Flying at Light Speed Is Pretty Much Impossible—Unless You’re Han Solo #SciFiSunday
WIRED gets real about Hans Solo’s light speed piloting skills.
SPOILER ALERT. I’M going to talk about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you haven’t seen it by now, I have a feeling that you either don’t really care about the movie or you don’t care about spoilers. But don’t worry, I’m not going to give away anything major. Still—you have been warned.
In one scene in the movie, Han Solo and Finn (oh, and Chewbacca too) are trying to get on the surface of the Star Killer to disable the shields. Here is the important dialogue as they approach the planet.
Finn: How are we getting in?
Han: Their shields have a fractional refresh rate. It keeps anything traveling slower than light speed from getting through.
Finn: We are making our landing approach at light speed?
Shortly after, Han says “OK Chewie, get ready…and now!” Then Han pulls a lever (mostly likely to come out of light speed) and I’m not sure what Chewie does. Now, if Han Solo is flying the Millennium Falcon at light speed, and he wants to stop the starship inside the shield (but not inside the planet), how large of a time window would he have to react?
Of course I am going to start with a picture. This is the Starkiller Base and the shield (not drawn to scale).
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Biohacking — Three DIY Photobioreactor Designs for Algae Growing
Python for Microcontrollers — Python snakes its way to Codecademy, beta 7, games, calculators, turning 6 and more! #Python #Adafruit #CircuitPython @circuitpython @micropython @ThePSF @Adafruit
Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !
