Students awaken the science of Star Wars
Could a lightsaber really work?
What would hyperspace travel look like?
And how strong would a deflector shield need to be to fend off interstellar attacks?
These are all questions that Star Wars fans have been asking for decades, and now that The Force Awakens has been released in cinemas, they will likely be asked again soon.
Thankfully, calculations conducted by fourth year Master's students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy have been shedding light on the answers to these questions.
Among the Star Wars-related questions the students have addressed are:
The students presented their findings in a paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a peer-reviewed student journal run by the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. The student-run journal is designed to give students practical experience of writing, editing, publishing and reviewing scientific papers.
Course tutor, Dr Mervyn Roy said: “Every year we ask each student to write around 10 short papers for the Journal of Physics Special Topics. It lets the students show off their creative side and apply some of physics they know to the weird, the wonderful, or the everyday.”
- Press release
- Read an article on why it is important to make physics and science education relevant and accessible to the public here.
- A series of daily infographics highlighting Star Wars-related papers can be found here
A video of Star Wars at the University is available below: