Geeky questions

[Reply #40 on:]

...oh right, you know what - 3am. It's a cartoon.

You came to that conclusion once before and yet you're still here.

You're a cartoon too!

[Reply #41 on:]

Who told you!?!

[Reply #42 on:]

Ooh, I have another (unrelated) geeky question.

Why, in God Fellas, can't the Planet Express ship catch up to Bender after he's been fired out of the torpedo tube?

i) If the ship needs the power of its engines just to maintain its current speed than what 'maintains' Bender at the speed he is going at? Or, to put it another way, if cutting the engines would cause the ship would slow down then why doesn't Bender, who has no engines, also slow down?

(Note: On earth, gravity drags projectiles into the ground long before air resistance brings them to a halt but if we could somehow have air without gravity (or a curved earth) we would see that bullets (etc.) would behave like they did at the end of the Matrix; they would slow down and eventually just stop, (much like they do when fired into water) 'hanging' in the air where they are. So if there's something that acts like friction when you're travelling at Planet Express ship-like speeds which requires powerful engines just to prevent you from always slowing down then why doesn't it act on Bender the same way it seems to act on the ship?)

ii) If things in space retain their current speed and direction unless they are acted on by some force (causing acceleration or deceleration, i.e., the way things work in the universe according to our current understanding) then why can't the ship run the engines a bit longer to get a bit faster and (eventually) catch up with Bender?

All of this has already been answered in previous posts. But what I wonder is why they didn't keep trying to get to Bender? Sooner or later he would either
i) hit a meteor / planet / moon / garbage / whatever,
ii) stop as his speed goes by a negative acceleration; as space isn't a complete vacuum he is constantly slowed down, even if this only is 1 *10^-10000 m/s^2 or whatever. Sooner or later he would either stop, or have slowed down enough for them to get to him. As they are his best friends, what were they thinking simply to stop the ship?!

[Reply #43 on:]

That may take millions of years, assuming Bender isn't gravitationaly slingshoted by a black hole, star, planet, etc. to an even higher speed. Even today a common NASA technique.

[Reply #44 on:]

I'm guessing that they (Leela & Fry) knew that they would run out of air, water, or food (i.e. life support) and/or fuel long before either of those things were likely to have occured.

[Reply #45 on:]

I'm guessing that they (Leela & Fry) knew that they would run out of air, water, or food (i.e. life support) and/or fuel long before either of those things were likely to have occured.

Concidering Bender was shot out in the direction they were already heading, I don't think the problem is getting out of civilization / deep space.

[Reply #46 on:]

Yeah, but if you break off the pursuit to go and replenish the ship's supplies you'll be that much further behind him when you take it up again and if you have to do this several times then you'll be so far behind that you'll have no way of knowing if something up ahead had interfered with his trajectory.

Also I suspect the ship will malfunction or break down long before the 'friction' of interstellar space would have had any detectable effect on Bender.


On the other hand why didn't they spend their time looking for a faster ship rather than mucking about in the Himalayas?

[Reply #47 on:]

On the other hand why didn't they spend their time looking for a faster ship rather than mucking about in the Himalayas?

The PE ship drives at maximum speed, doesn't it? I think the Professor speaks of it in A Clone of My Own.

[Reply #48 on:]

I'm guessing that they (Leela & Fry) knew that they would run out of air, water, or food (i.e. life support) and/or fuel long before either of those things were likely to have occured.

On the other hand why didn't they spend their time looking for a faster ship rather than mucking about in the Himalayas?

It's a CARTOON.  They make stuff up to fit the episode.  

Besides, if there's anything that doesn't make sense, it's the work of Dark Wizards...

[Reply #49 on:]

It's a CARTOON.  They make stuff up to fit the episode. 

Besides, if there's anything that doesn't make sense, it's the work of Dark Wizards...

This is the "geeky questions" thread, that answer doesn't do

[Reply #50 on:]

You tell 'im, Aki!   

   Besides, if there's anything that doesn't make sense, it's the work of Dark Wizards...

Oh sure! Blame the wizards!   

[Reply #51 on:]

I guess this is a geeky question. I was just viewing the Powerpuff Girls Uh Oh Dynamo. The monster the girls fought grabbed a passing el-train and used it as nunchucks .Just like Zoidberg did in the Anthology no.1.
Do you think Futurama borrowed the comic device?
BTW Uh Oh Dynamo was first aired May 27 1999 and AOI 1 was aired 21st of May 2000. Possibly enough time to write it in.

Just wondering

[Reply #52 on:]

Sorry if I'm repeating stuff which has already been said, but hobbitboy's question interested me so much that I started typing before I realised there was a second page on this thread.

Why, in God Fellas, can't the Planet Express ship catch up to Bender after he's been fired out of the torpedo tube?

This is a very clever question that I had never considered before! The obvious relativity joke doesn't take into account that the ship couldn't have a top speed. Unless that speed was 'c', which Bender couldn't be going faster than (not even after the speed of light has been sped up).

Also, I don't get why you are talking about air.  Bender is in vacuum.  There is no friction.  

Exactly the point. He's talking about air because the ship theoretically wouldn't have a top speed, it could have a maximum acceleration, but without air, gravity (or some kind of friction), the ship would just continue to speed up indefinitely.

The best answer to this was Frisco17

I'd say the fact that the ship would become more massive as it gains speed would create a speed limit Coldy. Namely the speed at which it became infinitely massive.

ie. Perhaps the ship has some automatic system to make sure it doesn't accelerate to TOO high a speed, therefore limiting its expanding mass.

Mind you... I'm not really taking into account Cubert's explanation of the ship's engines, and am not sure even that would solve the problem posed by hobbitboy.

Anyway, Fry and Leela should have persevered for a little while and they would have caught up with him, as Bender was smart enough to slow himself down.

[Reply #53 on:]

If you notice in Bender's Big Score when Fry went to take monet of the frozen him and fell in the freezer, when he reset it to wake him up in 7 or so years, wouldn't he have woken up at a different time than he did because they made the year longer in Crimes of the Hot?

[Reply #54 on:]

Well obviously they would have upgraded all the computers and cryogenic tubes and such so that their calendars had the new longer year.

[Reply #55 on:]

 Good point, MadFellow.

[Reply #56 on:]

If you notice in Bender's Big Score when Fry went to take monet of the frozen him and fell in the freezer, when he reset it to wake him up in 7 or so years, wouldn't he have woken up at a different time than he did because they made the year longer in Crimes of the Hot?

"Crimes of the Hot" takes place in 3003 or 3004 (if I recall correctly), by which it makes it a year longer.  But even today, computer gets updated when daylight savings changes around the world, I am certain that they could just upgrade the timer while it was running to compensate for the new length of the year.

I mean, a year is still a year, is it not?  More specifically, a year refers to the full orbit of a planet.

[Reply #57 on:]

That's True. But someday i'll think of something

[Reply #58 on:]

Anyway, Fry and Leela should have persevered for a little while and they would have caught up with him, as Bender was smart enough to slow himself down.

He could have farted for some reverse thrust. Of course he couldn't light them, as in 'Crimes of the Hot', unless Bender carries his own oxidiser...

[Reply #59 on:]

Anyway, Fry and Leela should have persevered for a little while and they would have caught up with him, as Bender was smart enough to slow himself down.

He could have farted for some reverse thrust. Of course he couldn't light them, as in 'Crimes of the Hot', unless Bender carries his own oxidiser...

Look, I would be the first to stand on the roof tops and shout about these inaccuracies had it been, say, Star Trek, but since it is Futurama, I don't mind the plot revolting around convenience.

The entire premise for that plot is that they cannot find him or catch him.  Though, I am sure you could have come up with a better explanation.

A reasonable explanation for the 'full speed' Leela was talking about; it's the future.  Everybody has a spaceship.  So I am sure there are 'speed limits'.  Even most road cars today can go a lot faster than 220km/h, but they are all limited, so they can all only go that fast.  I would assume the same would be the case for the Planet Express ship.

[Reply #60 on:]

But even if the PE ship did have speed limits wouldn't they go quicker to catch Bender?

[Reply #61 on:]

But even if the PE ship did have speed limits wouldn't they go quicker to catch Bender?

How?  The speed is limited.  Only way to 'break' the limitation would go to an illegal repair dealer.  These limiters are rarely intended to be turned on and off easily.

[Reply #62 on:]

Farnsworth is a mad scientist.  If someone required him to put a limiter on his spaceship, I'm pretty sure that figuring out how to disable it would be the first thing he'd do.

Well, maybe the second thing, after creating a race of atomic monsters with hexagonal shaped bodies...

[Reply #63 on:]

Sorry. I misunderstood you. I thought you meant speed limits in different areas like 60mph or 30mph or something.

[Reply #64 on:]

But even if the PE ship did have speed limits wouldn't they go quicker to catch Bender?

No.

     
     
I'll just... ooze... back out under the laboratory door now...

[Reply #65 on:]

So they're intentionally trying to keep you 282.4 miles per second below the speed of light?

[Reply #66 on:]

It's a safety margin. The OSH department insisted.

[Reply #67 on:]

o_O And you call yourself Futurama fans!?  I spit in your general direction!  Clearly you forgot an important fact, mentioned - if only off hand - in "A Clone of My Own", that the speed of light had been increased vastly!  I realise the same rules may yet apply, but your choices of limits and exact figures makes no sense.

Even less does it make sense to use 'miles per second', at least use a figure that is defined by the speed of light; metres.  Miles are defined by the length of a metre.  You English native speakers disgust me.

[Reply #68 on:]

That was uncalled for.

[Reply #69 on:]

   Clearly you forgot an important fact, mentioned - if only off hand - in "A Clone of My Own", that the speed of light had been increased vastly!

Clearly you forgot an important fact that, as of the year 2010, the speed of light has not yet been increased (even slightly)!

   your choices of limits and exact figures makes no sense.

Our choices? Are you claiming that one of us made that sign?

   Even less does it make sense to use 'miles per second', at least use a figure that is defined by the speed of light; metres.  Miles are defined by the length of a metre.

Metres, miles, megafonzies; what difference does it make as long as one can be converted into the others (and vice versa)?

   You English native speakers disgust me.

So if we're not native speakers (whatever that is) and/or we're not English then we're fine, right?

[Reply #70 on:]

   Clearly you forgot an important fact, mentioned - if only off hand - in "A Clone of My Own", that the speed of light had been increased vastly!

Clearly you forgot an important fact that, as of the year 2010, the speed of light has not yet been increased (even slightly)!

Then what was your quote:

So they're intentionally trying to keep you 282.4 miles per second below the speed of light?

... referring to?  Someone travelling at the speed of light now?

   your choices of limits and exact figures makes no sense.

Our choices? Are you claiming that one of us made that sign?

No, I am claiming one of you posted that sign.  I assume that is a cognitive ability that SpaceCase have, in which she was capable of make a decision whether to post it or not.  I argue this is not on the shoulders of you or El-Man, but you decided not to call SpaceCase out on it, which you should have!  You went on with it as if it was truth.

   Even less does it make sense to use 'miles per second', at least use a figure that is defined by the speed of light; metres.  Miles are defined by the length of a metre.

Metres, miles, megafonzies; what difference does it make as long as one can be converted into the others (and vice versa)?

Will you be fine if I use Roman Paces?  Or if I used a different form of time, not Metric Time, mind you.  Would you not find that a tad bit... inefficient.  To have too many different system of measurement?

Speed of light is most commonly found in the definition of metres, I find it in any other measurement insulting.

   You English native speakers disgust me.

So if we're not native speakers (whatever that is) and/or we're not English then we're fine, right?

A native or first language is the language taught to one from birth.  If your first language is English, you are an English native speaker.

And to the latter part of your question; yes.  Most non-English speaking countries uses sensible units of measurements.  It's ironic that the English speaking countries have yet to make it out of the Middleages.

[Reply #71 on:]

I know what he said about the speed of light increasing.

Also, I didn't make the sign. Stop looking at me.

[Reply #72 on:]

         Clearly you forgot an important fact, mentioned - if only off hand - in "A Clone of My Own", that the speed of light had been increased vastly!

      Clearly you forgot an important fact that, as of the year 2010, the speed of light has not yet been increased (even slightly)!

   Then what was your quote:

      So they're intentionally trying to keep you 282.4 miles per second below the speed of light?

   ... referring to?  Someone travelling at the speed of light now?

Of course.      If it was after the increase the figure on the sign would have been vastly different.

         your choices of limits and exact figures makes no sense.

      Our choices? Are you claiming that one of us made that sign?

   No, I am claiming one of you posted that sign. I assume that is a cognitive ability that SpaceCase have, in which she was capable of make a decision whether to post it or not.  I argue this is not on the shoulders of you or El-Man, but you decided not to call SpaceCase out on it, which you should have!

Why would we have any reason or desire to call her out on posting the image? I have no objection to people using whichever units they find convenient and I don't imagine that El-Man does either.

   You went on with it as if it was truth.

Are you saying it is not true that the speed of light is (currently) approximately 186,000 miles per second?

         Even less does it make sense to use 'miles per second', at least use a figure that is defined by the speed of light; metres.  Miles are defined by the length of a metre.

      Metres, miles, megafonzies; what difference does it make as long as one can be converted into the others (and vice versa)?

   Will you be fine if I use Roman Paces?  Or if I used a different form of time, not Metric Time, mind you.  Would you not find that a tad bit... inefficient.  To have too many different system of measurement?

While I may find it inefficient, so what? I'm not in control of how other people do things and I hope I never strive to be.

   Speed of light is most commonly found in the definition of metres, I find it in any other measurement insulting.

That's your problem, not ours.

         You English native speakers disgust me.

      So if we're not native speakers (whatever that is) and/or we're not English then we're fine, right?

   A native or first language is the language taught to one from birth.  If your first language is English, you are an English native speaker.

See, where I come from, if your first language is English we would say you are a native English speaker (c.f. here and here).

To me the phrase 'English native speaker' sounds strange and, quite frankly, something that only a non-native speaker of English would say.

[Reply #73 on:]

Of course.      If it was after the increase the figure on the sign would have been vastly different.

Way to avoid the question!

Why would we have any reason or desire to call her out on posting the image? I have no objection to people using whichever units they find convenient and I don't imagine that El-Man does either.

I am not talking about units here!  I meant you should object to the image, because it does not represent the speed of light in Futurama.  Regardless of choice of units.  Unless, of course, the distance of a mile and/or length of a second has changed as well, but I doubt it.

Are you saying it is not true that the speed of light is (currently) approximately 186,000 miles per second?

Approximately does not cut it for me.  Otherwise correct.

While I may find it inefficient, so what? I'm not in control of how other people do things and I hope I never strive to be.

Neither am I.  But I can still be a jerk about it!  Is a belief not worth fighting for?  And are your enemies not always other people?

That's your problem, not ours.

Touché.  I'll give you that much.

See, where I come from, if your first language is English we would say you are a native English speaker (c.f. here and here).

To me the phrase 'English native speaker' sounds strange and, quite frankly, something that only a non-native speaker of English would say.

Pleased to meet you.

[Reply #74 on:]

Have at it.
I'll just... ooze... back out under the laboratory door now...

[Reply #75 on:]

Way to keep the argument going.

[Reply #76 on:]

Way to keep the argument going.

You're welcome.

[Reply #77 on:]

I like SpaceCase.  We need more SpaceCases.

[Reply #78 on:]

Yeah! Let's get a whole army of SpaceCases to invade PEEL!

Or does that go too far?

I think it might.

[Reply #79 on:]

Yeah! Let's get a whole army of SpaceCases to invade PEEL!

That would require a lot more doors and PEEL would get very oozy.