy. ST may not be much better (ignoring waste heat, any starship is a kinetic super-weapon, etc.) but it occasionally tries (ST6 with detecting the cloaked enemy by its engine exhaust, etc.).


Condensed version:

Time dilation just kicked your ass Risottia. I won't touch the fuel thing because who knows what mysteriously ultra efficient and powerful engines the Falcon supposedly has.

the crew of the Falcon would have died a month into transit except for Chewy who lasted another month by chewing on the others

When I read that, I giggled. ;)

I had the displeasure of actually reading that guys work. And it's not like the Federation doesn't have that technology. It was the central plot device of the 7th movie. And I say plot device because STARS ARE ANCIENT THINGS THAT CANNOT BE DESTROYED BY SOMETHING SO SMALL.

Obviously you are forgetting the magical properties of trilithium.

Nerds and SW FTW!

ST :sniper:

EDIT:I like Mos Eisley special bantha pancakes :)

No. It's relativity. v=x/t isn't true anymore. I gave you the equation for time contraction. Do the calculation assuming 5 years: v1 will be greater, because you'll be having a greater time contraction (1 month in the Falcon = 5 years on Dagobah).
Do your calculations before posting in a nerd thread...:D

oh yeah. i suck at maths, but thougt i'd got the logic of the arguement... thought it might be that but went against initial idea :headbang:


Oh yeah. They haven't even developed such ultra-hi-tech devices like SEAT BELTS and SURGE PROTECTORS.:rolleyes:


pah.

Obviously you are forgetting the magical properties of trilithium.
What is that? A 3 lithium atom molecule? Lithium 6?

What is that? A 3 lithium atom molecule? Lithium 6?

Uhhh ... maybe ... and it blows up stars. For seriously.

What is that? A 3 lithium atom molecule? Lithium 6?

No, it's three Nirvana CD's taped together. When flung at something, anything, it makes it so depressed and pretentious that it implodes in upon itself.

There are a few problems with this, the first being that velocity doesn't matter in space as there is nothing in space to slow you down. It's all about change in velocity. To achieve .98 c would require dumping an amount of fuel bigger than the Falcon. A lot bigger. And you'd never do it with an ion drive because while those POS can get good exhaust velocity they aren't so good with the delta V because the exhaust is so thin/sparse/whatever. They're efficient but low thrust.

You're talking about the lousy terrestrial ion engines, buddy.


The second thing you failed to account for is that time slows down for the crew of a ship as it accelerates.
Man, the whole OP is about that. Do your calculations.


The faster you go... to cover a ly's distance in 30 days requires some way of going faster than c.

Show calculations, buddy. Twins paradox! Time flows faster on the Falcon than on Dagobah. 1 month in the Falcon, 1 year on Dagobah. Simple as special relativity.


Remember, if it takes light a year to travel the distance between two points it'll take even longer for something going even slightly slower. And everyone you know will be long dead by the time you get there.
No. In the system of a photon time stands still. That is, a photon travels a lightyear in NO TIME in its own system. And a ship travelling at 0.98 c travels 1 ly in 1 month. Spacetime contraction! I'm sorry, but you clearly fail to understand special relativity.

What do you mean? If a year goes by for Luke (at rest on Dagobah), a year will also pass for Vader and the Rebels (who presumably avoid any time dilation through the magical hyperspace drive, and remain in the same intertial frame as Luke in all practicality).

I really see no problem for the Empire to keep a fleet on Charlie alert for 1 year.


Interestingly enough, you're right. The star wars wiki gives their locations in two different star systems, 1000 light-years apart. Damn.

Years of nerdiness finally pay off!:)

What is that? A 3 lithium atom molecule? Lithium 6?

It is the upgraded version of dilithium.

Or, possibly, they fixed the damn hyperdrive :p

No

LANDO: What's wrong with the Falcon?
HAN: Hyperdrive.
LANDO: I'll get my people to work on it.
HAN: Good.

There are a few problems with this, the first being that velocity doesn't matter in space as there is nothing in space to slow you down.

Sure, apart some atoms, dark matter and such. It's space, not emptyness.

The Sun Crusher 0wns every other ship!

If you haven't heard about it, you're not nerdy enough! :p

Yeah it 0wns, but last I read its sitting in the middle of a sun.

Both fleets of ST and SW are equally inferior to the awesome might of the Zentradi* Armada.http://www.inetres.com/gp/anime/b5robo/fleet1big.jpg

*SDF Macross spelling.

No. In the system of a photon time stands still. That is, a photon travels a lightyear in NO TIME in its own system. And a ship travelling at 0.98 c travels 1 ly in 1 month. Spacetime contraction! I'm sorry, but you clearly fail to understand special relativity.

You can't travel more distance than light in the same time without breaking the speed of light. Closer you get to the speed of light the more time from your perspective slows down, time dilation. So while for you a bit more than a year would pass (at .98c) for the rest of the universe several years would pass.

Here's a spiffy calculator:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

The TARDIS is the quickest space ship, it travels at an infinite rate, considering it is capable of travelling through time as well as space. Stick that in our pipe and smoke it ST and SW, yeah beaten by a police phone box! :p

errata corrige: in the equation and in the following sentences, i've written "v" instead of "v1" as I should have.
+
tentavite

Those kinds of mistakes can't be tolerated, eh? ;)

And I've supposed just 1 lightyear between Hoth and Bespin... had I supposed, let's say, 20 lightyears (about two times the distance between the Sun and Sirius, that's not a lot), we'd have the Falcon going FTL on its sublight drives. WOW!


Falcon still wouldn't be going FTL. To make 20ly in 30 days shiptime just requires a much higher v/c than to do the same in 5 years. Now, to make 20ly in less than 20 years to a "rest-frame" observer...that requires FTL.

You can't travel more distance than light in the same time without breaking the speed of light. Closer you get to the speed of light the more time from your perspective slows down, time dilation. So while for you a bit more than a year would pass (at .98c) for the rest of the universe several years would pass.

For you only a month would pass while slightly more than a year passes for everyone else. The trick is that you can't be going faster than light...from an outside observer's perspective. From the ship's frame of reference, you aren't moving faster than light, the distance between you and your destination is just contracted a great deal.


And may I say I'm both thrilled and slightly disgusted to find that a significant number of NSers are both as knowledgeable about special relativity and as hopelessly nerdy (who applies difficult physics to Star Wars for fun? Other than me?) as I am.

And may I say I'm both thrilled and slightly disgusted to find that a significant number of NSers are both as knowledgeable about special relativity and as hopelessly nerdy (who applies difficult physics to Star Wars for fun? Other than me?) as I am.

People studying physics at the university? I know Risottia is...

You can't travel more distance than light in the same time without breaking the speed of light. Closer you get to the speed of light the more time from your perspective slows down, time dilation. So while for you a bit more than a year would pass (at .98c) for the rest of the universe several years would pass.

Here's a spiffy calculator:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

He did the calculations, read the OP carefully, please!
1 month Falcon time = 1 year Dagobath time.

What do you mean? If a year goes by for Luke (at rest on Dagobah), a year will also pass for Vader and the Rebels (who presumably avoid any time dilation through the magical hyperspace drive, and remain in the same intertial frame as Luke in all practicality).

So? Vader had Boba Fett (and other bounty hunters) tracking the Falcon. It makes sense that Fett (we see the Slave 1 following the Falcon in the movie) alerted Vader of the Falcon's destination as soon as he figured it out. This time lapse just gives the time for Vader to prepare his trap.

So? Vader had Boba Fett (and other bounty hunters) tracking the Falcon. It makes sense that Fett (we see the Slave 1 following the Falcon in the movie) alerted Vader of the Falcon's destination as soon as he figured it out. This time lapse just gives the time for Vader to prepare his trap.

Looks like Lucas knew about relativity, even without knowing... I'll be sending this thread to Lucasfilm...

*snip*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ecfuj2LFw

I don't care.

Nice math though. I do applaud you on that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ecfuj2LFw

I don't care.

Nice math though. I do applaud you on that.

Thank you for tickling my ego.:D

I'm an aerospace engineer and this thread is making my eyes bleed for a simple reason.

You can't travel more distance than light in the same time without breaking the speed of light.

Emphasis mine.

You CAN NOT exceed c using a relativistic Slower Than Light propulsive system because inertial mass goes to infinity, thus requiring infinite force to accelerate further. With these two star systems being a thousand light years apart, not one, from an external observer's viewpoint (say, someone on one of those planets) at least a thousand years has to pass between time of departure and time of arrival, no matter how much time passes aboard ship.

This is what has always bugged me about stupid Versus debates--they make absurd assumptions and choose numbers to fit, and then say OMG WE R TEH BETTAR based on them. For example, choosing that the Falcon has thirty days of consumables and that these stars are one light year apart, and from this time dilation determining OMG .98C BETTAR THAN .75C SW PWNS ST. This is assuming a constant speed by the equation, which means your maximum speed has to be higher, again taking the realistic assumption that the Millenium Falcon is a real object in real space and thus has to accelerate up to speed, then decelerate back to 'rest.'

Then we take the next wholly disingenuous step of saying that if the distance is greater, then the Falcon broke c on its STL drive despite this being absurdly and patently false by the very same theory used to determine this OMG SUPERIORITY. So, there are two possibilities here:

1) Lucas didn't know jack about relativity, threw some technobabble around (remember, Solo used "parsec" in context as a time period, no matter what apologists say), and made what is essentially Flash Gordon with names swapped around. This isn't a bad thing.

2) The Falcon is not using a relativistic drive system and thus relativity does not apply.

May as well be both. Yes, I'm a nerd, but thank the Fanged God that I grew out of that phase that the franchise with the bigger numbers has the bigger penis and is therefore better. They're fiction, and poorly thought out (scientifically) fiction at that, based on entirely different mindsets and artistic goals. One is Flash Gordon (that's "the epic struggle of Good versus Evil" for you SW apologists) and the other is Wagon Train in Spaaaace (that's "bringing the mid-American human utopia of Mom, apple pie, and no gosh-darned augmentation of the baseline to the stars and dealing with moral quandries that result" for you ST apologists). You can't use science to prove that one is better than the other due to simple Garbage In, Garbage Out; they have an internal scientific consistency a bit worse than The Bible. It makes about as much sense to say that Gandalf's staff is more powerful than Harry Potter's wand due to the yield of the pyrotechnic display when he got stuck in the tree, or vice versa due to the energy requirements of having to transmogrify a person into a cat and back.

Yeah, nice math. Too bad it doesn't apply in the least to anything whatsoever.

Rocket scientists pwning the thread, not fair. :rolleyes:

Hear that one, although.

*snip*

You know, I'm not exactly an expert at mathematics. I didn't even really bother to look over his formulas so much as I noticed lots of mathematical symbols and figured it was probably good math. Now that I actually am looking it over, I can puzzle out why it's idiotic and agree with you.

I take back my nice math comment. It's not nice math at all.

*SNIP*

You know I had a bunch of math worked up showing how much distance (to the meter) the falcon could of traveled in a month, but I figured it was a waste of time.

You know I had a bunch of math worked up showing how much distance (to the meter) the falcon could of traveled in a month, but I figured it was a waste of time.
Hmmm... well, using the constant velocity assumption of the time dilation equation just to be more painful, I would guess that would have to be...

0.98 light years, or 9.27131784E+15 meters according to Google calculator? So it's not down to the meter, but come on. ;)

Kyronea: The fallacy in the math comes from the assumed time and distance variables, and the lack of recognition that the relativistic time dilation equation is for a constant speed. With t1 being set as one month and t2 being set as a year, and the distance being one light year, these variables simply don't match up with each other and are out of the domain of 'correct' input for the equation. Any physics student should be able to look at the solution and point out, quite accurately, that 0.98c isn't going to get you one light year in a year. It will get you 98% there, but not all the way.

Kyronea: The fallacy in the math comes from the assumed time and distance variables, and the lack of recognition that the relativistic time dilation equation is for a constant speed. With t1 being set as one month and t2 being set as a year, and the distance being one light year, these variables simply don't match up with each other and are out of the domain of 'correct' input for the equation. Any physics student should be able to look at the solution and point out, quite accurately, that 0.98c isn't going to get you one light year in a year. It will get you 98% there, but not all the way.

Aye, aye. That much I understood. I can understand most of this math in any case...I'm simply not interested in higher mathematics as I personally find them distasteful and I see no practical application for personal self using such higher mathematics which is why I'm not an expert.

I'd make a comment about expecting such bad judgement from a Warsie, but that would not only be rude, it'd be going back to my Versus Debating habits and I'm grown out of them, or at least I'd like to think I have, anyway.

And may I say I'm both thrilled and slightly disgusted to find that a significant number of NSers are both as knowledgeable about special relativity and as hopelessly nerdy (who applies difficult physics to Star Wars for fun? Other than me?) as I am.
Of course they do, it's a vindication of sorts! :)
Oh, and :fluffle: on your thrill/disgust.

Aye, aye. That much I understood. I can understand most of this math in any case...I'm simply not interested in higher mathematics as I personally find them distasteful and I see no practical application for personal self using such higher mathematics which is why I'm not an expert.
Alas, I am an engineer. Practical application off the starboard bow.

I'd make a comment about expecting such bad judgement from a Warsie, but that would not only be rude, it'd be going back to my Versus Debating habits and I'm grown out of them, or at least I'd like to think I have, anyway.
You do and I'll tolchok you but good. Great. My hatred of Versus has stirred my blood so much I'm resorting to nadsat.

Oh, and I only hope Mentholyptus does it better (i.e. right) but the fact of the matter is that an equation only works so far as you know its limitations based on its assumptions. Grabbing an equation off of Wikipedia is not the equivalent of a higher education (something that Wong, as much as I absolutely despise his attitude and his abuse of science, actually got right).

You do and I'll tolchok you but good. Great. My hatred of Versus has stirred my blood so much I'm resorting to nadsat.

Yes sir Mr. Moderator sir.

I always wondered what happened to the guys that got beat up in high school. Awkward and uncoordinated, skinny band kids.

Then I saw them in college. Trying desperately to get laid with a new found weirdness that they would try to own. Dressing as different as they could and calling it their style. The only ass too follow was depressed chicks, or girls that were ugly and fat trying to pull of their "unique" style.

Then they showed up at some parties. They thought their new "style" would pass for cool. It didn't, they quickly made their way out.

I like Star Wars as much as the next guy. But there are several rules to follow to be happy in your private man world.

1. Don't talk Star Wars or Star Trek outside of private places.

2. It's not style and you're not fooling anyone other than people just like you.

3. Getting ass is not portraying confidence......it's actually having it.

4. Just because you learned how to play guitar and be "sensitive", will "NOT" get you a quality piece of ass. You'll get owned!

5. Lastly, attention to detail, dilligence, integrity, and building a real social you in college is VERY important. Don't be a sad lifeless geek.......or a drunk college fuck up!

Aaaaand this has what to do with anything?

1. Agreed. But this is the Internet. That's half what it's for.

2. And following a cookie-cutter trend is style? How about "I wear what I wear because it fits and is comfortable?"

3. Nice to see that the opposite gender only exists as "ass" to you. I really feel uncomfortable taking advice from someone who would objectivize so blatantly.

4. Maybe some people enjoy playing guitars. Perhaps others are sensitive because they think it's the right thing to be. Good show on indicating just which head you think with, lad.

5. While true, I love how this point seems to contradict the emphasis on the biological imperative as previous. You forgot one, buddy, and it's none too surprising: character. Generally having a character beyond "walking semen depositor" is seen as being a good thing.

Now stay on topic.

Alas, I am an engineer. Practical application off the starboard bow.

Grabbing an equation off of Wikipedia is not the equivalent of a higher education (something that Wong, as much as I absolutely despise his attitude and his abuse of science, actually got right).

Now, sorry for the thread necrophilia, but I'm taking this personally.

1.You're an engineer. I'm graduating as physicist (laurea magistrale, italian equivalent of a Masters/PhD). Guess who has more competence about special relativity.

2.Special relativity ALWAYS applies. Even in everyday world. Thus, the "relativistic STL drive" you wrote about is bs. Even a piston engine is a "relativistic" drive. The gamma factor (1/(v^2/c^2)^2) means that the effects of special relativity are too small to be appreciated at low speeds by ordinary clocks and rulers. But if you carry an atomic clock for a round-the-world trip on a Boeing 747 (that is, not even supersonic), you'll appreciate the time contraction. This experiment has already been done.

3.I do not grab equations out of wikipedia. I grab them out of:
"Special Relativity", by V.Ugarov, Mir Edition 1985 Moscow, italian edition
"Meccanica Razionale" (rational mechanics) lessons at the State University of Milan
Albert Einstein's original works, italian and english translations

4.If you cannot understand the intrinsic humour of such a thread, you are just proving what physicists usually throw at engineers: you have no sense of humour.

1. Then you should rather obviously notice that your answer is wrong in that you somehow managed to go one light year in one year whilst traveling at .98c. Given that you can only go one light year in one year at 1.0c in an outside reference frame (which was defined in your math as "1 year"), something is probably quite off here. There's no excuse for that sort of a mistake short of being sloppy.

2. I know relativity always applies, except in space opera, where it doesn't, because people who write space opera generally don't know much about it beyond the most limited basics. Thus, in terms of space opera and speaking about it as if it were real, one can have a "relativistic STL drive" (walking, rocketry, real stuff) and one can have a "non-relativistic STL drive" (something completely broken to the rules of reality as we know them). I already know about time contraction on atomic clocks on 747s. Give me a break.

3. And you still set up conditions outside of the domain of those equations, getting a patently false answer.

4. Ad hominem. My qualities are not in question here, and neither really are yours save your ability to check your work. After being apparently so proud of yourself for proving something clearly nonsensical, I don't think my pointing out your error (or your taking offense at it) has anything to do with my sense of humor. I could say something about hubris, but won't outside of this oblique reference.

Let's call S1 a inertial system placed on Dagobah, with t1 its local time (the time lived by Luke). Let x1 be the distance between Hoth and Bespin in this inertial system. v1 is the speed of the Falcon in the S1 system (we can assume it as "fixed", when compared to the Falcon's accelerations).
Let's call S2 the inertial system that moves with the Falcon. t2 is its local time.
c, of course, will be lightspeed in vacuum.
Uncle Albert's special relativity tells us that t2 = (t1 - x1 * v /(c ^2))/((1 - (v1 ^2)/(c ^2))^(1/2)) .
(I'll be using the international system, no Gauss or imperial units.)
Now we know that: t1=1 year=365*86400 s=3.1536*10^7 s . t2=1 month=30*86400 s=2.592*10^6 s
x1=1 lightyear=c*t1=9.45425*10^15 m . c=2.997925*10^8 m/s
By solving the above formula for v (I'm so old-fashioned that I used Derive), and by substituting our data, we find that the Falcon traveled at 2.95769*10^8 m/s (in respect to the Dagobah inertial system).
Before it changes. The instant t1 was set equal to a year and x1 was set equal to a light year, the domain was immediately broken because the only reasonable answer for v1 is 1 light year per year, or, simply, c.

That is, 0.98658 c . More than 98/100 of the lightspeed in vacuum!

And I've supposed just 1 lightyear between Hoth and Bespin... had I supposed, let's say, 20 lightyears (about two times the distance between the Sun and Sirius, that's not a lot), we'd have the Falcon going FTL on its sublight drives. WOW!
Unless of course, this doesn't really mean what it reads like. You did broach the idea of something going FTL on a sublight drive, which would inherently mean relativity doesn't apply to it... no?

fazers my ass

Star Trek is crap

i can't answer a single poll option :(. and it's multiple choice even!! and the OP confused me in the first 5 lines! :(

All the special relativity stuff aside, I fail to understand what could ever be achieved by trying to apply real world maths and science to science fiction.

You know, fiction, as in the opposite of fact.