When George Lucas created a fictional universe of Star Wars, He thought most of it up himself. And, whatever he created; became, a fact (in the fictional universe of Star Wars, that is).

And, any book with the Lucas Books seal, became FACT!!!!!

So, the official guide books with that seal, are true.

And, those facts are good enough evidence as it is.

Became approved fiction. Not fact. Lucas is a filmmaker. Not a physicist. Not a god. Not Q. He cannot change physical law to suit himself.

You might wish to reacquaint yourself with this by popping over to Phil's astronomy-reviews of the prequels. Maybe get a little perspective? You seem to be taking this a bit too seriously.

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The problem here is that Lucas is not a physicist, which means the numbers he put in the books are not expressen in any units we know of, even if their names may have a superficial resemblance to some we use.
Start with that assumption and deduce the values as expressed in our units
and you might get to a point where comparison is actually possible.

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You seem to not get the point straight here.

In the fictional universe of Star Wars, the numbers (the ones from the official guide books) became FACTS!

Sure I do. The point is: a fictional universe with a made-up physical system can't be meaningfully compared to another universe with a made-up physical system unless the made-up physical systems both agree. In this case, they don't. Not even a little. Not even with themselves.

If you want to compare the two, you have to compare technologies at a very abstract level. For example: The halo universe has FTL and can go between nearby systems in several hours. Star Wars has FTL and can cross substantial portions of a galaxy (or globular cluser perhaps?) in the same several hours. A meaningful comparison is possible.

If you want to say that Halo's FTL requires fifteen radishes (but not fourteen, nor sixteen) to operate while Star Wars FTL is fueled by 8.5 barrels of whale acne, then that's a claim and must conform to a system (fictional or otherwise) that doesn't break down if you look at it sideways.

If you two want to claim that a plasma rifle (Halo) delivers 5 million joules to the target, (10,000x more energy than a ridiculously overpowered speargun), you have to understand that the effect on a target is going to be dramatically greater than merely getting shot.

You want numbers? Here's a number for you: That plasma rifle where Kahardrin claims it delivers 5 MJs (and you agreed with that number)... If 1KT of TNT has a yield of 4.184 TJ (courtesy wikipedia), then the halo plasma rifle has the same yield as 1.19 tons of TNT.

If you want to claim made-up numbers, then the numbers have to make sense.

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Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
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I see your point, but you seem to forget that you could compare the fictional Star Wars to Halo any time you wish. Hence the words,
"a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

And, I didn't agree with Kahardrin on the plasma rifle numbers ( I was referring to other numbers [hence, I didn't specify which numbers I was talking about] that you mistakenly thought was Kahardrin's plasma rifle numbers).

No worries, I was on your side (but, not on your comparison theory).

Now, we all have gotten off the subject of this thread. Let's get back to the original subject, please.

Not really taking a side, to be honest. I just don't like seeing rubbish numbers flung about like they meant something.

By all means.

Just keep your 'babble guides in your holsters* if you please, like they're doing in the Trek vs BG thread**. (*Note the plural.) (** There was one exceptional claim there, and I'm debating with myself if I care enough to dispute it.)

Unless, of course, you'd like to take a stab at sanity-checking the claims you want to use for plausibility. I'd certainly have no problem with that.

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Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
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First, it isn’t as unrealistic as you might think Moose. 5 MJ of power is only equal to roughly about 1 kg of TNT (Also thanks to Wikipedia) And the properties of the plasma weapons that were talking about are more along the lines of explosive rather than piercing. The effects that we see in the movies and books would be realistic of the quantities of energy used by these guns.

Now I don’t have the book on me but in the Halo novels the first encounter between a Spartan (Sam) and a Covenant Jackal, shows how powerful even a plasma pistol can be. When Sam was shot, it destroyed a hand sized hole in his armor and burned a deep would in his gut. A gun having enough power to blast through a Spartans armor and still burn out a good chunk of the wearer. This should be consistent with a blast of about 1 to 2 kg of TNT.

As for the Star Wars guns that’s not my area to explain (Looks to Thrawn)

Crap. You're right. I was off by three orders of magnitude there. I think either the decimal in 4.184 TJ threw me or I messed up somewhere juggling the different unit prefixes.

I should have converted everything to Joules and tons right off, like I just did.

Okay, objection to this particular number withdrawn, it's plausible enough. But I'm dead serious about a similar sanity-check for each fictional number being used.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
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Just wanted to post on #100, and to site my last explanation.

For a better understanding of Joules: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_...e_%28energy%29

And also the part that I talked about was on page 127-130 of "The Fall of Reach", this is were Sam - 034 got shot

True, very true.

Bravo to Kahardrin. You have shed the light on that subject.

I just checked to make sure, and you are right.

And about the Star Wars "guns", it all depends on what setting you used on your blaster.

In response to Moose, I think you need to keep your comments to yourself.

And, everyone can keep comparing the fictional Star Wars to the fictional Halo (Milky Way) galaxies whenever they please; because, (in the fictional sense) Halo takes place in our future and Star Wars took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. So, it doesn't take place in different universes. It takes place in the same (fictional) universe. Henceforth, everyone and their grandmothers can compare Star Wars to Halo!!!!!!!

It is not like we're all comparing Star Trek to Naruto!!!!!!!!!

That also means we all can compare numbers from guides, games, and any site that is fact from Star Wars or Halo.

Now then, back to the topic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was an uncalled for ad hom. You should read the board rules now if you haven't already.

And as for slinging numbers about, just try it. You'll be just as expected to justify them as Kahardrin was.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
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And, the above statements you made were uncalled for.

I was just reacting to the the statements you made towards my sanity and true Star Wars facts (that you claim those came from "babble guides").

If I am going to read the board rules again, you should join me; because, you mocked me.

But, you are right. I shouldn't have made that statement. I am sorry. I apologize for responding the way I did.

It looked to me like Moose was calling into question the sanity of the claims, not your personal sanity.

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Musashi's right. The term "sanity check" was not referring to you at all, personally or otherwise. It's a term used in computing to mean a basic test of a result to make sure it falls within the range of correct output. Not so much testing for accuracy but plausibility. If your program adds two positive integers, then a basic sanity check is to see if the result is a) a number, and b) non-negative.

And I didn't say babble guide. I said 'babble guide. Note the apostrophe. That's short for technobabble. It's a very common term among people who discuss sci-fi. Particularly among those who don't take this sort of thing too seriously. It's not disparaging you. It not even disparaging the guides. (Not very much anyway.) I have, however, repeatedly explained my problem with the use of unsupported numbers.

Would it surprise you to know that your numbers are expressly not considered part of canon? (In the SW universe anyway.) Read. If you look at the line I've highlighted below, you'll see that your view that the stats are "factual" is expressly not an accepted convention in SW fandom.

I do, however, like the art in those guides.

Given the context of the "new" information I've just offered you, if you still think I've been mocking you, I'll be entirely content to apologize.

Apology accepted.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
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Just a couple of clarifications, I was a bit rushed this morning.

While this is an example of a sanity check (if you're testing a function that adds two positive integers), it's not a useful one if you're talking about a stable library (of which the + operator is a pretty fundamental part.)

In this case, if the intent is a function that adds two positive integers, a useful sanity check would be to test both inputs to see if they're both numbers and non-negative. If this is true (and your library operator valid), your result will also be valid. (*I also realize there's no such thing as a non-integer or negative integer as far as the ALU is concerned. Binary math is neat. Phear the binary, not the reaper.)

I just wanted to mention, for interest's sake, what the nature of these "few exceptions" are. One really good example would be details about the protagonists from the KoTOR series. Even though the games let the player determine the gender, (force) affiliation, and actions of both protagonists, Lucasfilms has determined for purposes of canon that the protagonist in KoTOR followed the plot for a light-sided male, and that the protagonist in KoTOR II followed the main plot for a light-sided female for the purposes of C-canon. Their physical stats, and specific abilities are left entirely to non-canon, as are, I believe, their side-quest sub-plots.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around