.

[Woody]

.

[Rev. Austin]

Oh yeah!  Surely you could just go up or down, or even sideways?  I don't know haha maybe it depends on the spaceship thrusters or something?

[Geoff_N]

In a virtual vacuum spacecraft do not need to bank to turn. On the other hand a sudden horizontal U turn could make occupants feel unwell. Banking could be smoother for them and more familiar.

The other main gaff is noise. Viewers seem to need to hear the roar of engines and the whoosh of a passing spaceship when of course it would be silent.

[Woody]

mustn't have my stuff here, ed keeps it.

[leatherdykeuk]

The other main gaff is noise. Viewers seem to need to hear the roar of engines and the whoosh of a passing spaceship when of course it would be silent.

Most memorable scene I ever saw was a space battle viewed from the portal of Babylon 5. Completely silent but for the puffs of colour as the native gasses of ship's internal atmospheres escaped.

[Russell]

Banking or not I'd have thought that simply doing a U turn in orbit would be a bit tricky. Although I suppose with warp drive, artificial gravity and space ships with bars a simple U turn from orbit is well within the realms of possibility.

[Ed]

In a virtual vacuum spacecraft do not need to bank to turn. On the other hand a sudden horizontal U turn could make occupants feel unwell. Banking could be smoother for them and more familiar.

I wouldn't have thought so, unless they are experiencing gravity from a nearby planet at the time. Artificial gravity on the ship, since it's moving with the ship and its occupants, would remain constant, surely? It's the changes in direction of gravitational pull that makes us feel it.

I'd have thought the only limitation when maneuvering would be the direction of thrust coming from the main engine and the strength of the steering thrusters. The actual path of travel, banking and turning, I suppose would be in an attempt to present a particular side of the craft to the attacker -- either where the armour is at its thickest or maybe to help deploy a weapon. Most of these things do seem to be filmed with fighter planes in mind, though.

[Pharosian]

The law of gravity isn't the only one in question: you've also got the law of inertia, which states that a body in motion will tend to stay in motion (in the same direction) unless acted on by another force. Presumably, the artificial gravity is providing a uniform force perpendicular to the floor(s). A U-turn in a horizontal plane at high speed is going to result in the passengers being thrown against the walls--permanently. The banking action would tend to keep this from happening.

I suppose if the artificial gravity were able to change its locus in response to the change in direction this might not be required... but then during the turn people would experience gravity not only in the "downward" direction, but also sideways.

[Ed]

Actually, now I come to think about it, you're probably right, Pharo. Attempts to simulate gravity are usually done using centrifugal force, which is all to do with inertia, isn't it. Although, as Russel suggests, there's a fair degree of license provided by those who have gone before us in fiction, so pretty much anything is 'possible'. Only the real science buffs are going to balk at most of it.

I think it is best to stick with true science, if it's possible to do without ruining the story. For instance, jumping into warp drive is likely to leave Kirk at al plastered all over the back wall of the bridge in reality, but would make the first episode the last, but as LD says, the silent space battle has a certain kudos to it.

[LashSlash]

In a virtual vacuum spacecraft do not need to bank to turn. On the other hand a sudden horizontal U turn could make occupants feel unwell. Banking could be smoother for them and more familiar.

The other main gaff is noise. Viewers seem to need to hear the roar of engines and the whoosh of a passing spaceship when of course it would be silent.

why is it that sound waves dont go through space whereas light-radio-heat-waves etc do?

[Geoff_N]

Sound needs a medium to transmit its waves through eg air, water, wood etc.

Light is part of the EMS (Electromagnetic spectrum) and like ordinary magnetism travels through a vacuum.

Strictly speaking, space isn't a true vacuum in that there is cosmic dust between planets and galaxies. Cosmic dust is made up of elements of hydrogen and helium - around one atom per cubic centimetre. That's a better vacuum than can be created in laboratories on Earth but not a perfect vacuum. Consequently sound can travel through that but there are no instruments sensitive enough to hear it.

[Pharosian]

why is it that sound waves dont go through space whereas light-radio-heat-waves etc do?

There are several types of waves. Sound is created by pressure waves, and depends on the compression and rarefaction of the medium through which it travels. The speed of sound varies depending on the medium, so where the speed of sound through air at sea level is about 767 mph, the speed of sound through steel is more than 17x faster at around 13,330 mph.

Electromagnetic radiation is formed of self-propagating transverse waves. The electric and magnetic components of the wave travel in phase at right angles to one another.

Even though we use the word "wave" to describe both sound and light--and both types of waves can be measured by their frequency, wavelength, and amplitude--their behavior is quite different.

[LashSlash]

tanks of thanks farosian - thats pretty impressive, where did you come up with all the interesting info - you must = clever-clever-thing  ..... cleverer than that strange fellow who takes his bike out for a ride only when it rains and goes on about vacuums .... also: its nice to see you are a little more than one of the delf's dittos [ http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=3463.0 ] ........  

[Pharosian]

Thanks, LashSlash... I guess I'm reasonably clever and well-educated, but I use the writer's tools of interview and research when I venture into technical topics. I ask questions of people who might have answers, and I consult the all-knowing Google and Wikipedia. For the answer above, I knew from having taken physics classes years ago that light and sound were different, and that sound travels faster through water and metal than through air, but I wasn't sure how to articulate an answer to exactly what makes the waves different.

So I asked my husband, and he said sound waves are formed by compression and rarefaction (at which point I did a mental head-slap--of course). But to get the nitty-gritty, I read articles in Wikipedia on "Sound", "Light," Electromagnetic Radiation" and "Waves," then synthesised all that into the answer above.

[Geoff_N]

... and when I'm not on my bike I also consullt wiki, etc though it can't always be trusted - there's even a wikipage on me to prove the point. I did physics, maths and stuff for my MSc last century and if I get stuck I ask my physicist wife. Not that she's always right either. Some things live in the unknown - thank goodness.

[LashSlash]

...a wikipage on me .......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Nelder

cult status and a humourist!!!!!!!  --- hoo-boy...

.....i still think Farosian is more cleverer than you.....she synthesises!