Now for some data. All I need to do is measure the position of the sides of the Falcon and use that to calculate the angular size in each frame of the video during the jump to hyperspace. Of course there is a big problem. I don’t actually know the angular size at the beginning of the jump. I’m just going to have to estimate it. Let’s say that the Millennium Falcon is 25 meters wide and starts off at a distance of 100 meters from the camera. With that, I can set the angular field of view for the scene. This gives the following plot of angular size vs. time for that Falcon as it escapes.
What about the g-force? OK, let’s be clear about two points here. First, surely the Millennium Falcon has some type of “inertial damper” that allows people inside the ship to accelerate without dying. Second, Star Wars isn’t real life so it doesn’t matter (but it’s still fun to analyze). Now, for the g-force. This is a fake force. It’s a way to make an accelerating reference frame behave like a non-accelerating reference frame. In this case, the fake force is essentially just a measure of the acceleration of the inside of the Millennium Falcon.
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.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
