Sci-fi and action Hollywood movies sometimes introduce incorrect physics concepts. Even though they succeed artistically not everyone who watches movies understands that the content is primarily for entertainment only. Today we are going to review some plots to examine whether correct science is used. Let’s go back to 1985 to check my favorite film as a child. Back to the Future Part II Back to the Future is an American science fiction comedy film. It was produced by Steven Spielberg. The star Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time to 1955. The sequel was filmed in 1989. The plot begins where the original film left off. Marty McFly and his friend Dr. Emmett Brown (“Doc”) travel to 2015 to prevent McFly’s future son from ending up in jail. The film accurately predicted...
Science is everywhere. Science starts early when the alarm clock wakes you up in the morning. Science even lets us talk to you through the radio right now. There is a place where science is tastier. The kitchen! We are used to doing a lot of stuff in the kitchen without realizing how much physics is involved. Give me one example of a kitchen appliance full of science. The microwave oven for example; science heats your milk up when you put it in the microwave, but many people don’t know how the microwave oven works. A microwave oven heats food by bombarding it with electromagnetic radiation causing polarized molecules in the food to rotate and build up thermal energy. These polarized molecules are usually water. This means you cannot heat anything up if it doesn’t consist of water. Have...
Have you heard about the Ignobel Prizes? They are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual, funny or trivial achievements in scientific research. Archeology:  Brian Crandall and Peter Stahl, for parboiling a dead shrew, and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining everything excreted during subsequent days. All so they could see which bones would dissolve inside the human digestive system, and which bones would not. Biology/Astronomy:  Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz, and Eric Warrant, for discovering that when dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the Milky way. Medicine: Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda and Masanori Niimi, for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on mice which have had heart transplant...
Exposure to vacuum does not cause the body to explode, or blood to boil. You will not freeze and you will not instantly lose consciousness. You will not explode either. There is a correct belief that the pressure inside your body pushes against the weight of the air pressing against your skin. To balance this weight of air, each square meter of our body pushes back with 10 tons. The total weight of air tall person bears on their skin is about 20 tons. But this doesn’t mean the internal pressure of the body’s tissues will make it explode. Skin is quite tough and it would not simply tear. The body would expand to nearly twice its usual volume because the water in your tissues would turn into steam. Don’t hold your breath. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to watch out...
I’m a scientist. I’m a physicist, that makes me a scientist. What is a scientist? Well… scientist are people who are always wondering why. Scientist are like two year old kids. I like to call ourselves ‘the why people’. why is the sky blue? why is the sea blue? why is this slice of pizza I forgot 2 weeks ago behind my bed blue? A scientist makes him or herself debate all kinds of weird questions: Who eat bees? How come penguins’ feet do not freeze? Sometimes questions are disturbing How fat must be a man so when shooting him with a bullet it won’t cross his entire body? Well, at this point, you will agree with me that if you do the math you are definitely a psychopath. I did it. It’s 650 kg. Why do cats always land...