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In Hollywood, the laws of physics are unapologetically replaced
by the stronger laws of special effects. Whether it's Doc Octopus's artificially intelligent something-something arms, or just plain old FTL hyperspeed drives, the script's needs always trump plain old math.
This week, California high school physics teacher Adam Weiner is publishing a book (dubbed Don't Try This at Home!: The Physics of Hollywood Movies) outlining some of the biggest, or at least most entertaining movie physics shortcuts. Popular Science gives a quick slide-show tour through some of the best.
A sample: If, in the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, poor old granddad really did float to the ceiling after drinking an extra-carbonated beverage, the bubbles should technically have swollen him to a sphere about 15 feet wide.
Or, take Batman's plummet off a bell tower to save Kim Basinger, in the original 1989 movie. He saves them both with a shot from his trusty bat-grappling hook, of course, breaking their fall – but if that were actually to happen, the fall and their combined weights would exert something like a nine-ton force, almost certainly breaking the rope,
Batman's arm, and causing "massive internal injuries." Details...
Naturally, anybody who's seen Speed knows that the bus's leap of a gap in the freeway, without even so much as a ramp to jump off, would actually be a recipe for a quick end to the movie. The magazine offers the math, which would have seen the bus fall at least 3.5 feet below the bridge, after which, well... if the crash didn't finish things, the bomb would have.
Many more such examples on the magazine's site, and in the pages of Weiner's book.
For those in a mood to further explore fantasy worlds' questionable physics, James Kakalios' 2005 book The Physics of Superheroes gives a surprisingly detailed evaluation of comic-book superpowers.
Physics Flunkies at the Movies [Popular Science]
(Image Credit: Kaplan)
