Here we have a triple explanation of three related concepts: The Conservation of Energy, how Waves make the conservation work, and what this has to do (or not) with the frequent sci fi blooper of Sound in Space. All three principles are described with bluescreening, homemade CGI, and pop culture clips you’re sure to recognize. I found out early in making this that the surest way to guarantee your movie is over 8 minutes in length is to swear on the first day that it wont be a second over 3. My last movie was a little on the long side, so I wanted to take it easy and just crank out a few SHORT “Physics in 90 seconds” or something, but the movie ALWAYS has its own ideas (I’ve really known about this phenomenon ever since “Legacy of the Spellmaster” 5 years ago, which also was never intended to be a hair over 3 minutes, and you can go see how that turned out). The situation really is that all these movies are the descendants of original lessons back in my days as a Physics teacher. I am using the original textbook and even the original video clips from a class ten years ago or more (which explains my insistence on using SPACE: Above and Beyond, a show which hasnt seen the light of day in a decade, but was the heart and soul of my original presentation). The clips from Jurassic Park and Battlestar are exactly what I used then, and I guess I’m trying to document everything for posterity. At this point I really have only a few of those “mega” lessons left, one of which involves …
Post Author
well, you can make that argument for any sci-fi space battle, that they’re only hearing what people are hearing inside ships.
Wonderful video series but I must disagree with you on the sounds of a space battle. You must consider that you are surrounded by equipment that is designed to make sounds. When an enemy weapon charges and discharges, there would be electromagnetic noise picked up by anything with a speaker. It would be like the charging of a flash on a camera then a pop like lightning on a radio. The energy levels involved and the exposed device for discharging it would be beyond any effective shielding.
That’s true even more for us the audience. Since WE the audience of any space battle aren’t really PART of the universe we’re watching, we’re watching and hearing everything that occurs, that includes every single sound that happens. There are time when we hear nothing but that’s how some shows puts us in the shows of the characters and what they hear or dont hear
Well that would be a bunch of electric buzzes and pops but hardly the musical symphony we’ve been told to expect. And that would only work with ionized weapons. Stuff that doesnt use an electric charge, like lasers or kinetic energy mass, wouldnt make any sound even over electronics.
Lazes and mass drivers require massive energy transfers when charging to fire. This causes electromagnetic interference. The disintegration of matter and the shorting of the ships systems would sound like a spark gap transmitter at least for a moment.
Just try listening to a radio near a welder or any industrial equipment that uses large amounts of power. Imagine this many times worse.
I agree that it sounds nothing like the way it is normally portrayed but it would be very far from silent.
all reply’s on here are really long. lol
well, the future will not get here unless we research it. We cannot research it unless it is a core priority to do so by having a high density per capita of creative potential. The more knowledge you load a person down with the less their potential is in a highly specific area. So you must educate them to where that potential is desired. Right now we have a medical/energy/infrastructure crisises but we are training millions to work at mcdonalds while only a handful are going to do real things.
Well I’ve worked in fast food for a while, so I can say its hardly a black hole of no return.
Nothing is free is this world, nor should it be. The people with the most creative power usually also have the most ambition, and therefore rise to the top. Its worked well enough so far.
I used to work 2 jobs. One in a warehouse and the other at a fedex ground hub. Tried to enlist, had an asvab score of 95. Was going to go to be a welder but the recruiter talked me into secf (sub electronics computer field) and I had to be honest when I got there hoping for an exception. They sent me home and Im stuck in a packing plant until they open my field up to me. Nuclear technology with a specialization in nucleo-synthesis. Basically designing and producing new isotopes is what I wanted.
you are a good teahcer. most of what you have said i allredy knew, but, you lectures helpt me sement my knlolage.
now if you could do a few leqtuers on spelling…..
chemical to light to electrisity
wrong
chemical to ELECTRIC to light to electric
Thats technically right, but I left out the first electric as it occurs inside the flashlight where we cant see it, therefore no fun.
lol space crickets
Well there is still presumably air inside of your cockpit or starship. I assume you would still hear weapons hitting your ship as well as some amount of engine noise from vibrations through the hull.
You could “hear” anything that was connected to you by matter. The engines, or anything that physically hit your hull for example, yes. Most of the sound complaint is about hearing an explosion thats across a void of space with nothing inbetween but cold nothing.
Could be hearing radio waves emitted as a by product. kind of like the radio waves emitted by planets & stars.
It would be nice if I could “hear” any of your videos…
On hearing engines; astronauts on the shuttle can hear the thrusters fire. Comes from the initial moment of ignition. I suppose it varies, but they report the sound as being like a cannon going off.
SO I would hear Crickets in space! lol. Awesome vid
You can have as much noise as you want in your air-filled ship. And it isn’t unreasonable that sometimes the POV might be outside the ship, looking at a weapon, and you hear the captain shout, “FIRE!” Just like you might see a car driving down a road while you hear, “Mommy, are we THERE yet?!” Nobody thinks that you would actually hear the kid if you were standing along the road.
But explosions and stuff… I’d actually like them to be silent. Not just because it’s more accurate, but because it’s sort of creepy. Just like it should be. Because it points up just how weird and alien the space environment is.
help me i want to know what we would need in specifics to a spaceship eg anti gravity (not necasary as its not possible yet) artificial gravity, a power core (mostly nucular & solar power) decent practise on life support, pressure, metals for extreme heat or anti frost, make a vid on what is possable and what is not and how to go about ever acheiving this, if you must make movie reffs put some stargate or firefly in their too, and try a better quality vid cam pwease.
Well, in case of sound, the Babylon 5 staff asked someone from NASA, and he said that “technicaly” you CAN have sound. Technicaly means: if a ship explodes, the fire burns its atmosphere the crew was breathing. If another ship flies close enough or through the explosion, and the flames would pounding against the hull, its crew could hear the explosion as a roar or a thunder. If the explosion cant reach the other ship, they hear nothing. I saw that in a making-of of a B5-DVD.Dont know if its true
@Pfandfleisch
Its true. Sound just needs a physical connection to whats making the sound. On Earth air does that nicely, but in space the atoms of the exploding ship would in fact carry the vibrational waves that could be heard as sound. As long as you’re touching the explosion exactly.
this video would be much better if sound and picture quality wasn’t so crappy