If I'm not the first to post this then I apologize. If not, well just read the link. 
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-physics-of-the-death-star-c21ccc58ade9
Slightly OT: The Physics of the Death Star
Sigh! Only thing worse than a rivet counter that wargames is an atom counter at a Sci-Fi movie. Obviously spends way too much time sitting in the toilet.
Sigh! Only thing worse than a rivet counter that wargames is an atom counter at a Sci-Fi movie. Obviously spends way too much time sitting in the toilet.
Parts of that statement is far more accurate than you might think. 
Entertaining read.
If the Death Star were in orbit what would that do to the tides? The mass alone would generate it's own gravity, but how does that interact with the artificial gravity?
Hmm I really really want to talk to one of the physics professors at a college near me, mostly because I am wondering about that whole lasers have recoil thing
Lasers would have recoil as photons have mass, it would just be tiny.
Lasers would have recoil as photons have mass, it would just be tiny.
Photons do not have mass, but they do have momentum which can cause recoil.
Except they act more like plasma weapons than lasers don't they.
Good god it just fired a death ray for pete's sake. There's no need to overthink it.
Hey guys chill, its just fiction that was written by George Lucas. Just like how Dianetics was written Ron L Hubbard, if you start getting carried away you will end up creating a silly religion and call yourselves Jedi or Sith or Scientologists.
Good god it just fired a death ray for pete's sake. There's no need to overthink it.
Is too.
Hey guys chill, its just fiction that was written by George Lucas. Just like how Dianetics was written Ron L Hubbard, if you start getting carried away you will end up creating a silly religion and call yourselves Jedi or Sith or Scientologists.
The only thing I could see plausibly wrong with the ability to destroy a planet was that it took seconds.
That's why I sort of like the Exterminatus lore from Warhammer 40,000. Extermanatus is something that can take a while, days even depending on the mass of the planet and the methods used.
Edited by MarinealverExcept they act more like plasma weapons than lasers don't they.
I think that was (obliquely) the point of the article.
A *literal* "super laser" is totally impractical to destroy a planet. Rather, you're going to want antimatter to do it (and anti-plasma is as good as any kind).
So the Death Star was basically firing no kind of "laser" at all, but some form of anti-plasma particle beam.
Good god it just fired a death ray for pete's sake. There's no need to overthink it.
Why not ? It is fun.
If I'm not the first to post this then I apologize. If not, well just read the link.
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-physics-of-the-death-star-c21ccc58ade9
Interesting, but ultimately it's just one more example of someone failing to realise that Star Wars is space fantasy, not science fiction. It's like people see the technology and just can't accept that it's only there to make it stand out from the one million other medievelesque fantasy sagas. It's all magic folks - Industrial Light and Magic, if you will.
I love to overthink and overanalyze stuff and hence why I liked and linked to the page above. However I never take it seriously and I don't think the writer of the article did either. It is just a bit of light hearted fun.
Interesting, but ultimately it's just one more example of someone failing to realise that Star Wars is space fantasy, not science fiction.
I think you're being a little obtuse here.
Of course it's not science fiction, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to analyze from a scientific mindset. It's like why we play games with little spaceship models: it entertains us. For people in science fields, things we find entertaining are different from what other people might find entertaining. For instance, some of us like to build circuits and read deep papers on the physics of warp drive. Others like to analyze space fantasy and ask thought-provoking questions like, "How much energy would it take to blow up Alderaan?" and "Just how fast was the Millennium Falcon traveling when it went from Tatooine in less than a day?" and "Just how tasty are Ewoks when roasted on a spit?"
Okay, maybe the last one was kind of... unscientific. But the point is that analysis is a lot of fun, because it stretches the mind and allows us to play thought games.
Saying "he merely fails to realize that it's not meant to be taken seriously" is a fun-hating, sourpuss way of looking at it.
I dunno there's some good eating on a bear.
Interesting, but ultimately it's just one more example of someone failing to realise that Star Wars is space fantasy, not science fiction.
Saying "he merely fails to realize that it's not meant to be taken seriously" is a fun-hating, sourpuss way of looking at it.
Dude, if you're going to use quote marks, at least quote what I actually said. I never said it wasn't to be taken seriously. I'm saying the technical analysis of a fantasy story often degrades the true purpose of the tools it uses to be an effective story.
I thought the death star drew power directly from hyperspace and used that to power its superlaser.
Or maybe I'm thinking of the 40k planet killer or talismans.
In any case, it's not a laser. Star Wars doesn't have lasers, it has plasma weapons that are sometimes incorrectly referred to as lasers.
Hey guys chill, its just fiction that was written by George Lucas. Just like how Dianetics was written Ron L Hubbard, if you start getting carried away you will end up creating a silly religion and call yourselves Jedi or Sith or Scientologists.
You mean like:
http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/
or this:
If I'm not the first to post this then I apologize. If not, well just read the link.
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-physics-of-the-death-star-c21ccc58ade9
Its interesting but doesnt fit the lore for the series. Its about as disrespectful as the Discovery or History channles documentary on SW tech.
Entertaining read.
If the Death Star were in orbit what would that do to the tides? The mass alone would generate it's own gravity, but how does that interact with the artificial gravity?
It might be possible plantary shields would sohome how protect a planet from danger alien gravity fields...? I do know Endor suffered damage during DSII orbit before the Battle.
Lasers would have recoil as photons have mass, it would just be tiny.
Photons do not have mass, but they do have momentum which can cause recoil.
They are near massless.
Except they act more like plasma weapons than lasers don't they.
Not really we have advanced in LASER / light technology over the years esp these last 2 years. We can do a heck of alot of the things you see and SW.
I thought the death star drew power directly from hyperspace and used that to power its superlaser.
Or maybe I'm thinking of the 40k planet killer or talismans.
In any case, it's not a laser. Star Wars doesn't have lasers, it has plasma weapons that are sometimes incorrectly referred to as lasers.
Any weapon you see or hear named a LASER in SW is a LASER its just way more advanced laser than what we are used to. A good anology would be to compare the first fire arm built to a S&W .500 that has a muzzlebreak or 10 inch german rifle barrel, and is chambered with 700 milgrm glacier shells that have river jack venom / rhino viper venom in them.
Any weapon you see or hear named a LASER in SW is a LASER its just way more advanced laser than what we are used to.
No it's not, there is really no comparison at all between what SW calls a laser and what lasers really are. Might as well compare a 5.56mm cartage to a laser...
George used Laser because lasers are all sci-fi and tech sounding. Just like Gene used Phaser, to sound like advanced tech.
The stuff coming out turbolasers and pretty much every other weapon in SW is some sort of plasma bolt and has nothing to do with true lasers.
Lasers would have recoil as photons have mass, it would just be tiny.
Photons do not have mass, but they do have momentum which can cause recoil.
They are near massless.
There is absolutely no experimental evidence that photons have mass (the upper bounds are extremely strong). And there are good theoretical reasons to believe that the photon mass is exactly zero (if photons had mass, electric charge would not be conserved).