Physics in the Movies

nucal writes "Here's a site rating Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. A really thorough site with a rating system which ranges from GP (Good Physics) to XP (Obviously physics from an unknown universe)." My vote goes to the helix of M&M's.

Comments

Re:Even if the physics are out of this world...

[pyite]

Let's say we have a 1g (.001kg) pea traveling at 3e+08 m/s. Since KE = 1/2mv^2 it has .0005 * 9e+16 = 4.5e+13 joules of energy. Now, the World Trade Center is said to have come down with 6.8e+11 joules of potential energy (from gravity). The bomb dropped on Hiroshama is said to have released roughly 6.8e+13 joules, not even double the amount coming from the pea traveling at light speed. Granted, not enough energy to destroy the atmosphere, however, it is still a ridiculous amount of energy in a pea sized object.