Tired Sci-Fi Tropes That Must Be Retired!
POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 16:47
VIEWED: 10267
PAGE 5 of 5
I'm not familiar with the Van Helsing crossbow thing, but based on your comments there's an even simpler response to the recoil objection. To wit:
"Guns are gas powered too. Ever fire a shotgun?"
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LOL, yeah!
I think his main complaint was the actual bow on the crossbow would bend back like a real bow and then release, just like a real crossbow does. He said if it were gas that was propelling the bolts, the bow wouldn't have to bend like that. Well, if it were gas, you wouldn't really need a bow at all would you! LOL! It just looked cool, that's the point he was missing. My argument was that, as the bow bent back, it was compressing air into the chamber. Then, as the bow released it's tension, it was releasing the gas/ air mixture and firing the bolt. Hey. It sounded good to me. A couple of my other friends bought it anyway. LOL!
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Quote:You're right, space doesn't have a temperature. However, it's not quite right to say that it insulates, as that suggests that you'd be nice and snug out there. Not so. While space has no air to provide conduction or convection, you're still going to radiate away your heat. That's how spacecraft get rid of the heat generated by their electronics and fuel cells, and it's why Apollo 13 got uncomfortably cold when all that electronics had to be turned off, even though it was in full sun the whole time.
Originally posted by RocketJock:
He is dead on about a few dozen SF cliches, though--my own favorite is "The Deadly Cold of Space." Um, guys, space is a vacuum; it's nothing! Nothing doesn't have a temperature! It just insulates!
So it's really not so wrong to talk about the deadly cold of space, especially when you're far from the nearest star. You may not turn into an ice cube in seconds, but without an energy source you will freeze. It's just that (River's opinion notwithstanding) you'll probably die gasping first.
Hmm, pleasant topic, eh?
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Quote:Ah, I see. That's definitely a bit harder to explain! It does indeed sound like they went for coolness over sensible design.
Originally posted by Slowhand:
I think his main complaint was the actual bow on the crossbow would bend back like a real bow and then release, just like a real crossbow does.
Then again... it's a story about vampires.
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There have been a number of attempts to give a scientific footing to what's normally considered fantasy -- sword-and-sorcery type stuff.
One is the "Well of Souls" books by Jack Chalker. Another is the "Magic Goes Away" series of stories by Larry Niven, which proposed that magic was a finite resource (like fossil fuels) that eventually got used up. Before that happened the world was full of wizards and magical beasts, but once the magic was gone those all disappeared.
Hey, I enjoy fantasy when the author is fair and consistent. The Harry Potter books are excellent, as are the Narnia and Lord of the Rings series. But when the genre is supposed to be science fiction, I prefer having the science as correct as possible. Everything should be consistent with our present understanding of physics and chemistry, and exceptions or extensions should be clearly described and then held to. But that's just me. I'm sure others have different comfort levels.
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I'm kind of the opposite. If everything held to real science and explainations, to me, it would be a documentary. I want to see something I've never seen before. A lot of scifi is in the furure, so I'm willing to accept that there have been scientific bounds that have been made that goes beyond our current science. Lightspeed, teleportation, etc...all of that is beyond what we have now. And when it comes to that, I really don't need an explaination, unless it's a plot point.
I do like to understand SOME things, but really, I just want a good story. I don't really care as much about the technical aspects as some do.
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Well, I've just been to see the movie "Sunshine" and my disbelief is now suspended so high that you could anchor an orbital tower to it.
Its nice to see the Hollywood solution to Big Problems is still the same: Giant asteroid? Send Bruce Willis with a big nuke! Massive earthquake approaching? Nuke the San Andreas Fault! Earth's core stopped spinning? Nuke it! Sun going out? Send a really, really big nuke!
The film clearly confirmed my "audible photon" theory (not only was there sound in space but, every time you saw the sunlight the sheer volume of audible photons caused this tremendous whooshing rumble).
It also highlighted another scientific fallacy: this silly idea that gravity is some magical attraction generated by large massess. NO! Gravity is caused by air! Yes folks, we have another "pressureise the airlock and everything falls to the ground" scene.
Of course, it goes without saying that the entire ship was designed with "down" perpendicular to the direction of thrust and no concession to zero-G. However, the communications antennae were on long rotating booms...
Oh yes, health and safety scenario: You are on a spaceship. There is a fire. Do you (a) let the air out of the compartment or (b) flood the compartment with oxygen so that the fire "burns itself out"?
We also had the whole exposure to space freezing a man rigid in 10 seconds routine, too.
It wouldn't be so bad if, during all the hype for this film, they hadn't kept carping on about how they had a real live physicist advising them...
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I'd love to see a dubbed version of 'Sunshine' where the scientist complains the whole way through about how the physics of the movie are totally messed up. I'd watch that.
Incidentally, what *does* happen when you're exposed to space? I mean, I know you die, but how? I've heard everything from you blow up to you freeze to death to you boil to death because you're so much hotter than everything around you. What actually happens? Because no matter what it is, I'm including it in my list of 'Top 10 ways not to die'
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Quote:
Originally posted by DesktopHippie:
I mean, I know you die, but how? I've heard everything from you blow up to you freeze to death to you boil to death because you're so much hotter than everything around you.
Probably all of those. If you're very lucky, in that order :-)
Holding your breath would probably be inadvisable and messy (but possibly quick). Otherwise, I suspect that it is the boiling that would get you.
The "boiling" would happen not because of heat but because of the lack of air pressure. Boiling point is determined by air pressure (so you can't make a decent cup of tea on Mt Everest) and in a vacuum water will immediately boil.
I'd also guess that, if you did freeze, it would not be because "space is cold", but because of all that boiling and evaporation, which carries away a n awful lot of heat (that's basically how a fridge works). However, that isn't going to turn you into a popsicle in 10 seconds flat. If a substantial portion of your body's water did vaporise in a short time then, well, I think we'd be talking Slushee rather than a Popsicle. Ick.
It probably depends on how much internal pressure the body can sustain.
A spot of frostbite would be the least of your problems.
What a charming conversation.
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