Why in a star wars film do we hear the spacecraft blow up in the vacuum of space.?
601158
Wow. Science FICTION remember. Lucas has actually talked about that decision.  It was done for effect. Once he decided that there would be sound in the vacuum of space he had to keep the idea going for the sake of continuity. How good would the opening scene have been if we sat in the cinema with that huge space ship flying in overhead, laser canons firing explosions all around and no sound? Sound heightens the experience. So while he was aware that there is no sound in space, he decided in his universe, there would be.
1071523
yup you are right. The force requires matter. Like a tree in the forest falling. Sound waves are created but if no one hears it does it really exist?
147635
Sound does not travel in space. \n\nSound is created when a vibrating object (your vocal cords, a guitar string, etc.) causes the air around it to vibrate. This vibration continues to expand outwards through the air (or water if you happen to be under water) until it reaches your ear drum, which in turn vibrates. Your brain interprets these vibrations as sound.\n\nSound does not travel in space because space is a vacuum. There is nothing to vibrate. So, when the vibrations (sound) reaches the upper levels of our atmosphere, it stops.\n\nSound does travel in the space shuttle because the space shuttle is pressurized and contains air that the astronauts breath. The air provides the medium to transfer the vibrations from the source object to the astronaut's ears.
482157
I guess it would explode because of the difference in pressure... but then again this is with a live human... not sure about the dead one.\n\nThis site might be of help:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_adaptation_to_space
1135793
Due to the lack of an atmosphere in space, sound cannot travel.  A rattlesnake's familiar tail shaking will not be heard in the vacuum of space.
510244
The Outer space does posses gases, but the vaccum is present because of the incomrehensible size of the universe. Had gases  such as Hydrogen and Helium not been present, there wouldn't have been a sun or nuclear fusion... vaccum indicates absence of matter. It becomes a matter of perspective whether you stand on earth and say that the galaxy andromeda is in outer space but earth is not.. when a hypothetical being on andromeda would say that earth is in outer space but andromeda is not... ;)
929469
Be proud of yourself, you found a mistake that slips past some of the most rabid trekkies.\nBut now I think of it, the parts of the engines themselves might be able to make a whoosing sound that would travel through the walls of the ship and be heard inside. But you're right, you shouldn't be able to hear it from the view of the ship they have in the opening sequence.
359008
Thunder, you can hear, and lightening you can see.  =) Ha.  \n\nThunder is caused when lightening nukes the air around itself.  It's kind of like a shockwave I think.  Anyway, it heats up and expands, and creates huge waves of sound.
817981
As others have said, it's all about speed. \n\nIt's a minor point really, but it's a common misconception that it is the friction with the air that causes objects hitting the Earth's atmosphere at high speed to heat up. Actually it's not friction. The heating up is caused by the fact that the air in front of the object cannot get out of the way fast enough, so it's gets compressed in front of the object. As the air gets compressed the pressure rises and as the pressure rises so does the temperature. This is what causes the burning up effect.\n\nWhen a space craft is blasting off into orbit, as its speed rises it's also gaining altitude. At higher altitudes the atmosphere is less dense, so this compression of the air in front of the space craft never becomes a problem.\n\nIf a space craft used its rockets to slow its decent back to Earth then it wouldn't have any problems with burning up on re-entry. The reason they don't do this is because of the weight of the fuel that would be needed to do it. With current technology, no spacecraft could carry that amount of fuel and still be able to get into orbit.
211442
Because there is no air - only a vacuum.\n\nSound travels by making waves in the air.  Without air (or some other medium, like water) sound can't be transmitted.\n\nRadio waves, on the other hand, travel through a vacuum without trouble.
1010133
In a galaxy, far, far away.
278787
in waves, therefore, in order to be transmitted it requires some medium to transmit the waves in. That's why sound can't travel through a vacuum such as outer space, for example
18207
You have the right idea, but you actually can fire a gun in space. What causes a gun to fire is actually the sudden impulse delivered by the trigger to the gunpowder causing the gun powder to explode, transferring a lot of energy to the bullet and causing it to shoot out of the barrel of the gun. In order to trigger the explosion of the gun powder, you do need an oxidizer to initiate the chemical reaction, but most gun ammunition comes with its own oxidizer built in so therefore, the gun can fire even without oxygen.  \n\nHowever, you shouldn't believe anything physics-related you see in movies,  What's funny is those huge explosions that happen all the time win movies in space with no oxygen like in star wars and armegeddon.  That definately could not happen.  Being a physics major has ruined my appreciation for movies really, I can't watch one without picking out all of the physics mistakes--and there are a LOT, and not just in space movies.  They should employ a physicist to stand by and tell them what they screw up.  Actually, I wish they did, that would be an awesome job haha.
453550
It is an incorrect concept that space is full of nothing.  There are dust particles and gas molecules in space.  The solar wind from our sun is always blowing particles into space.  There is also a galactic wind that is blowing particles out into space as well.\n\nSpace is as close as we can get to natural vacuum, or nothingness but it still has a density of one atom per cubic meter.
126584
The way we land the shuttles now there is not much of a noise,\nthey have no engines or motors ,they glide through air and land in the designated area ,the only sound coming would be from the commentary on the television, so switch it OFF .
902022
I've seen planes explode when a bullet goes through a window in movies too.  That doesn't make it true.
638759
The question assumes that the matter was compacted, but before the big bang, there was no universe as we understand it, so the idea of "volume" is somewhat meaningless.  What was the sound that came before silence?\n\nPre-BigBang makes your head hurt doesn't it? It does mine!