Travelling nearly lightspeed

I'm about to finish reading Why does $E=mc^2$? by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw (You may buy it here ). I must say it is not a very good book if you're not already a good mathematician that knows nothing about physics, otherwise I think they just tried too hard in explaining the concepts in a very abstract way without using equations that feels utterly complicated and vague language.

Having said that, I find it a very interesting book. One of the most interesting fact that I got from it is that the $c$ in Einstein's most famous formula is not the speed of light from first principle, that's just a conclusion achieved from experimentation. The $c$ is actually the speed limit at which mass-less particles must travel under the special relativity assumptions, and it must be the same speed regardless of how or who is measuring it. Since apparently photons are mass-less we have to conclude that $c$, the universal speed limit, is the speed of light.

This brings me to my point, which is just a rant about how it feels weird when they break laws of physics in action films. I'm not complaining about they don't respect them in the films, I love action films and I am expecting to see some unreal stuff in there, that's basically what I am paying for. My point is that sometimes it feels weird. I am going to put a couple of examples before getting to my point.



Consider when Steve Rogers in training some boxing in Marvel's Avengers Assemble, while he's punching the bag he recalls his war stories with his team and losing his mind he ends throwing that one punch that sends the bag flying away. The scene is obviously not real, but it still feels ok. I like to thinks that because we know Captain Rogers is capable of doing inhuman feats he has the strength to send the bag flying away and the bag follows the expected intuitive parabolic trajectory. If the trajectory is not parabolic the feel of the scene would not be the same, just as happens with the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon film.



Again, this doesn't mean I'm complaining, or that the film is bad, I'm just saying that the changing the laws of physics creates in the audience a weird sensation. But what happens when we're not used to some things happening and still the film decides to fuck physics just because. This happened to me when I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness.



I believe the the Star Trek films are just awesome. However the doubt still haunts me, when the Vengeance fires on the Enterprise it makes a hole on the ship. The next thing that happens is that a lot of stuff escapes from that hole, that's understandable because of the change in pressure but that doesn't mean that jumping from a ship travelling nearly at the speed of light is going to stop you. If one does jump from a ship in space, since friction is basically non existent, then one should have the same speed with respect to the ship. Especially if one's jumping nearly lightspeed because one can't jump faster.

The point is that I felt weird when people flew out and back of the ship, I think they should have flown just out perpendicular to the tangential plane of the ship at the hole. Jumping from a spaceship is essentially different than jumping off a train. At least that's what I feel, however I have never flown at lightspeed or close to that, anyways... I will continue enjoying action films with or without physics misconceptions, and the next one comes this week!