BY Derek ChenFrom the famous Trench Run in A New Hope to the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker, sound has played a prominent part in the popular space sci-fi franchise, with blaster fire and the roar of engines serving as some of the iconic sound effects that intensify every space battle there is. However, the possibility of this is low, simply due to how sound and space work. As Julie Turnock, assistant professor of media and cinema studies at the University of Illinois, points out, while the sounds of the first film were “nothing like seen before”, the scientific accuracy was “not there.” First, sound waves are longitudinal waves. In these waves, the disturbance moves the same direction as the wave. Sound also requires a transmission medium, a space filled up with molecules, such as a gas, liquid, or solid, to vibrate from one end to another. Take for example a violin. When played, the strings vibrate which is then transferred by the bridge to the body of the instrument, creating musical sounds. However, space is a vacuum; it is mostly devoid of matter. Because of this, there are no particles for vibrations to transfer to, so no sound can be heard. On the other hand, if one were inside a spaceship and something exploded in the ship, you could of course hear it as there would be air in the ship (hopefully). Additionally, sound can be “heard” if one were to use communicators such as a radio that transmits electromagnetic waves instead of mechanical sound waves (that would be blocked by space). According to Jeanne Cavelos, former NASA astrophysicist, these have been used as explanations for why sound can be heard in the series, in addition to the fact that space is not entirely a vacuum; there are some areas where sound can be heard like clouds of gas. While this has been used as a justification of how our characters are able to hear the sounds of missiles streaking past them, it is still a weak explanation as the amount of substance there is would not be enough to transmit sound as far as we have seen in the films. From the properties of both space and sound, it can be concluded that the sounds of the epic space battles in Star Wars are - for the most part - not scientifically possible - at least if observed from the point of view of the characters in the movies. While there are in-universe explanations for how sound is generated, for example, “sensor system[s] that creates three-dimensional sounds inside the cockpit” (Frederico Macedo 2015), the best explanation for “sound in space” in the franchise is that it is for the audience as an interpretation of what is transpiring on screen, and serves as a vital background component of what would otherwise be a silent space battle. References:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ABOUTSubmit your work to be considered for publication in the Newly Created SNHS Newspaper! CategoriesOuter Space History Biology
|