Taylor's physics in films blog

Contact In the movie contact there is controversy over the concept over the twin paradox theory. While early on in the movie there is a conversation where they get the concept of the twin paradox correct and it seems like they will be on the right track to make the movie somewhat make sense, by the end of the movie they completely ruin the entire thing. By the end of the movie when they try to show how the twin paradox works they end up getting what they initially got correct completely backwards. In the earlier conversation they discuss that when they send people through the machine that time would pass much faster in the outside world  and slower for the person in the machine. They also say that when the person would return that it could be as much as 50 years in the future compared to when they left. This theory is correct however the movie makes it out that while the main character was gone for 18 hours in the real world it had only been around 1 or 2 seconds. This complete...

The Martian and Bad Astronomy Philip Plait is the author of Bad Astronomy and in Chapter 24 he gives 10 examples of bad astronomy in major motion pictures. While some of these are not directly correlated to the movie The Martian some of the examples do apply. The first example has to do with the fact that there is no sound in space. As you may or may not know is that there is no sound in space, and in most movies you can hear ships as they go passing by or maybe even explosions. Unfortunately The Martian is one of these movies that have sound in space when it is not physically possible because sound cannot travel in space. For example, when they try to save the main character and through out the entire scene there is sound from thrusters and other objects that the characters are interacting with. The second example that he list does not apply to the movie and it has to do with asteroid fields which you do not see in the movie. The next example that is listed is about banking in ...

Morality of Nuclear Weapons A lot of people talk about the morality of creating and using nuclear weapons. Most people have agreed on not using nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, but the creation of weapons is another discussion entirely. Most people are against the creation of these weapons of mass destruction however, I am not one of those people. I support the creation, not the use of these weapons not because I want to see the world burn, but because you need a way to protect yourself. If we are not the first to create a new weapon or able to make these weapons then that leaves us vulnerable and at the mercy of others who have created these powerful weapns. This was the case when we created the atomic bomb during world war 2. A lot of people were against the creation of the bombs because of the destructive potential and the fear that others would learn how to create the same weapons. However, there were those who supported the creation to set us up on top a...