Oh, hi there.
I'm the great Orbax
from the department of Physics
at the University of Guelph.
We're going to explore
the science of pop culture
as we see what's Reel or Unreal.
Hyperdrive vs Warp Drive.
Einstein's theory of general
relativity states
that nothing with mass
or information can travel faster
than the speed of light;
a speed
which is defined as 299,792,458
meters per second.
Yet in almost every science
fiction world,
we see faster than light travel.
So how does that work?
Let's accept the idea
that in these universes
we have these infinite energy
supplies, these bizarre engines
that could get our ships
up to traveling
even close to the speed of light.
Even if we can get around that problem,
we can't get past
this idea of time dilation.
Time dilation is the idea that while
on the ship,
the crew experiences times slower
than the rest of the universe.
We can't have Starfleet Command trying
to communicate with the Enterprise,
not in real time.
And you can't send the Millennium Falcon
out on a mission
that only appears to be two days
to the crew,
but in reality is five years.
So how do we get around all that?
Let's start with Star Wars!
Star Wars
deals with this problem
in an interesting way,
which is
if we can't break the laws of physics
in our own dimension,
why don't we go to a different dimension
where they don't apply?
And that's exactly it.
So let's assume that we live
in a universe where we've got
energy supplies
in engines
that can take the Millennium
Falcon up to the speed of light.
Sure.
Maybe we can all agree that that exists.
It's not any more farfetched than
the Ewoks defeating the Empire.
Once we get to the speed of light,
we click on the hyperdrive.
The hyperdrive engines
open a portal to another dimension.
A dimension
where you can actually travel faster
than the speed of light is here.
Easy peasy, right?
But here's the problem.
How do you know
where you're actually trying to go,
if you're in another dimension.
Traveling through hyperspace
ain’t like dusting crops, boy.
Without precise calculations,
we could fly right through a star
or bounce too
close to a supernova,
and that’d end your trip
real quick, wouldn’t it?
Massive objects in our dimension cast
something called mass
shadows in hyperspace.
This means that planets
and moons and massive
gravitational bodies can still be seen.
But you need to rely on complex
hyperdrive computers
to map your routes
through hyperspace lanes.
These mass shadows
take time to project into hyperspace.
So if a planet like Alderaan
has just been destroyed,
its mass
shadow would still exist in hyperspace.
Or something like the Death Star.
something massive
like that has just been built,
it wouldn't
necessarily have casted
a clear enough shadow
into hyperspace yet.
This method of travel comes down
to what they say
about the Millennium Falcon.
It's the ship
that made the Kessel run
in less than twelve parsecs.
A parsec isn't a measurement of time.
A parsec is actually
a measurement of distance.
So the Millennium Falcon didn't actually
travel faster.
It just found a shorter route.
Now with Star Trek!
Star Trek
achieves faster than light speed
while still remaining in our universe.
So Star Trek uses
something called warp drive.
These large nacelles
that appear on the Enterprise
or any of these other star ships
are the warp drives.
What warp drive engines do
is that they create a subspace bubble
around the ship.
Now inside the bubble,
the actual properties of space-time
remain the same as they do
on the outside.
So in front of the bubble
you compress space
and out the back of the bubble
you elongate space.
So what you're in
essence doing is you're moving
space past the ship
rather than moving the ship
through space.
By doing that,
we get around this
whole idea of time dilation
taking place because the space inside
still remains the same.
Our current
cruising speeds in outer space are around
26,000 kilometers per hour,
which is around 7222 meters
per second
or 41,511
times slower than the speed of light.
So you can see that any little boost
that we could actually get
would increase our ability
to explore the vast
universe that we live inside.
But when it comes down to it,
there's actually no contest.
The Millennium Falcon in a New Hope
was actually able
to travel from Tattooine to Alderaan
in a period of time
that seemed like a day,
maybe two days, to travel
a distance of 50,000 light years.
While on Voyager
the distance home
from the Delta Quadrant,
which was about 70,000
light years,
was going to take
on the order of 76 years.
So to finally end
the debate that's raged for years, I
the great Orbax am here today to tell you
that hands down
the undisputed winner
is the Millennium Falcon
and its Hyperdrive!
Star wars, it's Star Wars! Star Wars!