The Science Behind Firefly - The TV Series

JAYDE OMG.

How awesome is the TV show firefly and the movie Serenity?

I know there’s a lot of sciq viewers out there who loved it!

Who wouldn’t – it was made by joss wheden, it had star systems, space cowboys, Nathan

fillian, Nathan Fillian…

mmmm Nathan fillian!

It was set in an awesome future where there’s lazer guns and mind control and faster than

speed of light travel so most of the universe is colonized.

Did I mention it stars Nathan Fillian?

[Sciq intro]

BEC If you hadn’t heard of Firefly til now (and

I didn’t until Jayde forced me to watch it) – the sci-fi tv series that had a cult

following in the early 2000s.

JAYDE What we (I) want to know is – is Firefly

science even possible?

Well, Let’s take a look at some of the science concepts and see if they can happen in real

life

BEC # 1 Terraforming.

In Firefly, they've taken the planets that are completely unlike ours and made them habitable.

Whether or not the planet has an oxygen atmosphere, a moon to sustain the tides, or a rotation

that makes farming possible, the planet always turns out completely habitable… even comfortable.

Planets that should be freezing require no more than a light jacket in the Verse starcluster.

JAYDE There’s a lot of real science behind Terraforming

- scientists are looking at doing it right now for places like Mars and Europa.

But the biggest problem probably is probably going to be gravity.

If the planet has too much mass, there’s too much gravity and the humans cant move

around.

Too small and there’s not enough gravity.

That’s never going to change, thems the plain ol rules of physics.

Most of the planets on Firefly have earth-like gravity, which means they’ve somehow managed

to find dozens of planets with exactly the same gravity as Earth.

This is not impossible…

but I’ll class it as pretty unlikely.

BEC 2#

SONIC RIFLES A sonic rifle is a non-lethal weapon, usually

used by law enforcement, which emitted a highly-focused, low-pitched sound wave with enough force to

drive a relatively large man to the ground.

JAYDE I hope these get sold in stores one day, I

could use them on people who get in my way playing Pokemon GO!

There’s only one problem with sonic rifles: moving objects with sound require very specific

conditions that can’t be met in a normal envionment where such a weapon may be needed.

Objects can be moved by something called a standing sound wave.

A standing sound wave occurs when a wave emitter, like a speaker set to one specific frequency,

bounces off another surface, like a wall, in the exact opposite motion of the original

wave.

Because the “incident waves” (the ones still being emitted from the speaker) are

crossing the reflected waves at hundreds of time a second, the waves appear to take the

form of a sort of hour-glass: apparently still.

That said, a standing sound wave is capable of moving an object by trapping its particles

in the nodes of the waves (the equilibrium points on the sound waves, like the surface

of the ocean before a wave comes and moves the water up and down.)

Towards the end of the 11th episode “Trash,” we see Mal fire one of these rifles at a policeman.

Though the gun may well be set to the perfect frequency, which would have to adjust itself

in every situation, there is no background for the waves to bounce of.

So it cant create a standing wave.

BEC #3

ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY On the Serenity, you’ll notice that the

passengers walk around on the floor rather than drifting aimlessly through the ship.

This is due to a technology that is actually seen all over science fiction as an easy justification

for why everyone isnt floating around: artificial gravity.

JAYDE So, how does artificial gravity hold up to

scientific scrutiny?

Surprisingly, pretty well!

While we are nowhere near being able to send out astronauts into a space craft which perfectly

replicates earths gravity, we have been able to minimize some of the health effects of

living in zero gravity So how does it work?

Well interestingly, artificial gravity works in almost the opposite manner of gravity.

Instead of pulling objects together, artificial gravity relies on a force that pushes objects

away from a focal point.

The capsule containing the astronauts spins to create a centrifuge.

This force is called inertia, And it’s the reason you can spin a cup without any water

falling out.

This is why for a ship to be able to copy Earth’s gravity, it must be huge enough

ensure that the whole wall of a ship is big enough to use for a floor.

This is exactly the layout of the ship in the film The Martian.

The ship is going on such a long mission that it pays to equip it with Earth-like gravity.

If we plan on going to Mars anytime soon, a ship with perfect artificial gravity is

definitely the way to travel.

But the firefly is shown not spinning – it looks like it relies more on some futuristic

magnet-type technology, which is a little more far fetched.

Get it right Joss!

Firefly fans out there!

Have I missed anything?

Or maybe you have some other sci-fi technology you guys are dying to debunk?

Let me know in the comments below!

Let us know in the comments below!

HI everyone!

I'm Jayde Lovell, resident science nerd at the Young Turks Network.

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