This week, another video throughput where I talk about the science of a classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hope you find it interesting!
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Michael Siegel
Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.
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on From Semafor: Kamala Harris’ digital chief on Democrats ‘losing hold of culture’ on From Semafor: Kamala Harris’ digital chief on Democrats ‘losing hold of culture’
Two things
1. It’s a really good analysis of one of my favorite movies ever. If we ever met, we can talk about it for hours, so thank you for posting it.
2. Tycoon Brahe, MEDIEVAL astronomer!,! What the fish, dude? Brahe lived like 100 years after the end of the Middle Ages.
There’s a direct line from Brahe to Kepler to Newton. Brahe’s very accurate astronomical observations allowed Kepler to develop his laws, from which Newton was able to in turn develop the mathematical model of universal gravitation. In other words, Newton’s universal gravitation were the mathematical explanation of Brahe’s decades old observationsReport
[checks video]
Well, crap….Report
Fascinating. One of the more interesting takes on relativistic velocity is Cixin Liu’s portrayal of changing the speed of light in the 3rd volume of his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. I don’t recall the exact mechanics, but somehow humankind’s antagonists were able to make relativistic time shifts happen at a much lower than normal c. It posed an interesting problem for people traveling in space.Report
Science fiction always has two competing ideas. First, that anything far enough advanced will look like magic to the non-advanced. Second, that no matter how advanced technology gets in the future, a cannon ball still flies the same way it does not. What is taught in quantum mechanics is classical mechanics fails at the quantum level and that quantum mechanics reduces to classical mechanics at the macro level. The same applies to optics and electromagnetism.Report
I’ve always preferred that if a film-maker isn’t going to try to get the science right, they should do a Star Wars and straight up make it obvious it’s Science Fantasy.Report