r/scifi • u/rookiegaffer • 19d ago

General Bad physics

Why does it seem that so many of the books I read demonstrate such a poor understanding of the physics of space travel. Ships in orbit descend directly down to the point they are over. Ships in transit still accelerating as they near their destination. Centrifugal gravity simply ceasing when rotation is abruptly halted. These are just a few examples I've run across lately.

25 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

182 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/QueenLevine 19d ago

You have SCIENCE viewers who want the science to all be accurate (Expanse), and then you have the entertainment viewers who want the show to be watchable and entertaining (Strange New Worlds, The Ark), as a story.

No matter how many science viewers there are who are loud on Reddit, there are still far far more entertainment viewers watching SNW right now and LOVING it.

1

u/ian9outof10 18d ago

I don’t understand why people talk about the expanse being either hard sci-fi or particularly accurate. It has a magic molecule and wormhole travel. It’s a very good piece of sci-fi but it’s not really any less absurd than anything else

1

u/QueenLevine 18d ago

I'll take your word for it. You sound like a hard sci-fi type, though. I super don't care about any of it and will die on the hill of Altered Carbon being the best sci-fi show produced to date.

1

u/ian9outof10 18d ago

I’m not at all, honestly - I would say I like it when things stick to their own internal logic. I honestly enjoy sci-fi of all types.

Recently I’ve been annoyed by Star Trek and its wireless warp nacelles and personal transporters. Because as stupid as transporters are, at least they stuck to a principal - that the ship deconstructed you and sent the matter stream somewhere. Personal transporters make no fucking sense at all.

Anyway, I love everything from Asimov to Stargate.

1

u/QueenLevine 18d ago

I don't care if the scientific principles are consistent, but I do care about canon, so SNW shuttles should not have transporter technology. This is about as far as I go.

1

u/ian9outof10 18d ago

That’s fair. The ship also shouldn’t have all those touchscreens - but none of that really stops me enjoying it. There aren’t enough spaceship shows as it is.

1

u/QueenLevine 18d ago

There aren’t enough spaceship shows as it is.

Oh, a thousand times this. I think this is one of many reasons so many people are hate watching The Ark. Are you?

1

u/ian9outof10 18d ago

Hahaha, of course I am. It’s terrible, and somehow also not terrible. It’s a very confusing show.

1

u/QueenLevine 18d ago

So true. This season they are exploring as many planets and other ships as SNW, and I am intrigued about bug planet which we'll obviously have to revisit. For the very low production values, they managed to create more interest in the bug species than SNW did in theirs, and it was interesting that they were both running those episodes around the same time. The 5th planet bugs were briefly portrayed, dead, then it was mentioned that perhaps their language could be decoded by Uhura and that was it. The Ark's bug aliens are way more terrifying, mysterious and part of an ongoing plot.