In addition to showing movie clips that mangle perfectly good physics,
it may be helpful to show some that get particularly interesting
physics right. (This way, we -- and the students who might be foolish
enough to emulate us in movie theaters with their friends -- don't come
off as appearing to be pure curmudgeons.) Accordingly, here is one
good movie moment to consider:
In the early James Bond classic Goldfinger, 007 (played by Sean
Connery) ejects an assailant from the passenger seat of his fast-moving
Aston-Martin. The seat apparently throws the gun-toting bad guy
straight up, leading the physics-savvy viewer to worry that the bad guy
will just fall back into the same seat, unharmed but seriously miffed.
However, careful analysis of the scene reveals that Bond does execute a
sharp turn during the ejection. We see the assailant's body fly off in
a straight line as the car rounds the bend. Sweet.
Now, let me jump on the curmudgeon's bandwagon by offering two cinema
physics stinkers...
In an early scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, the protagonists (Jack
Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, and Will Turner, played by Orlando
Bloom) are trying to sneak from the shore out to a particularly
inviting ship anchored at sea. They grab a grounded, medium-size row
boat, invert it, and breathe its trapped air as they walk underwater,
on the ocean bottom, out to sea! I first remind students how hard it
is to hold a beach ball underwater, and then we estimate the buoyant
force on the cubic meters of air trapped inside the boat. Even with
lead shoes, Sparrow and Turner should be getting nowhere (but up).
In the original Batman, our hero (played by Michael Keaton) falls off a
very high building ledge with Vicky Vail (Kim Bassinger) in his arms.
As they plummet, Batman fires a grappling hook (attached to a steel
cable) back up toward the ledge from which he fell. The other end of
the cable is attached to the belt around Batman's waist. Needless to
say, when his 8-second fall is ended by the sudden tightening of the
steel cable, Batman SHOULD be turned into two Bat half-men. Instead,
he and Vicky are just fine. Evidently, Batman's "cool toys" are so
good that they can overcome the impulse-momentum relationship.
Regards,
- Tucker
P.S. Maybe the best pro-science moment in ANY movie EVER is in a scene
from the original Ghostbusters. Dr. Peter Venkman (played by Bill
Murray) is trying to save the city of New York, yet he is being
relentlessly hassled by an agent of the Environmental Protection
Agency. Venkman turns to the EPA lackey and utters those immortal
words: "Back-off, man; I'm a scientist!"
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Tucker Hiatt, Director
Wonderfest
P.O. Box 887
(39 Fernhill Avenue)
Ross, CA 94957
415-577-1126 (voice)
415-927-1734 (fax) http://www.wonderfest.org
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Truth is a great flirt. - Franz Liszt