Why Every Movie Space Battle Is Wrong! (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill)

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We’ve seen plenty of epic space battles from Star Wars to Star Trek and a ton of others, but have we been lied to all this time? Kyle shows you the truth on this week’s Because Science!

Because Science every Thursday.

Artist: Andrew Bowser

[elektra]

Unrealistic space battles: *exist*
The Expanse: "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that"

[Formulka]

Expanse is really accurate, Babylon 5 and Gallactica are trying as well.

[eldonmacwood]

Also, Tie Fighters and X-Wings do a lot of planetary operations, so there are times those wings come in handy. Just when they are in space, not so much.

[joshuastroupe]

1:14
The "wings" of the Tie Fighters are solar panels, and given their vertical fixed position they wouldn't provide much lift.

[Vent]

"If you draw it poorly, Disney can't sue. I think..."

[JustSiouxMe]

Technically, sci-fi is adapted nautical fiction. Thats why large ship battles tend to be the way they are, and also why so many capital starship's brigde is so obvious and easy to attack.
Same reason why alien species tend to only have one culture per planet.

[ravingguard]

"There hasn't been a space battle"... That we KNOW of!

[alpenjon]

Rocinante spotted! Nice nod to The Expanse :D

[ToabyToastbrot]

That's why in Mass Effect 1 you can hear a Military Guy telling some other Guys "If you fire that bad boy, it will ruin somones day, even when you miss, maybe tomorrow, maybe in 20Years, but it wil definatly ruin somonse day :D

[Ardenithar]

I saw this video years ago and still comeback to it.
I just love how it manages to simultaneously ruin and improve every space battle we see.

[theespatier]

A few errors: at 3:00, the G-forces in a spacecraft are too small to cause any problems, and at 6:00, the recoil from space weapons are too small to cause any problems. If the G-forces in fighter jets don’t stop them from throttling, or the recoil doesn’t stop them from flying, it won’t affect spaceships, certainly!

[seraf]

You've clearly forgotten Kyle, that there is a common frame of reference in space! The enemy's gate is down.

[philipfahy]

Wouldn't the projectiles dissipate eventually? If say, a plasma based projectile, were to miss its target and continue travelling uninterrupted, wouldn't it eventually radiate away all its energy. Because Entropy?

[theultimatetu]

Tie fighters have Wings because they are space and atmospheric ships, so they only have to poroduce one ship for two tasks.
Edit:
I also just noticed, the Wings on tie fighters are solar panels, that are the stripes. :)

[qewqeqeqwew]

Ships would be at HUGE distance apart, far longer then human eye cound see, battling with stealth, detection and countermeasures capabilities, since one hit would be a kill anyway. Basically similar to modern naval or tank warfare.

[Hiraghm]

Actually, I can't remember who, but someone pointed out that the deathstar contains... air... so those gases impacting your spaceship after the explosion would make some sound.

[DimitriosDenton]

"What about The Expa.."
"Remember the Cant."
"Oh, I see."

[LNGBW]

Babylon 5 got the physics down pretty good.

[LotusEater]

The Expanse does a very good job of space battle.

[BjornDov]

“Sound” in space would be a useful way to relay information to utilise the senses we have. Basically when the ship sensors detect incoming fire they can synthesise sound within the ship just to relay information to the pilot efficiently. I don’t have a problem with sounds coz of this - I just imagine that it is one of the ways for the ship to communicate the data feed to the human