Starship Bloopers
It is always easy to read or write a science fiction book where you either are asked to "just accept it" or you ask your reader to do so. It goes without saying that this rule must ring true with moviemakers and their audiences. Such was the case with director Paul Verhoeven, who is renowned as a sci-fi guru of sorts in the movie world, and his interpretation of Robert Heinlein's book Starship Troopers. "Paul became a box office success after the release of Robocop (1987), [and then with] Total Recall (1990)[,] and...Critics often praise him for his violent and intelligent science fiction movies" (Expatica.com). However, despite his "...degree in math and physics"(Expatica.com), he failed to consider, and take into account, many obvious mistakes, some of which are catastrophic to theorems we rely upon today.In the following paragraphs I will discuss some of the small, yet obvious mistakes that we are asked to "just accept" after which, I will discuss the largest and most bothersome mistake in the movie. We can start with the basics of the time that it takes to travel across the galaxy. Given the rough estimate that the galaxy is 100,000 light years from end to end and the battle for the bug planet Big K had taken place in
However, since we are aware that the asteroid is moving much faster than that we could assume that the impact of the meteorite would not only destroy Buenos Aries but also send tidal waves towards Africa, Antarctica, and even north possibly as far as North America. Some may even speculate that it may hit with an impact that would have enough force to tip the planet off of its axis and possibly to throw the moon out of orbit. When the drop is in progress 12 Drop Ship launch bays can be counted on either side of the large Carrier or Roger Young. It is also hypothesized that sixty-five million years ago, a meteorite impacted what is now the Yucatan region of Mexico. One can come to the conclusion that the drop ships that were used to transport the Mobile Infantry to the surface of the "Bug" planet Big K, were roughly 30' X 30' X 24' and held 30 troops on either side of the ship. After estimating the size of the ship and making a comparison, it appears that the asteroid is a cylinder roughly three times the length and four or five times the diameter of the Roger Young. 4 miles in circumference and 700ft deep. From the first launch bay to the tip of the nose of the ship is roughly a third of the size of the flight deck and the distance from the rear to the last launch bay is just a little bit larger than the combined length of the flight deck and the nose. If you allot roughly 10' between any of the 12 Drop Ship launch bays you can assume that the length of the ship's flight deck is 600 feet or so. A rough estimation of the size of the asteroid is 8. Unless they left the earth traveling at one thousand times the speed of light, in which case it would take roughly 50 years to reach the bug planet. However, there is much talk of theoretical anti-particles called tachyons, which would normally move faster than light, and could only be slowed-down by adding energy to them, while it takes more energy to speed-up normal particles. Roughly, this makes the Roger Young 1700' in length.
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Acceptance Essays
