Revisiting the Physics of Buckaroo Banzai

serutan writes "Shortly before the release of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension' in 1984, physicist Carl Sneider of U.C. Berkeley wrote a surprisingly interesting essay on the physics behind the movie. Since the essay is not widely available on the web and I could only find it in plain text, I posted a more readable HTML version on my site. Among the more interesting points Sneider makes are that the oscillation overthruster is the result of decades of research instead of the usual laboratory accident, and its development corresponds surprisingly well with the evolution of particle physics from the 1930s to the 80s."

Comments

Re:Weird science

[The_Wilschon]

This was before physics was considered a major branch of science

Right, that old Isaac Newton chap, he was really just a minor player. Oh, and Mr. Faraday too. And Thomas Edison didn't make the incandescent lightbulb as a practical application of physics. Also, I'm very glad that Archimedes now knows that his screw for lifting water was a result from only a minor branch of science. And I almost forgot! Gallileo! He died for a minor branch of science. All this time, I've been thinking all these people were actually important! Silly me. </sarcasm>