Highest content of real physics Stargate/Star trek/Star wars

[Fizica7]

People, and lots of documentaries, keep going on about how Star trek predicted this and that... Then Star wars is again supplied by a huge never ending bandwagon of fans without any real reason... Saber made of light that stops mid air, really?
What about Stargate SG1? I think it's very underrated and truly overlooked and I think it's actually got the most amount of real physics of these 3 shows. Don't you think it trumps the other two for actual real math and physics content?

 

[jedishrfu]

I like SG but I don't think it has the most physics. I think Star Trek is the winner there. For invention ideas:
- diagnostic bed
- the tablet device the captain wrote on
- the desktop computer in his room with a siri-like voice
- flip-topcomunicator
- phaser
- tricorder
- the warp drive idea
...

From those inventions came:
- several diagnostic bed designs
- android and ipad device
- desktop computers
- flip-phones and smart phones with some features of the tricorder and siri
- lasers for phasers
- the alcubierre warp drive idea
...

To be fair while Star Trek had a flip-top communicator it didn't have a dialing mechanism instead you casked Uhura to patch you thru to someone (reminscent to the old ATT operators and their patch boards).

Some of the tricorder features are still beyond our reach but can be simulated via internet access. (some planets still lack access)

We have handheld lasers but not with the punch of a phaser.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31876/12-star-trek-gadgets-now-exist

and from these inventions you can see the physics and engineering ideas that were imagined into existence.

 

[Fizica7]

But at the time of writing Star trek, all those things had nothing to do with real physics at that point in time... While Stargate has a lot to do with real physics at the point in time of writing.

 

[jedishrfu]

But at the time of writing Star trek, all those things had nothing to do with real physics at that point in time... While Stargate has a lot to do with real physics at the point in time of writing.

I guess I don't see your point. Star Trek actually predicted some trends or at least made them known to future scientists and engineers who then actually created these wonders.

Star Gate on the other hand has the worm hole and occasionally a black hole that interferes with the wormhole. The alien tech is just that alien its not related to any known physics. Basically there's nothing in Star Gate that predicts something that we have now because of it and that's why I liked Star Trek as a kid. It was the dream of a utopian future where people traveled the stars and the problems of Earth were mostly solved with everyone looking to extend civilization to the galaxy with the attendant friction between races and worlds.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

The Stargate series tried hard to use "plausible-sounding" scientific ideas from the science fiction point of view. However, they completely broke my "suspension of disbelief" when they started using the "body-swap" communication device.

 

[collinsmark]

I have a movie set prop from the original Stargate (The original movie, not any of the series) hanging in my hallway/stairwell. Here's a photo:

 

[jedishrfu]

I have a movie set prop from the original Stargate (The original movie, not any of the series) hanging in my hallway/stairwell. Here's a photo:

View attachment 97027

Personally, I would have preferred the Star Gate itself.

 

[Drakkith]

However, they completely broke my "suspension of disbelief" when they started using the "body-swap" communication device.

What, the giant spinning ring that sends you hundreds or thousands of light-years was more believable?

Personally, I would have preferred the Star Gate itself.

Just leave room for the unstable vortex to form...

 

[jedishrfu]

Just leave room for the unstable vortex to form...

I feel it would add a watery ambiance to the room and provide for ample air conditioning too. I could tell my unwelcome guest s to go touch the simulated water and poof they're off to another party without a phone to dial home.

 

[James Holland]

People, and lots of documentaries, keep going on about how Star trek predicted this and that... Then Star wars is again supplied by a huge never ending bandwagon of fans without any real reason... Saber made of light that stops mid air, really?
What about Stargate SG1? I think it's very underrated and truly overlooked and I think it's actually got the most amount of real physics of these 3 shows. Don't you think it trumps the other two for actual real math and physics content?

light sabres do not actually have blades of light rather energy and the energy is kept short by a form of gravity-well that is designed to pull in only one direction (not sure whether or not that would work in real life either but still)

 

[jedishrfu]

light sabres do not actually have blades of light rather energy and the energy is kept short by a form of gravity-well that is designed to pull in only one direction (not sure whether or not that would work in real life either but still)

I've not heard of the gravity well idea which doesn't sound even remotely likely even in a fictional universe. I have heard of using a controlled plasma blade as a viable engineering solution provided we solve many technical issues like a compact power pack.

Wikipedia has some commentary on Light Saber physics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_and_Star_Wars

Lightsabers
Often, lightsabers are said to be composed of lasers.[24] However, using lasers raises several issues:[25]

• The necessity of something to reflect the end of the beam
• Having a compact and powerful enough power source
• Lasers do not clash when their beams cross
• Lasers are silent
• There are some materials that can withstand a lightsaber, some can even deactivate one upon contact[dubious – discuss]

Lightsabers have been generally explained as plasma kept in a force field, usually an electric or magnetic field.[28][29] ...

In the documentary "Can you build a real lightsaber?" physicist, futurist and science fiction enthusiast Dr. Michio Kaku discusses the basic functions and technicalities of lightsabers as well the possibilities and problems of creating them. Dr. Kaku explores the various power sources for lightsabers including lasers, crystals and plasma. Amongst the problems, Kaku points out that lightsaber blades if produced using modern technology, would not block each other when meeting together as seen in the films during lightsaber dual scenes, because light has no mass or substance like matter. Instead the blades would pass through one another as normal light beams do. Another discussed problem is how to hold the beams of light in place to produce a blade limited in size as opposed to the endless reaches of normal light if not obstructed by any hard surface or object. If part of a laser beam, the light will simply cut/burn/melt through just about any mass that blocks it.[30]

Kaku tries to resolve this problem by applying the relatively new practice of trapping light...

Another suggestion is that the extremely hot lightsaber beam could somehow be contained within a protected space using the same concept of modern laser cutters...[30]

There is still the problem of producing so much energy in such a small mass that a reliable power source would be needed such as a battery, but limited in size to fit the lightsaber handle. One possibility according to Kaku is a nanotube, while small in size could produce large scales of energy by the use of carbon atoms that can conduct electricity.[30]

Kaku's vision of a lightsaber is a beam of super hot plasma. The handle would be a plasma torch with the base of a dyetanium fan that would shoot about one hundred feet of cubic air per second into the hilt where it would be heated to twelve thousand degrees of plasma which would be kept intact by an electro-magnetic coil. A telescopic ceramic handle would exit the hilt and contain the plasma beam with the energy coming from nano batteries stored within the hilt. Kaku argues such an energy beam/blade would also clash with its own kind without the two being able to penetrate one another. At the end of his analysis and lightsaber design in (computerized) blueprint format, Dr. Kaku concludes that lightsabers are theoretically possible, but still require some scientific/technological advancement to function in the same or similar manner as the ones in the Star Wars universe. According to Kaku, it is only a matter of a few decades until the technology can be developed.[30]

...

 

[jackwhirl]

...about how Star trek predicted this and that...
What about Stargate SG1? [...] Don't you think it trumps the other two for actual real math and physics content?

You should try to separate the technological "predictions" from the math and physics. There's simply been a lot more time for people to invent ways to make the tech from ST real. (On top of it being longer running, with more technologies, considering the franchises as wholes.) I think in the near term SG will surpass ST for realized technologies: mostly because it was set in the present day (near past, now) and contains a lot of low hanging fruit like memory-shape metal and VR.

In SG, the episode where they meet Thor for the first time, there's a brief discussion regarding pi. That's the extent of my memory of real math from the series. I don't know how much real math was discussed in ST. There is plenty of imaginary math in both, and not the real kind of imaginary. As far as SW goes, for an astromech, R2D2 is really bad at calculating odds.

Physics is where I think SG outshines the others. Mostly because it tended to deal with real phenomena (i.e. nuclear reactions, gravity, supernovae, black holes), with a generous helping of artistic license, of course.

These are my thoughts. And now, at least for a little while, they have become yours.