10 Examples Of Real Science In Star Trek

Isaac Newton's first law of motion states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction and at the same speed unless acted on by a force. In other words, in space there is no gravity or atmosphere to slow objects to a halt, so anything that moves in empty space will continue along its path forever without stopping or slowing down. This is what's known as inertia.

Many sci-fi franchises blatantly ignore inertia in space. Often, when a spaceship runs out of fuel in sci-fi, it will begin to slow down and eventually stop. If the ship is truly in space, then when it runs out of fuel, it should simply continue moving at whatever speed it was moving at before.

Star Trek explains this by including inertial dampeners on all Starfleet ships. These small thrusters, located all over the ship, counteract the effects of inertia by producing an artificial drag on the vessel. They also assist with slowing down acceleration and deceleration to prevent the people inside from being launched out of their seats when changing speed too quickly.