The "star Trek" television series and motion pictures are exciting to watch, but they violate several key laws of physics. The first is the speed at which the spaceships travel. The Enterprise and other spaceships travel faster than the speed of light,which is physically impossible. A second impossibility is the way stars pass. When the crew looks out the windows of the spaceships,the stars appear much as they do when we look at them in the sky. In reality, because of the speed at which the spaceships are traveling, the stars should apoear as a blinding light show, with stars spread out in a rainbow of colors. Finally, the placement of the spaceship Enterprise's engines would not propel the ship in a straight line. This is because they are not cantered near the ship's center of gravity. With the engines placed where they are, a "Full speed ahead" command from Captain kirk or Picard would actually catapult the ship backwards in a series of somersaults.