A 10-PART SERIES · AUSSIE SCIENCE CLIPS
Hollywood Physics
The movie moments physics says can't happen, worked out with real numbers, and the rare films that got it right. The movie moments that physics says can't happen, worked out with real numbers, and the rare films that got it right.
EPISODE 1 · 11 min
Why can't you hear explosions in space?
Welcome to Hollywood Physics, where we take the movie moments we love and ask what would really happen. First up, the biggest bang in cinema. A starship blows up, the screen fills with fire, and the whole theatre…
EPISODE 2 · 11 min
Why don't spaceships bank like planes?
Picture a space battle on screen: a fighter tilts its wings and swoops round in a graceful curve, just like a plane. It looks right, because tilting is how planes turn. But in space, that tilt does nothing to where…
EPISODE 3 · 11 min
What really happens if you're thrown out of an airlock?
In the films, an open airlock is the end of the line. The hatch slides back, someone tumbles out, and you brace for the worst: will they swell, burst, freeze solid in an instant? But what would really happen to a human…
EPISODE 4 · 11 min
Could a giant monster even stand up?
In the 1954 film Godzilla, a monster rises out of the sea and walks into Tokyo. The original was about fifty metres tall. By 2019, it had more than doubled. So here's the puzzle. If you took something built like you…
EPISODE 5 · 10 min
Could you outrun a fireball, or walk away from an explosion?
A car erupts into a huge orange fireball, and the hero strolls towards the camera without looking back. Or he sprints, the flames rolling after him a step behind, and dives clear just in time. Audiences have come to…
EPISODE 6 · 11 min
Could a nuclear bomb split an asteroid?
A rock the size of Texas is heading for Earth. In the film Armageddon, the plan is to land on it, drill an eight-hundred-foot hole, drop a nuclear bomb in, and split it in two, so the halves sail past either side of…
EPISODE 7 · 11 min
Could you survive a nuclear blast in a fridge?
A siren is wailing, and an atomic bomb is minutes from going off. The only shelter to hand is a refrigerator in a mock house. So you climb in, pull the door shut, and hope. Could that possibly work? It sounds like a…
EPISODE 8 · 11 min
Why can't you 'enhance' a blurry photo?
You know the scene. Detectives crowd around a screen, a grainy security-camera frame, and somebody says the magic word: enhance. They zoom in again and again, until they can read a number plate, or see the killer…
EPISODE 9 · 11 min
Why can't you see a laser bolt flying past?
In a lot of science fiction, a ray gun doesn't fire a beam. It fires a bolt: a short, glowing streak you can watch cross the room. In the official Star Wars lore, a Jedi, using the Force, can predict incoming blaster…
EPISODE 10 · 11 min
Can anything travel faster than light?
In Star Wars, ships don't cruise between the stars; they jump to hyperspace. The franchise's own databank, describing its fictional galaxy, says hyperdrives let starships travel faster than the speed of light, through…