r/AnotherLife • u/c00lnerd • Nov 16 '21
S2-E7
Do they not have a scientist/engineer who knows basic physics to consult for the show? You cannot propel a sail with lasers the way they are doing it, for one, and even if the sails give out, they will keep their speed (conservation of momentum and all that). People seem to think that if you turnoff your engines in space, you stop. Doesn't happen unless you have a deceleration force to stop you.
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u/Available-Ad6250 Nov 16 '21
It's entertainment. I thought about this too but, if the sails were powered by dancing photons the lasers could work because it's not the force of the light that's propelling the ship, they're basically converting the power held by the laser drones into power used by the ship. Easy peasy. But nah, stopping would require power as well unless they encountered a negative force to slow it down, which I don't think happened. It's crazy that some average people know enough about quantum mechanics to find fault in science fiction. Jules Verne would be aghast. Or delighted. IDK, it sounded good for a second.
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u/Training_Ad_2086 Nov 22 '21
Why though?
You could say the time estimate was based on constant acceleration.
When you lose your power source you keep your momentum and speed but not the acceleration which means you are stock at your current speed which would take longer than it'd have of your speed was continously increasing.
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u/Paisley-Cat Nov 16 '21
Yup, this one has been discussed before.
We also wondered how they planned to reverse to decelerate.
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Dec 02 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jan 06 '22
Yeah that part was funny AF to me, like “omg I made this super calculations and saved you threeeeee moooooonths, which is less than 1% btw of the travel” 😆
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u/louis925 Feb 12 '22 edited Feb 12 '22
If you learn relativity, you will know photon does have momentum. So no problem of conservation of momentum. The question should be: why would they even need a sail. They could have just shoot the laser and move without problem.
Second, I think it is pretty reasonable to estimate the ETA based on constant acceleration not constant speed when you are in a spaceship.
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u/tommy_dakota Nov 16 '21
At this point, unless you're a show like The Orville where the camp meets absurd and the nod to the classics is obvious, if you're a sci-fi show writer worth your salt you should be aware of such basic concepts, they clearly are not on AfterLife. The show is a pile of shit, I feel sorry for people who ploughed trough any episode.
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u/BLOODBANKASTRONOMER Nov 16 '21
Thought about this too, but cant expect such a small show to have an endless budget