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Early on in Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan and Anakin are flying a half-burned spaceship:

Obi-Wan: Five thousand. Fire ships on the left and the right.

Pilot: We'll take you in.

(Pilot sprays water on spaceship)

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OBI-WAN: Copy that.

What do the words "five thousand" relate to here?

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There's a little bit of extra dialogue in the script that would suggest that he's reading off their temperature (in degrees?)

OBI-WAN: Careful . . . we're heating up-twelve thousand . . . thirteen thousand . . .

ANAKIN: What's our speed?

OBI-WAN: Eight plus sixty-forty. Eight plus sixty-twenty. Eight plus sixty. Temp ten thousand, nine thousand . . . we're in the atmosphere . . .

ANAKIN points to one of the controls. ARTOO beeps madly.

ANAKIN: Grab that . . . Keep us level.

OBI-WAN: Steady. Steady.

ANAKIN: Easy, Artoo. Hang on, this may get a little rough. We lost our heat shields.

OBI-WAN: Five thousand. Three thousand . . . two thousand. Fireships on the left and the right.

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    Another happy landing. Since the numbers are decreasing, I'd argue they're either altitude or distance from the landing strip. Temperature should rise upon entering the atmosphere sans heat shields, as Obi-Wan's first line suggests. The dialogue from the script doesn't quite match what's going on in the movie, but close enough for government work.
    – elemtilas
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 12:31
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    @elemtilas - It rises as they're entering the atmosphere in an uncontrolled fashion. As Anakin takes control of the ship, the number lowers. It goes down further as they get deeper into the atmosphere and lower still once they're sprayed with fire foam. It seems very clear that it's temp that he's reading off in thousands ("Temp ten thousand"), not least because he's also reading off the speed ("Eight plus sixty-forty")
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 12:37
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    @Shreedhar - I thought about that. If it was Kelvin, that would actually be a quite reasonable figure compared to other re-entry craft that pre-date The Shuttle.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 12:40
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    With 13.000 it doesn't really matter if Kelvin or Celsius, since your space ship is either gas or plasma either way
    – Christian
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 15:51
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    @Christian -This is, of course, a universe where heat shields are a thing. They go from orbit to ground in an insanely short amount of time, which would presumably result in super-heating. I'm not sure if the science adds up though, probably not.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 20, 2021 at 15:53

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