Han Solo.

During last week's baking venture, Star Wars was my cooking movie of choice.

I love Han Solo. (let's be real, girls... who doesn't?)
He's good lookin', wise crackin', Captain of  the Millenium Falcon, a reluctant hero... the bad boy who discovers his compassion when confronted with a feisty princess. (As well as a scruffy-looking nerve-hurter...)

One thing Han is not, however, is a scientist.

Incredulous that Obi-Wan and Luke could possibly doubt that the Millenium Falcon is anything other than the "fastest ship in the galaxy", he says...

"You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?…It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

"Ain't like dusting crops, boy."

Now. I should mention that I once took an astronomy-physics class, where the second question on the midterm was something to the effect of "explain why Han Solo could not have made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs."

Simply put, the parsec is a measurement of distance not time, much like the mile or the metre. Specifically, it is a distance of 3.0857x10^16 m. Now, this is a phenomenally large number; it is not practical or meaningful to discuss distances in numbers so huge. So scientists pretty much invent new units to make their math easier. For example, the average distance from Earth to the Sun is a 1.4960x10^11 m, which sceintists call an Astronomical Unit (AU). It is much easier to think of distances between planets in AU's rather than meters or kilometers. Another example is the light-year, which may sound like a unit of time, but is still a distance measurement - the distance travelled by a beam of light over the course of a year. One light year is 9.4605x10^15 m, which is still a gigantic number. It is much more convenient to use light-years when talking about the distance across solar systems compared to using meters.

A parsec, then, is 3.26 light-years, or a really big distance. So big that most of us don't encounter this unit of measure in our daily life, but it's useful when talking about distances across galaxies.

So, back to Han Solo.

"Making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs" is like saying, "I made it to the grocery store in two kilometers yesterday" when you live three kilometers away. It just can't be done.

There are a few explanations for this strange phrase.

Han could be making stuff up to make himself sound way cooler than he already is and to justify the expensive price he demands of Obi-Wan and Luke. He could also have no clue what he is talking about, but that's pretty unlikely for someone with such awesome flying skills.

He could mean that he took a short cut (such as you usually take a three kilometer route to go to the grocery store, and you just found one that is only two) but that still doesn't make much sense. Grammar is not one of Han's strong points.

Another explanation could be poor research on George Lucas' part. Let's face it... Parsec is a pretty cool sounding word, (it sounds like a unit of time after all) and who among us hasn't been guilty of using words before totally knowing what they mean?


"These are not the droids you're looking for..."