Slide1: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith


Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith … and it’s bad physics!!!! Synopsis: Anakin and Obi-wan are sent to rescue Chancellor Palpatine Anakin becomes Palpatine’s bodyguard, and is slowly corrupted Palpatine reveals to Anakin he is the Sith lord, and Anakin follows him to save his wife, Padme. Anakin kills a lot of Jedi and Separatist leaders. Padme meets Anankin at Mustafar, where Obi-wan later cuts off his legs and left arm. Padme dies giving birth to Luke and Leia, while Anakin, now fully Darth Vader, is rehabilitated and receives his all black outfit and breathing device.


Dynamics: Dynamics The opening scene of the movie shows battle ships flying through debris that is lingering in place. Newton’s 1st Law states: An object in motion will remain in motion, at a constant velocity in a straight line, unless acted upon by an outside force. The debris that was blown off of something would not stay in one place. The junk would in fact continue off into space at the same velocity it was knocked off at.


Momentum Clip: Momentum Clip


Momentum: Momentum One scene in the movie features a destroyer ship pulling up to its target and firing upon it with huge cannons. Those cannons are shown having a huge recoil. According to the conservation of momentum, and Newton’s 3rd law, the ship must be also pushed back in the opposite direction the cannon is fired so that the net momentum is zero, as it was before the shot was fired. mivi = mfvf


Gravitation Clip: Gravitation Clip


Gravity & Circular Motion: Gravity & Circular Motion In the first battle scene the ship that Anakin, Obi-wan, and Chancellor Palpatine are on suddenly begins to fall towards the planet it is orbiting. For orbiting bodies Fg=Fc G(mplanet)(mbody)/R2=(mbody)v2/R For the ship to suddenly fall from its orbit it would have to lose a significant amount of its orbital velocity, and for such a large ship, this is nearly impossible to do.


Gravity & Circular Motion: Gravity & Circular Motion As the ship falls towards the planet, Anakin and Obi-wan fall over and have to hang on for dear life. If astronauts float in space because they are falling at the same rate as the ship towards the planet being orbited, why don’t Anakin and Obi-wan?


Slide10: … and I actually got people to fall for that! Is that his hand on my leg?!?


Heat Clip: Heat Clip


Thermodynamics: Thermodynamics At the end of the movie Obi-wan and Anakin fight while on the lava planet Mustafar. Lava is so hot that even Jedi Knights would burst into flames due to the extreme amount of heat being transferred. This is a good example of a conduction heat transfer. Q = mcΔT


Thermodynamics – a side note: Thermodynamics – a side note I am sure that everyone here has seen an asteroid burn up in the atmosphere as it falls to Earth. In Star Wars the ship that falls to the planet it is orbiting also burns up as it travels through the atmosphere. What causes this burning? While friction does cause energy to be produced in the form of heat, a lot of the heat generated comes from the compression of gas in front of the falling ship. As the pressure of the gas in front of the ship increases, so does the temperature of that gas. Pi/Ti = Pf/Tf


Sound/Light Clip: Sound/Light Clip


Sound: Sound Throughout the movie you hear ships flying by and lasers being shot. This cannot happen in space. Sound is a special form of a vibrational (longitudinal) wave. Waves need a medium to travel through. Space is a vacuum, so the “sound” cannot actually travel to your ear.


Light: Light One of the best part of Star Wars is watching things get shot with lasers – too bad you can’t witness this in real life! Can’t see lasers travel through space because space is a vacuum. We see laser shows (at a carnival, etc.) because the light from the laser is reflected and refracted off of things in the air (ie dust, moisture) nisinθi=nrsinθr Θi=θreflected


Modern Physics Clip: Modern Physics Clip


Modern Physics: Modern Physics The ships in Star Wars travel nonchalantly through the galaxy faster than the speed of light using hyperdrive. Einstein proved that traveling faster than light in a vacuum is impossible. 2nd postulate: The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant in every reference frame, regardless of the motion of the observer or the source of light. If an object traveled at the speed of light it would have infinite mass, which would be impossible. M = mo / (1-v2/c2) As v approaches c the denominator of the equation becomes ZERO, which implies that the relativistic mass then becomes infinite.


The Force?: The Force? Jedi Knights spend a lifetime learning and utilizing the mysterious force. Is this mysterious “force” actually legitimate? NO! There are 4 known forces in nature: Electromagnetic, Gravitational, Strong, and Weak. Jedi can’t be using the EM force because other human beings aren’t significantly affected by electrical or magnetic forces (not enough to be thrown across a room anyway). Gravity only significantly affects people when next to a huge object, like a planet, not a Jedi Knight. (Although scholars say that Jabba the Hut does have a significant gravitational pull). The nuclear strong force holds atomic nuclei together, and the weak force is responsible for nuclear decay.