Live data from Hacker News

Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

twitter.com

81–90 of 109 posts

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#81
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their starship was bullshit. On earth they needed a big Saturn 5 like rocket to bring it into space and later they fly into orbit like it's nothing. If the planets they visited had much lower gravity then earth this may be possible, but this wasn't noticeable or talked about. And even on Mars you need much more fuel to get into orbit than could be stored in their tiny ship.

Eh, this isn't actually that bad. It's quite easy, using a jet aircraft, to (via a ballistic trajectory) get into space. Surrounded by reaction mass as you are, the rocket equation isn't nearly so bad. You could conceivably dock with something in orbit, if you had elastic tethers or something to make the acceleration survivable. If you're much lighter than what you're docking with, you won't knock the satellite out o…

>It's quite easy, using a jet aircraft, to (via a ballistic trajectory) get into space

A jet engine requires atmosphere. Spaces requires no (or very little) atmosphere.

The edge of space is usually defined at 100km (the Karman line).

The highest altitude reach by an air breathing jet is around 37km. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record

A scramjet might get to ~75km according to: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/44837/what-is-t...

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#82
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't watch 'Ad Astra' then. That's also incredibly disappointing (IMHO).

Not if you take it as a comedy - then the buggy joy ride, monkey station & space surfing make perfect sense. ;-)

Maybe I should have watched it in a state of inebriation. I don't think I could face a second attempt at it.

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, this isn't actually that bad. It's quite easy, using a jet aircraft, to (via a ballistic trajectory) get into space. Surrounded by reaction mass as you are, the rocket equation isn't nearly so bad. You could conceivably dock with something in orbit, if you had elastic tethers or something to make the acceleration survivable. If you're much lighter than what you're docking with, you won't knock the satellite out o…

>It's quite easy, using a jet aircraft, to (via a ballistic trajectory) get into space A jet engine requires atmosphere. Spaces requires no (or very little) atmosphere. The edge of space is usually defined at 100km (the Karman line). The highest altitude reach by an air breathing jet is around 37km. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record A scramjet might get to ~75km according to: https://aviation.stack…

That's the point at which the jet stops working, but by that point you can be going quite fast. If there isn't enough air to run the jet engine, there also isn't enough air to slow you down (much).

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#85
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How fast could this run in a modern CPU with a modern GPU?

There's a nice recreation on Shadertoy: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/lstSRS No idea if it's doing the same simulation though.

So beautiful, thanks for sharing.

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the digital movie camera used to film the actors relies on the photoelectric effect to turn light into pixel data, you could say Einstein’s equations were used for the live-action portion too!

Um actually… Chris Nolan doesn’t shoot digital. His more recent pictures (Interstellar included) are shot on a mixture of 35mm, 70mm and IMAX 70mm (!)

What's the difference between 70mm and IMAX 70mm? Is it just the aspect ratio (2.20:1 vs 1.43:1)?

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#87
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we watch the same movie? They got bunch of physics stuff right, like the water planet, the relative aging due to being near the massive black hole etc. Only thing that wasn't "correct" was the wormhole and especially the tesseract, but that was some creative writing which allowed for a nice twist. I enjoyed it, a nice scifi.

It was completely uneven. Cooper sobbing as he listened to years of messages from his family? I wish I could've written that. The twist where Mann activated his beacon because he didn't want to die alone? Solid. We need the gravity equation to get off Earth because the crops are dying? Love can escape a black hole through the tesseract? This is just patent technobabble nonsense. Where _Interstellar_ fails is in expos…

The love angle actually makes sense here. There's no technological way to do what needed to be done: find a willing recipient amongst strangers for a message from the impossible. Only because Murph shared a bond she was able to correctly bet on that there was a message and find out what it was. In something everyone else would not even consider.

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#88
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we watch the same movie? They got bunch of physics stuff right, like the water planet, the relative aging due to being near the massive black hole etc. Only thing that wasn't "correct" was the wormhole and especially the tesseract, but that was some creative writing which allowed for a nice twist. I enjoyed it, a nice scifi.

It was completely uneven. Cooper sobbing as he listened to years of messages from his family? I wish I could've written that. The twist where Mann activated his beacon because he didn't want to die alone? Solid. We need the gravity equation to get off Earth because the crops are dying? Love can escape a black hole through the tesseract? This is just patent technobabble nonsense. Where _Interstellar_ fails is in expos…

> We need the gravity equation to get off Earth because the crops are dying?

The small craft could launch from a planet with twice the Earth’s surface gravity, make it to escape velocity, and meet the Endurance?

Why would they need better propulsion than that to leave the planet and build space habitats?

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#89
post #87
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was completely uneven. Cooper sobbing as he listened to years of messages from his family? I wish I could've written that. The twist where Mann activated his beacon because he didn't want to die alone? Solid. We need the gravity equation to get off Earth because the crops are dying? Love can escape a black hole through the tesseract? This is just patent technobabble nonsense. Where _Interstellar_ fails is in expos…

The love angle actually makes sense here. There's no technological way to do what needed to be done: find a willing recipient amongst strangers for a message from the impossible. Only because Murph shared a bond she was able to correctly bet on that there was a message and find out what it was. In something everyone else would not even consider.

Nothing is forbidden, until you try to explain it. I come from the perspective that genre is a contract with the audience. Here _Interstellar_ is making a genre error.

Take _Star Wars_ for example. You don't need to know how the Force works. There's no suspension of disbelief because you've bought into the genre and its tropes. The Force is everywhere, Luke is atuned to it. We don't need to know anything else mechanixally. Then they rolled up with midichlorians and reduced the whole thing to jibberish.

_Interstellar_ sets a hard sci-fi expectation with a visually accurate black hole before losing the train of thought. Imagine if _Lord of the Rings_ spent 20 minutes discussing how the plate tectonics of Middle Earth gave rise to Mount Doom before veering off into the history of the eagles. It gives your audience whiplash.

Re: Interstellar movie black hole implemented with Einstein's equations in C++

#90
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clickbait, but I'm amused since it implies the blackhole is the main star of the movie.

Is it not? Would you say the Sun was the main star then?

I haven't seen the movie. It looks great (especially the BH), but the plot makes no sense to me and I didn't feel like watching it.
Post reply on HN