Cinematic Fhysics Fails
(Macaluso)
(Macaluso)
Time travel is always fraught with questionable physics, but in this movie they made a super-dumb mistake by making it appear spinning the planet backward reversed time.
What is Superman? (1978)
Dr. Reiser's Artemis Mission Theme Song
What is Fly Me to the Moon? (Frank Sinatra)
Rosamund Pike played her in the 2019 film “Radioactive”.
Who is Marie Curie?
This is a more technical term to describe the "bigness" of a telescope mirror or lens.
What is aperture?
This electric bass player was originally pursuing a biology degree, before seeing the light and pivoting to physics.
Who is Chani Nava?
As any middle school mathematician knows, distance = speed x time, but in this movie a lonely character claims distance is a measure of time.
What is Star Wars – A New Hope? (1977)
Dr. Good's Low Cost Vacation
What is Radio Free Europe? (R.E.M.)
Kenneth Branagh played him in the 2023 film “Oppenheimer”.
Who is Niels Bohr?
This is the only classical Greek god whose name was the same in both Greek and Roman traditions.
Who is Apollo?
This fan of Steely Dan graduated with an engineering physics degree, and was once a Wildcat of the American southwest.
Who is David Cornelison?
Solar neutrinos have always been mysterious little beasts, but in this movie they go full-rogue and “mutate into a new kind of nuclear particle” that heats the Earth’s core “like microwaves.”
What is 2012? (2009)
The Speed of Dr. Macaluso
What is Laserlight? (Jessie J)
Walter Matthau played him in the 1994 comedy “I.Q."
Who is Albert Einstein?
This word has Arabic origins, and is a preferred term in referencing one's cardinal direction.
What is azimuth?
This O.G. Net Enforcer originally earned an undergraduate degree in Spanish, before returning to school to pursue Physics & Astronomy.
This O.G. Net Enforcer originally earned an undergraduate degree in Spanish, before returning to school to pursue Physics & Astronomy.
There are so many egregious, stupid, inexcusable, embarrassing physics mistakes in this movie (368, by one count) that NASA actually uses it to train scientists to quickly identify scientific errors (really).
What is Armageddon? (1998)
A Music Genre for Dr. Ware
What is Plasma Lounge? (General Translator)
Matthew Broderick played him in the 1996 film “Infinity”.
Who is Richard Feynman?
This is the formal name for the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. (i.e., not the common name)
What is Alpha Aquilae?
This top-notch textiler was once an Oredigger, and was represented by a donkey known as Blaster the Burro.
Who is Deborah Good?
A legendary fhysics f-up that requires but three words: nuke the fridge.
What is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? (2008)
The Daily Orb of Dr. Nava
What is Black Hole Sun? (Soundgarden)
Rachel Wise played this 4th century BC woman in the 1994 film “Agora”.
Who is Hypatia?
This is the point in a body's orbit at which it is the most distant from the star it is orbiting.
What is the apastron?
This trivia buff has been using their robust academic background in history to absolutely clean up on my daily questions for the last several months.
Who is Sophia Etier?