Perhaps some of Han's 'special modifications' need a tune-up. In The Empire Strikes Back, the Falcon's jump to hyperspace throws Artoo across the deck and into the open engine pit.

Of course, the force that makes us stumble back as the subway car accelerates doesn't seem completely conquered on the Falcon. Just eliminating it for a fraction of a second could allow a rapid, effortless acceleration, after which point inertia could return and the Falcon could cruise at a constant, high velocity.

Perhaps they have learned to manipulate inertia. Since Star Wars ships are constantly undergoing rapid accelerations and decelerations, they must have found some way to solve this problem. Even at 9 g's, it would take him nineteen days to reach half the speed of light, though he'd be dead long before the ship reached that speed. For Han to take off from Mos Eisley and accelerate at 3 g's to half the speed of light would take him two and a half months-hardly the makings of an exciting movie. For the sake of argument, though, let's try to tough it out at 3 g's for a little longer. We can withstand 5 g's for only two minutes, 3 g's for only an hour. If we need to accelerate for extended periods, the level we can withstand is even lower.

We're forced to limit the acceleration of planes and spacecraft to a level humans can survive. The Air Force's F-16 can produce more g's than the human body can survive. If the acceleration doesn't decrease, you will pass out and finally die. Your vision narrows to a tunnel, then goes black. When undergoing an acceleration of 9 g's, your body feels nine times heavier than usual, blood rushes to the feet, and the heart can't pump hard enough to bring this heavier blood to the brain. Normal humans can withstand no more than 9 g's, and even that for only a few seconds. We experience higher or lower g forces when we are rapidly changing speeds or directions. The changing direction, increasing speed, decreasing speed of an object are all factors of acceleration. Acceleration is known as the rate of change of velocity with time. The change of velocity of any object is said to be accelerating. Just as gravity pushes you down against the Earth, inertia pushes you back against your seat. The average value is about 65 g's, so I used that for the fatal impact acceleration on a human being.' 5075 g. The gravitational force on an object is equivalent to the inertial force on an object undergoing a comparable acceleration. (c) If wet pavement reduces its maximum cornering acceleration to 0.6 g, what do the answers to (a). The reason we measure acceleration in terms of gravity is because the two have the same effect. Figure 2.1 Force on the tennis ball distorts it and. The speed of light is so fast, that to accelerate to it safely would take months! We measure acceleration in g's, with one g equal to the acceleration caused by Earth's gravity-the acceleration of falling objects on Earth. But accelerating from zero to 186,000 miles per second in five seconds will push Han back so forcefully that he'll become a splat on that fine vinyl upholstery. Inertia will push him slightly back in his seat. Let BMW try to beat that acceleration! It's no problem for Han to accelerate the Falcon from zero to 60 miles per hour in five seconds. The Falcon might be traveling along at 50 miles per hour, and then suddenly it's traveling at 186,000 miles per second. Han Solo talks about making the 'jump to light speed.' If the Millenium Fal con is somehow jumping to light speed, it implies a nearly instantaneous acceleration. In the 1940s, Air Force physician John Stapp surmised that the pilots were dying from crash-related 'mangling' rather than G-forces themselves.Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the 1999 book The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos. But this conclusion was based on plane crashes. The average person will go night-night when they hit 4 or 5 positive Gs, and a fighter pilot can be trained to endure up to 9 Gs.įor years, experts believed a pilot couldn't endure more than 18 Gs before their soul hit the eject button on their body, and the pilot promptly died.

Positive G-forces that send blood from your head to your feet won't put you to sleep quite as easily. It only takes negative-2 or negative-3 Gs to put out your lights like a candle in a windstorm. Fighter jets can pull up to 9 g vertically, and the more a pilot can take without. Negative Gs are a real doozy for humans, particularly when they cause blood to rush to your head. Five to 10 seconds at 4 to 5 g vertically typically leads to tunnel vision and then loss of consciousness. By contrast, negative G-forces push your insides from the back to the front when you accelerate backwards or send blood from your feet to your head when you accelerate downwards. Positive G-forces push your innards from front to back when you accelerate forward or force blood from your head to your feet when you accelerate upward. Here, it's important to distinguish between positive and negative Gs. Your ability to withstand G-forces depends heavily on their direction.

Highest negative g force survived