1	Movies and Science: Don’t believe everything you see on the big screen
2	Lets Make Money! Movies make money telling stories Make a story people will be interested in Science Fiction The lure of the future Movies like: Armageddon, Mission to Mars, Red Planet, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Core, etc…
3	Is the science fiction? Science fiction extrapolates Starts from what we already know, and jumps into the “unknown” Problem is moviemakers often don’t have a very good grasp on where the “unknown” starts
4	Landing awkwardly in the “known” So what happens in movies? Movies often use incorrect science to support their plot We expect movie plots to correctly portray already known science Some people leave the cinema believing the bad science in the movie is correct
5	Common bad science Space noise Sinking starships Devices to increase viewing pleasure Laser guns
6	Armageddon (1998) Plot foundation: Texas sized asteroid Plant a bomb in the asteroid
7	Armageddon Texas sized asteroid? No asteroid in our solar system that large Largest asteroid is Ceres ~ 900km wide Texas ~ 1400km wide A comet wouldn’t have enough energy to knock it out of orbit If a comet ever even hit an asteroid Texas sized asteroid made of iron = hard to move
8	Armageddon No telescopes see the asteroid until it is 18 days away? oops. Big as Texas + 18 days * 22,000mph = VERY visible to the naked eye Asteroid is jagged and spiky? Strength of gravity forms asteroids into spherical shapes Comet impact would melt some of the asteroid = even more smooth
9	Armageddon plant the bomb 800 feet deep to separate asteroid About as deep as the width of a human hair compared to a soccer ball = not nearly deep enough Energy required >>> than energy of all the bombs on Earth. Oops.
10	Armageddon Many other science errors in the movie I just touched on a few of the plot dependent ones For instance how the spaceships fly, how gravity affects objects inconsistently, design of plot objects… it goes on Similar mistakes are made in many other movies as well
11	Armageddon Final Score Armageddon’s final Bad Science score On a scale from 0 to 10:
12	Armageddon -5 Its bad, but not quite the worst I’ve ever seen. At least it didn’t try too hard to pass itself off as highly scientific.
13	Mission to Mars (2000) Plot foundation: NASA sends astronauts to Mars NASA loses contact NASA sends second mission to find out what happened
14	Mission to Mars Rotating spacecraft? Conservation of angular momentum
15	Mission to Mars Puncture and freezing Dr. Pepper? Space is cold, but particles are few and far between Dr. Pepper has to radiate heat away = slow Low pressure of space would cause Dr. pepper to boil Meteoroids vaporize when they hit – wouldn’t puncture
16	Mission to Mars Jetpacks and unequal forces Need just as much force to stop as you do to accelerate
17	Mission to Mars Astronaut immediately freezes in space? After opening his helmet he dies immediately Takes a long time for a human to freeze in vacuum of space – longer than in Earth’s atmosphere Would not die immediately ~ 14 seconds of consciousness, ~1 – 2 minutes before permanent damage or death You would definitely get a bad sunburn
18	Mission to Mars Long term low gravity exposure The movie tells us it will have adverse affects on the brain Oops. Astronauts and cosmonauts are sane when they return to Earth after long stays Many more science problems in this movie, most dealing with biology
19	Mission to Mars Final Score Mission to Mars’ final Bad Science score On a scale from 0 to 10:
20	Mission to Mars -8 This movie had NASA’s name all over it, and still they botched nearly every use of science. Disappointing.
21	Red Planet (2000) Plot foundation: Earth is dying – Mars is last hope We terraform Mars to make it habitable Terraforming goes wrong Team sent to Mars investigate I actually really liked this movie – it has a lot of good science
22	Red Planet We’ll start with the good Spaceship design Two rotating wheels “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction” Using fire extinguishers in zero-G Wait 40 minutes for an answer? Takes about 17 minutes travel time each way to
23	Red Planet On with the bad stuff Gamma ray burst fries ship electronics spaceships use radiation shielded electronics that are safe from gamma rays. Doh High energy particles that come from solar flares could cause damage – and harm astronauts
24	Red Planet Mars has a pink sky? Actually Mars’ sky is butterscotch colored due to dust particles
25	Red Planet Turning the gravity back on In the movie the ship commander falls immediately to the floor Actually… It won’t happen like that Using pathfinder’s modem Cute, but it has no batteries left, no ability to send voice, and the range is far too low to reach orbit
26	Red Planet The Kosmos probe The astronaut reprograms the probe The unmanned probe has a display console? And an audio speaker??? what? Probes are programmed by radio Ship captain literally pulls the probe into the ship Intertia of the probe would be too great
27	Red Planet CPR in microgravity “Stand him up” There is no “up” in microgravity CPR is performed incorrectly Other common sense problems AIMEE still has a military mode. Whoops. “she must be on the dark side”
28	Red Planet Red Planet’s final Bad Science score On a scale from 0 to 10:
29	Red Planet 3 There were actually a few good uses of science in this movie. And the mistakes they made weren’t really that bad.
30	That’s all folks Whether you go to the movies or watch them at home… Keep in mind you can’t believe everything you watch Just a friendly warning though…
31	Don’t be that guy Keeping your critical analysis skills sharp is great, but… Try not to correct the movie out loud when you’re watching it with other people… They hate that. Or so my friends tell me.