July 17th, 2012
Passed along by Galley Friend A.W.: The renewable energy potential of various Jedi masters.
Sample unfuckingbelievable:
The energy it takes to lift an object to height h is equal to the object’s mass times the force of gravity times the height it’s lifted. The X-Wing scene lets us use this to put a lower limit on Yoda’s peak power output.
First we need to know how heavy the ship was. The X-Wing’s mass has never been canonically established, but its length has—16 meters. An F-22 is 19 meters long and weighs 19,700 lbs, so scaling down from this gives an estimate for the X-Wing of about 12,000 lbs (5 metric tons).
Next, we need to know how fast it was rising. I went over footage of the sc ene and timed the X-Wing’s rate of ascent as it was emerging from the water.
The front landing strut rises out of the water in about three and a half seconds, and I estimated the strut to be 1.4 meters long (based on a scene in A New Hope where a crew member squeezes past it), which tells us the X-Wing was rising at 0.39 m/s. . . .
It goes on from there, achieving multiple levels of awesome.
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