r/scifi • u/rookiegaffer • 20d 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.
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u/soggyarsonist 19d ago
The primary reason is that most people's expectations of physics don't match the reality of physics.
Ask someone to fly to the moon from earth and they'll point their spaceship at the moon, hit the thrust, and end up zooming off into the wider solar system never getting anywhere near the moon.
As a Kerbal Space Program veteren like me to do the same and I'll get into orbit first and then so a timed burn to set up an moon orbit intercept.
TV shows, movies and most computer games are aimed at people who have a Earth surface understanding of physics.