Wizards, aliens, and starships physics and math in fantasy and science fiction /
"From teleportation and space elevators to alien contact and interstellar travel, science fiction and fantasy writers have come up with some brilliant and innovative ideas. Yet how plausible are these ideas--for instance, could Mr. Weasley's flying car in Harry Potter really exist? Which c...
| Main Author: | Adler, Charles L., |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Princeton :
Princeton University Press,
2014.
|
| Physical Description: |
1 online resource. |
| Subjects: |
Table of Contents:
- Playing the Game
- I. Potter Physics
- Harry Potter and the Great Conservation Laws
- Why Hogwarts is So Dark
- Fantastic Beasts and How to Disprove Them
- II. Space Travel
- Why Computers Get Better and Cars Can't (Much)
- Vacations in Space
- Space Colonies
- The Space Elevator
- Manned Interplanetary Travel
- Advanced Propulsion Systems
- Speculative Propulsion Systems
- Interstellar Travel and Relativity
- Faster Than Light Travel and Time Travel
- III. Worlds and Aliens
- Designing a Habitable Planet
- The Scientific Search for Spock
- The Mathematics of Talking with Aliens
- IV. Year Googol
- The Short-term Survival of Humanity
- World-Building
- Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds
- Advanced Civilizations and the Kardashev Scale
- A Googol Years.