• aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    “She’ll make .5 past lightspeed.”

    Lightspeed seems to be a catch-all layterm that means the speed of light and everything faster. Hyperspace is a better description of what’s happening. And different ships traverse hyperspace at different speeds depending on their engine.

    “I’ve outrun Imperial starships. I don’t mean the local bulk cruisers, I’m talking about the big Corellian ships now.”

    Which is faster? I guess it would depend on which ships you’re comparing to each other.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Lightspeed seems to be a catch-all layterm that means the speed of light and everything faster. Hyperspace is a better description of what’s happening. And different ships traverse hyperspace at different speeds depending on their engine.

      In Star Trek or sci-fi in general?

      Light speed is the theoretical maximum speed limit at which an object with mass can move within normal space. Hyperspace was a sci-fi invention that was used as a theoretical work around for this problem. So any space that allows you to travel faster than the speed of light is technically hyperspace, whether that be extra dimensional travel, or going through a wormhole.

    • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
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      7 months ago

      “She’ll make .5 past lightspeed.”

      This is an excellent reference; it’s one of the few times in the trilogy details are made in technical terms.

      Point 5 of what? Is it just 450 million kilometers per second? Seems hardly likely, since they’re zipping between star systems in matters of hours. So is it, like in Star Trek, some logarithmic scale, where 1 is equivalent to warp 10, and you turn into a mudskipper.

      However, The Empire is “The Galactic Empire,” and the intro to IV implies the events take place in a single galaxy “far, far away.” So all Wars travel is within a single galaxy. Trek ships travel the universe, visiting nebula and other galaxies. The distances between galaxies (millions of LY) dwarf those within galaxies (hundreds of thousands). Trek ships are vastly faster than Wars ships, by this measure alone.

      • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Trek ships don’t go to other galaxies often, they specifically talk about it being incredibly slow to even go to tbe other side of our galaxy. That’s the whole premise of Voyager, they got stranded at the other end of the galaxy and it will take decades to get back. The exception of course being discovery with its spore drive. They have no issues leaving the galaxy, though they don’t do it often.