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© Copyright 1996, Jim Loy
In movies (and TV shows) like Star Wars or Star Trek, we often hear space ships zooming around and exploding. The Enterprise makes a swishing sound. TIE fighters make a grinding whine. And everything explodes with an exploding sound. And the original Enterprise was leaking some dopey Calypso music into space. We all know that there is no sound in space (which is a vacuum). So, how can we hear all this noise? I have a theory.
Let's assume that the makers of these movies (and TV shows) are not complete idiots who are insulting our intelligence. But, they do insist on making a view through a pair of binoculars be framed by two circles instead of one. That may invalidate this whole essay. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
You and I, as observers, are listening in on the communications devices (radio or otherwise) of some of the participants in these battles and acrobatic maneuvers. And I think that the various kinds of space ship engines make distinctive interference, which can be heard on the communications equipment. In fact, the manufacturers of this communications equipment may even have amplified this otherwise faint interference, in order to alert the pilots of the presence of other spaceships.
I'll bet a good mechanic could diagnose the engine problems in that TIE fighter. Probably just cheap anti-matter.