[asimovian]

Did you notice explosions in outer space - even in the Star Wars movies - cause a billowing out cloud of fumes ? It's really a pity they do this, because it's an impossibility. The characteristic form of the cloud produced by an explosion is due to resistance of the surrounding air, which makes the fumes look like an expanding cauliflower. In space this would not happen of course, the expanding particles would simply fly out in every direction (but in a movie, the producers reckon, this would not look spectacular enough).

Lots of revelations like this (which however I didn't get from this website) on http://intuitor.com/moviephysics/index.html

[Lifino]

Of-course fire needs oxygen to exist, and there being a distinct lack of it in space there tends not to be much wild-fire...

But in the movies I believe that they argue the, 'There shouldn't be fire in that explosion' arguement with, 'Yeah but there's all that oxygen inside the spaceship keeping the crew alive." To a certain extent I'm willing to accept this, however I've never seen a spaceship explode in outerspace.

As for the shape of the explosion, I'd assume that Hollywood has it all wrong. The forces at work would distort the standard mushroom into some strange shape, and by some fluke of nature it'd probably look like Einstein sticking out his tongue:p

-Silas

[Miriamele]

If you're going to start talking about the things in Star Wars that aren't really possible then you're opening a pretty big can of worms...

[Killer Chicken]

Indeed, like sound in space, not possible.

[asimovian]

Killer Chicken,

quote
Indeed, like sound in space, not possible
unquote

Right.
Remember Alien, "In space, they can't hear you scream" ?
Well, they can't hear you explode either.

[asimovian]

Lifino,

quote
Of-course fire needs oxygen to exist, and there being a distinct lack of it in space there tends not to be much wild-fire...
unquote

No, but explosions should be distinctly possible, even if they do not cause much wild-fire. The air contained in them should pemit this. I don't think an explosion needs a lot of oxygen, after all, it takes only a frection of a second.
The explosions would be shapeless as all the particles resulting from the explosion would just fly out in every direction like an expanding light flash. There would be no discernable shape because there would be no smoke. Whatever gas would be produced by the explosion would immediately expand and disappear into empty space.

[fluffy bunny]

Bloomin heck- ur willing to yell about fires and sound in space, along with ships suddenly changing direction in dogfights in space in STAR WARS.

It asks for a suspension of belief in the 1st place- light sabers, the force etc and ur not willing to forgive the less obvious elements????????

[Ogg]

U mean its not real ?? :( :( :(

[asimovian]

fluffy bunny,

quote
Bloomin heck- ur willing to yell about fires and sound in space, along with ships suddenly changing direction in dogfights in space in STAR WARS.

It asks for a suspension of belief in the 1st place- light sabers, the force etc and ur not willing to forgive the less obvious elements????????
unquote

who is yelling ?
And after all, if we are on these forums then it's because we already have a slighter open mind than the usual man in the street and we *want* to believe in the possibiity of certain things which haven't happened yet - or, at least, which make us forget for a while about this world.
And I want to add that light sabers and even the force are not ideas which have been proven to be impossible, while we all know very well - if we are in good faith - about the nonsense of the things which we are talking about in this thread ; *those* are the things which are forcing a suspension of belief on us, fluffy bunny.
And what makes you think I am not 'willing to forgive' these ?
What is there to be forgiven ? Nothing, as far as I am concerned, as I do not consider myself insulted.

[Lifino]

Asimovian,

What I was saying didn't have so much to do with the explosion... Rather I was looking at the possibility of fire somewhere within that explosion... It seems to me that as the movie makers would have us believe that the oxygen onboard would be enough to fuel a fire for a brief moment.

My oppinion stated I'll now explore the 'shape' of the fire...

I'd have to imagine that any fire would be very small... As it spread out it would become more and more suffocated and would thin out into nothingness... Then again it would need a flamible gas mixed with the oxygen, and a spark that would ignite it... For the purpose of the movies I can accept all that if it makes it more intertaining to watch(I much prefered reading 2001 to watching it on screen-they were just too faithful to the book)

Oh, yeah! Asimovian, what's a 'slighter'?
:confused: :p :rolleyes:

-Silas