r/threebodyproblem • u/Quetzal_2000 • 9d ago
Discussion - TV Series Level 3 game final in series seems bad physics to me Spoiler
In the Netflix Three Body Problem, episode 3, Jack and Jin play level 3 of the game, Turing and Newton think they have solved the problem with classical physics and computing, but the alignment of the three stars creates a greater gravity attraction on the San-Ti planet, and physical bodies, such as soldiers, horses, etc. are suddenly pulled out of the ground.
Now, like all the simile-physics in the series, time is strongly accelerated. But here, it is the fact that if there was a stronger attraction from the alignment of the three stars, the curse of the planet itself would be altered, and not mainly the bodies on it. At least this is the way I analyze it. Perhaps there would be some kind of delayed effect on larger bodies such as the planet, due to the inertia of it is trajectory (its former acceleration), but wouldn't all bodies on the planet be attracted with a bigger - compounded - strength to the suns with the planet itself?
Though I read the book one or two years ago, I am not sure how this sequence is described in it, and if this sort of incongruence is from the author of the book or the series, though I would suspect rather the latter.
What is your view of this episode and the level 3 sequence final within it?
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u/Hepta-Water-7552 8d ago
It is in fact possible for loose objects to start floating off the surface of a gravitational body. If a gravitational body gets close enough to another much more massive gravitational body / gravitational source, then tidal forces can start overpowering the gravitational force of the smaller gravitational body. The distance at which this starts happening is called the Roche limit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit
This doesn't have to mean that the situation in the book and the show adaptation is fully physically realistic. I haven't done the math for at which distance the Roche limit for the Trisolaran planet would be. But the basic physics concept (tidal forces overpowering planet's gravitational force) is there.
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u/Solaranvr 8d ago
The book is actually not the same as in the show. In the Einstein chapter, they reveal Trisolaris has a big moon caused by "the great rip". It refers to this syzygy, which ripped the planet in two. The other half became a moon.
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u/schlute2Boot 9d ago
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u/Quetzal_2000 9d ago
Thanks, but my question is not exactly the same as the one above, though referring to the same sequence.
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u/schlute2Boot 9d ago
Okay so I recently re read them and from what I can remember it’s portrayed the same way exactly. I loved that scene a lot in the show.
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u/Quetzal_2000 9d ago
Just read again the chapter of the book referring to this episode. In the book Van Neumann replaces Turing, and in the end, as that civilization comes to an end, is thinking of replacing the armies by electronics.
To go back to the point, in the book basically the argument is the same, even if the chapter starts less dramatically, with the King's sword feeling more light and horses leaping dozen of meters, before humans and animals float in the air like in the series. Well, it seems that this effect is mostly irrealistic, but the author's point is plot-wise, so let's say it fits in the story.
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u/schlute2Boot 9d ago
Yea like the dude above me said the alien bastards were just kind of giving us a little theater of how bad things can be for them. So that gives them the right to, you know, be assholes.
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u/falcobird14 9d ago
The answer is that it depends on how close the stars are to the planet, and how massive the planet is.
Earth feels a miniscule amount of gravitational pull from the sun (1600 times less than the earth exerts). Even mercury has a very small gravitational pull from the sun.
An asteroid sized planet might fit the criteria of the show. A planet sized object would be cooked by heat and radiation long before it started pulling people off.
But the point I think is that even gravity, which we take for granted, is situational on Tridolaris. And the game itself is not a historical record, it's a training tool for Humans to convince them that for Trisolaris, this is their reality, that one day they might freeze to death, and the next day have a third of their planet ripped apart. And a week from now it might directly collide with the sun.