this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
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How did gravity worked on the Death Star? (feddit.org)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
141 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/1104168

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

It’s not massive enough to create its own gravity. They use gravity deck plating.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Even if it was massive enough, if they can keep people sticking to the ground in a tiny ship they can surely counteract the gravity of a space station.

Also, most of their spaceships have wings. We're thinking about this way too hard.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They don't all have wings. Only the X-Wing and Imperial transport ships have actual wings, and we've seen them fly through atmospheres.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well, yeah, but we've also seen the ones that look like a hamburger patty fly through the atmosphere (and, in fact, outmaneouver the winged ones). Clearly that's not what they're for.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Ah yeah. Dang. Well there probably a good technical reason behind it. I'm no starship engineer in the Star Wars universe.

[–] remus989 1 points 3 months ago

I think the usual in universe reasoning is heat dissipation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The hamburger was originally a cargo ship, the one we see is special in that it has a bunch of very expensive, very powerful engines added.

It's no wonder that a street racer can outpace army jeeps. Also, they couldn't outpace TIE fighters in Ep.IV, which are known for being very fast for a coffee table.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They are clearly not wings meant to create aerodinamic lift.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Well, no, they're meant to make the pew-pew laser fights look like a film about airplane dogfights. So yeah, way overthinking it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You’re here discussing it too, man

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Oh, yeah, no, but that's because I'm a nerd.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Technically everything with mass creates its own gravitational field; most things just aren't massive enough for it to be detectable.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

One of my favorite science facts: Because of how the strength of gravity diminishes as you get further away and stronger as you get closer, when you approach to within arms length of another person (approx 1m) the gravitational attraction between the two masses of your bodies can exceed the gravitational attraction between your body and the sun at any given time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When the inverse square law and weak gravitational forces meet

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Where I end and you begin

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Another fun property of the inverse square law is that an infinite sheet of mass produces a gravitational field that is equally strong no matter how far you are from it.

It applies to any form of flux, like sound amplitude or light intensity.

This is why when you’re sitting on top of Mount Sanitas, you can hear traffic sounds at seemingly full volume. It’s just all the traffic of Boulder, which is roughly like an infinite sheet below you.

This is despite being unable to hear any given car more than a couple blocks away.

It’s also why if Superman flies over manhattan at night, he’s lit from underneath with an amount of light similar to someone who’s 10 feet from a skyscraper.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Yeah, but no one can escape the gravitational field of your mom.

(Sorry, couldn't resist, as I half expected your comment to end with a "your mom" joke)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

“Gravity deck plating”… okay that makes sense. So basically each floor has its own gravity generation to orient you to it. They’re all placed “bottom to top” to work like a building but it’d be possible to put one in at a 90-degree angle for say maintenance work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

There are crew walkways (I think they even have handguards!) along the beam path of the superlaser, so there are definitely at least a few small decks at different angles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Like in the Falcon