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According to this post the Millennium Falcon travels approximately 20,000 light years per hour.

Even assuming that regular ships travel at a greatly reduced speed compared to the Millennium Falcon: how can the human body (Jedi/Sith or otherwise), along with any items not strapped down withstand the deceleration of the ship without flying through the front of the ship or being dashed against the ship's walls?

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    All ships delpoy their glibblemanricular tlip diverters before coming out of hyperdrive to prevent this incident.
    – Clint Eastwood
    Mar 23, 2017 at 18:43
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    Related: How do Star Wars hyperdrives work?
    – Edlothiad
    Mar 23, 2017 at 18:44
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    They never travelled faster, space just got smaller. YMMV.
    – Ross
    Mar 23, 2017 at 18:44
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    The same way they survived the jump in the first place.
    – chepner
    Mar 23, 2017 at 18:51
  • I love how this question is addressed in Spaceballs: "We can't stop! We have to slow down first!"
    – Joel H.
    Mar 23, 2017 at 19:18

2 Answers 2

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This is addressed in (amongst others) the Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Incredible Cross Sections. Once a ship exits hyperspace, the crew experience a considerable de-acceleration. The ship's "Acceleration Compensators" deal with this.

You might wish to note that hyperspace is described as being a *"different dimension" (one where the speed of light is presumably much higher) so the acceleration/de-acceleration spike is rather lower than you might think.

enter image description here

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    Timothy Zahn, in his Star Wars novels, typically uses the phrase "with a flicker of pseudomotion" to describe a ship's transition between normal space and hyperspace, suggesting that the ship doesn't experience acceleration within its own frame of reference. Do any new canon (non-Legends) sources use this phrase?
    – Gaultheria
    Mar 23, 2017 at 20:51
  • @Gaultheria - I can't see it in any of my canon books
    – Valorum
    Mar 23, 2017 at 20:53
  • @Gaultheria - You may wish to note that Han came out of hyperspace messily and he was only traveling at a few hundred mph
    – Valorum
    Mar 23, 2017 at 20:53
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Since I'm by no means an expert on this, I'm just going to refer you to here for the answer. Note the third picture in particular.

I think this is how most universes explain stuff like that, from what I recall. Most of the time they just say they compensate for rapid acceleration, and don't mention deceleration, but remember that deceleration is just negative acceleration, or acceleration backwards.

Although I'm always more of a fan of the MST3K explanation:

If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts,
Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show,
I should really just relax."

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  • A good answer, you've also found the duplicate I was looking for! However we normally don't recommend giving answers that say "It's a show just relax" as that's what we're here to do, answer questions.
    – Edlothiad
    Mar 23, 2017 at 19:13
  • Yeah, I know. I just wanted to throw it in as a comparison to the 'I think this is how most universes explain it' part for fun :P
    – Dominator_101
    Mar 23, 2017 at 19:15
  • mst3k explanation trumps all
    – Jake Gaston
    Mar 23, 2017 at 19:35

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