"Pasecs v Light years" Topic

Can anyone tell me the difference in distance? Not si much in yards or metres but in a comparison. Is there three parsecs to a light year etc?

A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

I play the Wiki card:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec

Thanks SpaceCudget. And you too Tnjrp don't know why I didn't think to google it. :o)

Fools! Everyone knows Parsec is a measure of velocity.

Han Solo is never wrong.

Real science is fun!

vimeo.com/29369746

Fools! Everyone knows Parsec is a measure of velocity.

Han Solo is never wrong.

If he's never wrong, then wouldn't a parsec be a unit of time, not velocity?

Doug

Han was just messing with the old guy and the young jerk!

or if you believe family guy?

However it has been retconned that the dificulty in making the kessel run, is that the distance is important, and a fast ship with a good pilot can make shortcuts that slower ships cannot take.

Like a racing line around a circuit, and a faster racing line in a nippier vehicle with a better driver? Stig Rules!

My understanding was that technically he screwed up while trying to escape…

Took a short cut that was not theoretically possible (or at least not wise due the black hole issues).

He got lucky (or his latent force abilities helped). Made it out alive. Turned the mistake into bragging rights.

Or option two… Harrison Ford flubbed his line and nobody caught it in editing.

Good intel Space Cudet !!!

It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs

And I ran the marathon in under 10 miles!

They tried to cover up the mistake by shifting it to Solo's piloting a shortcut but it really is the answer to the question of "Is it fast?". Then Solo continues that it has out run "Imperial starships". Nothing about taking a shortcut to avoid them.

Now, now. He was probably refering to a dangerous short cut he took going through hyperspace and did indeed run his marathon in under 10 miles ^,^

Kessel Run? The Stig made it in 11.78 parsecs. But it was a wet track.

Or option two… Harrison Ford flubbed his line and nobody caught it in editing.

Or option three – it's a ty script.

Doug

If he's never wrong, then wouldn't a parsec be a unit of time, not velocity?

Never tell him the odds.

Google acts as a calculator, in addition all its other wonderfulness.

If you Google "1 parsec in light years" it gives you about 3.26.

If you Google "17.1 parsecs in light years" it gives you about 55.8.

You can do this with all sorts of units: weight, mass, time, distance, area, volume, and so forth. (Oh, and temperature.) I think that you can convert teaspoons to liters, should you so desire.

1,799,884,800,000 furlongs per fortnight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

1,799,884,800,000 furlongs per fortnight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

Hilarious!

I had a lecturer at college who always mentioned furlongs per fortnight, particularly when he was banging on about radial speed. Thank's for bringing that memory back.

"It's all just Ohm's Law" was another of his favourite quotes.

My chemistry teacher at school used to say "well, so fails another law of nature" whenever an experiment didn't come out quite right.

I don't blame Han for the line, I blame it on Lucas for not knowing some people are going to pick that out. Like so many movie makers they always think they are smarter than their audience.

Maybe Lucas considered Han thought his passengers wouldn't know the difference either. Han had no way of knowing Obi-wan had already been all over the galaxy, but it's clear Luke even if born off world. Was just a local farm boy.

I still can't recall if that line is in the original novelization. Will have to check, again. AFAIK Solo is definitely tooting his own horn a bit at the (presumed) local yokels who don't know who they are dealing with.

Just Lucas trying to sound spacey surely.
Don't forget it was before Google so you'd need a book on space measurement or good Encyclopedia or a friend who knows Astro whatever and who is home because there was no mobile phones then too. :o)

Obi-Wan's expression in response to the line is somewhat appropriate…

'Get serious dude, I just sliced a guy in half with a Lightsaber, do I look like I put up with a lot of BS?'

Yes, it is a bit much. Then again, maybe most people didn't notice?

Why are they all speaking English in a galaxy far far away anyway? Failure of SETI translation software, perhaps?

If One light-year is equal to:

exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km (about 9.5 Pm)
about 5,878,625,373,183.6 miles (about 6 trillion miles)
about 63,241.1 astronomical units
about 0.306601 parsecs
exactly 31,557,600 light-seconds
… how much is a regular year ?

"I still can't recall if that line is in the original novelization."

From the Del Rey Star Wars book (17th printing)
"It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve standard timeparts!"

(The line might be different in an earlier edition. If so, Lucas has had a longtime habit of editing his stuff before regurgitating it again.)

Then again, maybe it was crappy THX sound quality that garbled up the line and people have had it wrong ever since…. LOL

No, Zephyr1, that's also the line in the first screenplay (from which the novelisation is taken). Shooting scripts are often a rewrite of the screenplay (and SW had rewrites on the shooting scripts quite often).

So for you smart guys, and I ain't one … is a light year 186,300 mph ? Not use where is saw that figure ?

So for you smart guys, and I ain't one … is a light year 186,300 mph ? Not use where is saw that figure ?

No. The speed of light is 186,000 miles a second. A light year is how far light travels in a year. About 6 trillion miles.

If One light-year is equal to:

exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km (about 9.5 Pm)
about 5,878,625,373,183.6 miles (about 6 trillion miles)
about 63,241.1 astronomical units
about 0.306601 parsecs
exactly 31,557,600 light-seconds
… how much is a regular year ?

Sounds like the computer test in "Idiocracy":

"If you have one bucket that contains 2 gallons and another bucket that contains 7 gallons, how many buckets do you have? "

Oh … Thanks Boys !!! I was never very good at math …