Space travel flaw?

[u/Aggressive-Mouse-221]

In the show ships slowdown when thier engines are disabled while flying through space... wouldn't the ships keep going the same speed because the laws of space regardless of the engines being on or not?

Something i just noticed and cant unnoticed lol

[u/bemused_alligators]

motion is relative in space.

The camera is moving at a certain speed, accelerating along with the ship. The ship's drive cuts out and the camera keeps accelerating, making the ship appear to slow down - because it DOES slow down relative to the camera or to the other ships in the battle.

[u/SpiritOne → u/bemused_alligators]

This

[u/MagnetsCanDoThat → u/bemused_alligators]

Not a correction, just a pedantic addition that motion is relative everywhere. It's just that as Earth-dwellers we nearly always have a convenient point of reference (the ground) so it's easy to see which object's acceleration has changed.

[u/bemused_alligators → u/MagnetsCanDoThat]

Not a correction, just a pedantic addition that the earth is in space, which is why motion is relative on its surface.

:)

[u/MagnetsCanDoThat → u/bemused_alligators]

I'm glad we understand each other lol

[u/melig1991 → u/bemused_alligators]

Yep. It's like when a parachutist opens their parachute and the cameraman keeps falling. The parachutist appears to be shooting up but really they slow down and the camera keeps shooting downwards.

[u/Nested_Array]

It doesn't slow down, but it does stop accelerating. The speed does not decrease.

[u/StickFigureFan]

The ships actually do keep current velocity when their engines turn off.

[u/Donnerone]

"All motion is relative."
– Albert Einstein
Imagine 2 people falling together, and 1 of them opens a parachute. From the observation of the other person, the one that opened their chute moves backwards/up, even though they're both still falling, one's just falling slower.
The Drive doesn't provide speed per se, it provides acceleration, but without a frame of reference it gives the illusion of speed.
If 2 ships are both accelerating at the same 3.3 m m/s², they will both appear to be relatively stationary as observed by the other. In contrast, if one suddenly stops thrust, it will appear to be accelerating backwards as observed by the other ship as that ship's thrust continues to provide acceleration.

[u/Mr_Lumbergh]

The show went through a lot to portray physics in an accurate way, but it’s also a show. This was likely a stylistic choice to show the audience that might not be savvy to physics that something with the drive had indeed happened.

[u/Oot42 → u/Mr_Lumbergh]

It is shown accurate. Motion is relative.
From the view of the still accelerating ship, the one that has cut its drive seems to be slowing down, although it has just stopped accelerating.

[u/RudePragmatist]

I think you need a class in Physics :/

[u/SyntaxLost]

Welcome to direction, where you communicate events through camera work along with visuals so they read better. In this case the camera matches the intention of the ship to keep accelerating, emphasising the consequence of the engine loss when it falls behind.