From: xxbsamek@utagraph.uta.edu (Mr. Brad Samek)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars
Subject: Re: Luke's lightsaber
Date: 18 Nov 92 19:29:48 GMT
Organization: University of Texas at Arlington

flowerpt@coos.dartmouth.edu (Bill McGonigle) writes:
: In article <1e9k4qINNqsc@gap.caltech.edu> keith@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Allan Schneider) writes:
: >flowerpt@coos.dartmouth.edu (Bill McGonigle) writes:
: >
: >Yes, but we're talking about acceleration here.  Notice that Yoda didn't move
: >the X-Wing particularly rapidly.  It didn't just hop right out of the bog.
: >Yes, Vader could accelerate those pieces of whatever, but it would take just
: >as long to slow them down...  Are you really trying to say that Yoda could
: >catch a cannonball (fired from a cannon) in midair?  If size matters not,
: >then why didn't Vader just cause Luke's X-Wing to crash in the first
: >Death Star Battle?  Why didn't the Emperor just personally cause the entire
: >Rebel fleet to crash into the energy field?  The Force apparently DOES have
: >some limitations.  And you didn't answer my question...  could the Force
: >be used to accelerate a bullet to muzzle velocity?  I think not.
: 
: Lets look at this from a physics point of view.  The Jedi are using the Force
: to do things, but the things must still obey normal space laws.  Note, I'm
: figuring this out without knowing the outcome ahead of time.  How fast did
: Yoda move the X-Wing?  Three meters per second?  How much do you think it
: weighs, ten thousand kilograms?  I think these are reasonable figures. The
: momentum of the X-Wing would be thirty thousand kilogram meters per second.
: A ten gram bullet traveling at half a kilometer per second would have a 
: momentum of five kilogram meters per second.  A hundred kilogram cannonball
: traveling at one hundred meters per second would have a momentum of
: one thousand mKg/s.  So, if Yoda can stop the X-wing he moved, he should be
: able to stop a bullet easily and a cannonball without much trouble.  Because
: stopping something that is moving is just a matter of changing its 
: momentum to zero.   I think.
: 
: Yoda knows that size matters not, but I don't think that Vader knows that.  It
: seems like he's a pretty mediocre Jedi.  Left his training early, and filled
: in the blanks with Dark Side tricks.  And the emperor didn't need to do anything
: to make the rebels get destroyed.  He figured that there was no way they
: could get the shield down, and the DS was going to pick off the ships one by
: one.  
: 
: >Okay, how about if you held his head in the swamp?  I bet he'd lose
: >concentration THEN!
: 
: Ok, if you somehow got Yoda to drown, then yes, he would loose his 
: concentration.  And you'd be better than a Jedi Master.  Better not
: ask him who the 'Master' is when you pull his head up, though. Yoda
: has reached the final level.  (only 1 in 100 will get this reference)
: 
: >
: >But the point is that there weren't any intricate actions.  You couldn't pinch
: >my nose closed with the Force...
: 
: How about your throat?  "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
: 
: >I still don't think that a Jedi could stop a cannonball.
: 
: >However, it is clear from the movies that Jedis AREN'T invincible.  Remeber
: >that the Jedi were all but exterminated before Star Wars too place.
: 
: True, but it took another Jedi to help destroy them.
: 
: -Bill
: -Bill
: -- 
:      -= Bill.McGonigle@Dartmouth.edu =-      |  Fighters!   |   |  /   \  |   |
: Do you ever get the feeling that the story's |  Coming in   |=O=|  |=O=|  |=O=|
: too damn real, and in the present tense? -JT | point three! |   |  \   /  |   |
: Snail Mail: HB 2660, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755-4015. (603) 640-5780
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars