Skip to main content

Which is bigger - the Star Forge, or the Death Star?


If you've played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you're familiar with the Star Forge:









I haven't found any definitive information regarding the size of the Star Forge, but I know that the conservative estimates for the sizes of the Death Stars are 120 km diameter and 160 km diameter respectively.


Estimates for the Star Forge itself vary DRAMATICALLY:



Star Forge Diameter = 91 kilometers



Star Forge Height = 272 kilometers
- Source



And:



Star Forge Diameter = 11 kilometers


Star Forge Height = 28 kilometers
- Source



I think SF&F can do better than this.



Assuming that these estimates of the Death Stars' sizes are correct, which is bigger? The Star Forge, or the Death Star?



Answer




Based on the information given in the question concerning the specs of the Death Star, its radius is no smaller than 60,000 m, which gives a volume of 9.05 x 1014 m3.


Now, here is the Star Forge:


enter image description here


Based on this information about Hammerheads supplied by the OP,


enter image description here


(in particular that the length of the Hammerhead is 315 m), and based on this video also supplied by the OP,






I used some frames when the Hammerheads are between the fins of the Star Forge to give an upper bound on the diameter of the spherical part of the Star Forge as being at most 20 Hammerheads, which works out to a maximum radius of 3150 m. This gives a volume of 1.31 x 1011 m3 for the spherical part.


Now, there are six fins on the Star Forge, three on top and three on the bottom. Now, let's say that each fin has twice the volume of the sphere, which is a gross overestimate, given how thin they are. That would make the total estimated volume of the Star Forge thirteen times the volume of the central sphere, which is roughly 1.7 x 1012 m3.


This still makes the Death Star a whopping 530 times more voluminous than the Star Forge (9.05 x 1014 divided by 1.7 x 1012).


Even if I make the radius 20 Hammerheads (instead of a diameter of 20 Hammerheads) — which is another gross overestimate on the Star Forge — I still get that the Death Star is bigger, but only by about 65 times.


Another Way to Compare: If we suppose that the Star Forge were a sphere, with radius from the center to the end of the longest fin, that would be about 60 Hammerheads — but let's say 80 to overestimate. This gives a radius of 25,200 m, which is still less than half the radius of the Death Star (and makes the Death Star about 15 times the volume of this sphere), and the actual volume of the Star Forge would be much less than that of this pretend sphere.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh

fan fiction - Does the Interdict of Merlin appear in original Harry Potter canon?

In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky a concept called the ' Interdict of Merlin ' appears: (all emphasis added) Chapter 23: His hand on the doorknob, Harry Potter already inside and waiting, wearing his cowled cloak. "The ancient first-year spells," Harry Potter said. "What did you find?" "They're no more powerful than the spells we use now." Harry Potter's fist struck a desk, hard. "Damn it. All right. My own experiment was a failure, Draco. There's something called the Interdict of Merlin -" Draco hit himself on the forehead, realizing. "- which stops anyone from getting knowledge of powerful spells out of books, even if you find and read a powerful wizard's notes they won't make sense to you, it has to go from one living mind to another. I couldn't find any powerful spells that we had the instructions for but couldn't cast. But if you can't get them out of old books,

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir