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Physics Goes To Hollywood

pigreco314 writes "What do films like Independence Day, Armageddon and X-Men have in common? The answer is that apart from costing millions of dollars to make, they all feature in a new course called Physics in Films that is being taught to students at the University of Central Florida, according to PhysicsWeb. Costas Efthimiou, the mathematical physicist who teaches the course, believes that non-science students learn more about the fundamentals of physics by studying films and science fiction than they do from more traditional approaches." Among the topics discussed is "the conservation of momentum in Tango and Cash."

8 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. ummm.. by zcat_NZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    For every slashdotting, there is an equal and opposite failure of the webserver?

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    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  2. Re:Course in physics by counter-examples, probably by acehole · · Score: 4, Funny

    A woman drinks a tainted glass of wine, drops immediately after the first sip

    rophynil: "When patience just isnt enough"

    Now in spray form, for the discreet gentleman.

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    Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
  3. Matrix by dj245 · · Score: 3, Funny
    The Matrix: Revolutions, unfortunately, did not make the list of top 3 movies that were physics accurate, due to the complete disregard for the rules of physics.

    I guess the machines forgot what theories Newton came up with, so thats why all the theories taste like chicken.

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    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  4. BS in BS by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since most of the Hollywood movies physics is nothing but pure bullshit, this course could give you the one and only degree of double BS - Bachelor Of Science In Bullshiting!

  5. Re:Course in physics by counter-examples, probably by AndrewHowe · · Score: 3, Funny

    That, or the fact that most cars have 2/3rd of their weight at the front... Special effect folks and stunt drivers usually stick around 500 lbs of sandbags in the trunk to achieve that fly-flat (crash)-land-flat effect.

    The angular momentum of Galileo's rest mass just increased...

  6. In Hollywood: by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 3, Funny

    - All car bumpers are extremely explosive

    - Regular people will get knocked out by a simple punch while a hero will only get mildly scratched after running away from 10 terrorists with machine guns

    - Time is relative. You can jump into an airplane or helicopter in free and still be able to not only reach the controls, but also turn it on and recover it

    - The most l33t hackers crack other computers using nice and friendly GUIs. So getting into a file really looks like entering a building.

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    Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
  7. Re:Sounds fun... by robfoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, don't knock Magnet Medicine. My uncle complained that his Windows kept crashing. So I put a couple of strong magnets on his hard drive, and hey presto - problem went away!

  8. F=ma by scubacuda · · Score: 3, Funny
    Everything I currently know about F=ma I learned from watching Roadrunner cartoons.