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In science-fiction there are certain aspects of science that are purposefully changed or circumvented (such as FTL, time travel etc.). However sometimes there are errors for facts for which we have not suspended disbelief.

Is there a tag for this here? I tried guessing some but didn't find any (the closest was perhaps but that is for asking questions about the intended physics of a universe (also the error may be in biology, chemistry or history).

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  • What, like in Interstellar where they plan to enter the Black hole and then come back out by using a shallow orbit?
    – Valorum
    Feb 10, 2015 at 11:17
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    @Richard I haven't seen interstellar but it sounds like this was purposeful. I was thinking that this would be used to verify if a person's understanding is correct and the author screwed up. Like in Gravity when after letting go of an astronaut in the same frame of reference, he falls away.
    – Motti
    Feb 10, 2015 at 11:35
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    So more of a nitpick tag?
    – Valorum
    Feb 10, 2015 at 11:46
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    I suppose that depends on the size of the nits.
    – Motti
    Feb 10, 2015 at 12:21

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Here's the issue with that: a lot of these questions are going to be seeking scientific solutions or explanations, which are off-topic.

If you are asking "why does this [book/movie/episode] not agree with the rest of [universe]" OR why something doesn't agree with stated in-universe physics, then you're fine - perfectly on-topic.

However, if you are asking why something in-universe is blatantly unscientific as we know it now (e.g. all of Star Wars LucasPhysics), then that would be off-topic IMO.

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    Actually it would be on-topic because the close reason adds unless they relate directly to a cited work of fiction - so a science-error question about FTL in general is off-topic, a science-error question about FTL in a specific work is on-topic.
    – user8719
    Mar 13, 2015 at 12:15
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    The subject of a question should always be the work of fiction itself - A question about Avatar's Bending and how it works in-universe would be acceptable, but asking to explain Bending with real-world physics, or to apply it to real-world scenarios, is not.
    – Zibbobz
    Mar 13, 2015 at 14:21

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