As anyone who’s ridden the “Star Tours” simulation at Disneyland can attest, warp speed looks and feels really cool. But could we ever bend space and time to travel that fast in real life?
Since it involves traveling faster than the speed of light, probably not. But like so much else in science fiction, the reasoning behind it can be connected to actual theory, with none other than Einstein’s theory of relativity to back it up.
Delving into the real physics involved in films is Adam Weiner, a physics teacher at The Bishop’s School and author of “Don’t Try This at Home! The Physics of Hollywood Movies.” Weiner will host a three-night series at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences called “Out of This World: The Science of Space Movies,” beginning Aug. 5. The event will examine the physics involved in various high-profile films such as “Planet of the Apes,” “Apollo 13,” “Contact” and the 2009 version of “Star Trek.”
“With movies, some (filmmakers) attempt to get the science right and do a good job,” Weiner said. “But then some throw (the science) right out the window.”
Although sometimes the science behind a concept becomes convoluted and may be expensive to pin down in a film, some errors are needless, Weiner said.
“There are examples of how (filmmakers) could easily have gotten things right but were just sloppy,” Weiner said.
Weiner cites one example from science-fiction thriller “The Core.” The mistake consists of a piece of dialogue unrelated to the science of the main plot ““ a scientist makes a blunder by saying that earthquake frequencies change, when they actually remain constant: something that easily could have been solved through fact-checking.
For the more challenging scientific theories, UCLA postdoctoral scholar and physics instructor Konstantin Belov has sympathy for filmmakers attempting to visualize theoretical concepts that have never been seen before.
“You can’t see these things in real life; all you have are formulas,” Belov said. “It is difficult to show in movies, for example, how space and time is curved around you. The majority of the time, (filmmakers) are trying to do a good job.”
Sometimes, Belov said, the science shown in these movies overlaps with the demonstrations he shows his students. As some films show accurately and others disregard, there is no sound in space. Belov recently demonstrated this to students by setting up a vacuum and calling a cell phone that was inside of it. Its ring could not be heard because of the suction, which would also occur in space.
On the other hand, astronomy professor Edward Wright is more skeptical toward science fiction.
“‘Star Trek’ is about what? Extraterrestrial life with bipeds with funny things stuck to their heads,” Wright said. “The exobiology there is unrealistic.”
He similarly dismissed the concept of “warp speed” or “warp drive.”
“There are occasionally some fun ideas, but if you can’t travel in the past and shoot your grandfather, you can’t travel faster than the speed of light,” Wright said.
Yet even with these outlandish scenarios, Weiner considers science-fiction movies to be an engaging teaching tool.
“The students got really interested in figuring out problems as soon as they wanted to know if Batman could really catch himself on a railing or if he would break his hand,” Weiner said.
In Weiner’s opinion, even if the science is wrong, an interesting point is brought up for the audience.
“For the ‘Star Trek’ type (of film), they’re trying to incorporate really hypothetical things, which is good food for thought,” Weiner said. “It’s a good springboard into gauging people’s interest in science.”
The term science fiction itself embodies the dichotomy between hard facts and embellishment ““ how it is partly grounded in what we know to exist, but moved beyond this knowledge to another realm.
“(Filmmakers) copy things from our reality, but then transform expectations from the present-day state of science,” said Antonio Pipino, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “We can’t be sure if real progress will follow the same path.”
But even if many ideas of science fiction are completely impossible, the liberties taken with science are usually done in the name of the plot, Pipino said.
“It’s still cool, extrapolated from reality. It’s sci-fi, not a science paper, so I can’t blame them. Their job is to make dreams,” Pipino said.
In the end, the story is the main concern of film, but the science is not to be forgotten, Weiner said.
“It’s like a 17th-century period piece ““ the realer the details, the more you buy into it,” Weiner said. “A director with more accurate detail is simply making a better film.”