Fans of sci-fi films are often interested in whether everything that happens on the screen at the behest of directors and screenwriters is really possible in reality? Or do the creators of the pictures, for the sake of entertainment, by virtue of their own illiteracy, ignore the laws of nature and "shove" into the plot whatever comes into their head? As a result, fiction appears on the screens, which is difficult to call scientific.
Naturally, the presence of even the most frank blunders does not always make the resulting picture bad. Nevertheless, it is desirable to understand the natural processes that are demonstrated on the screens.
Gingerbread man with head and extreme supergun
Take the iconic Star Wars, for example. There are plenty of space battles in each episode of the endless saga. True, even if we assume that "a long time ago in a far-distant galaxy" they actually took place, then without a deafening squeal, whistle and roar.
The point is that sound waves cannot be transmitted in a vacuum. Dead silence reigns in space, and do not shoot, do not explode, no one will ever hear anything. Damaged ships will not fall there after being hit by a laser cannon. They will just float in zero gravity.
As for the lasers themselves, scientists believe that the most extreme invention in the 7th part of the saga is a supergun, which can destroy any planet in a couple of seconds. As physicists assure, a weapon of such power, installed on the new "Death Star", would rather melt itself in the blink of an eye than some object located a million light years away.
Promotional video:
The researchers were also surprised by the new robot that replaced R2D2. In their opinion, a "bun with a head" is absolutely not suitable for movement on a sandy and, moreover, uneven surface.
In reality, trying to roll on the sand, he will constantly slip and will get stuck in the very first, more or less deep recess. That is, with such technical equipment, this robot is able to move exclusively on a flat hard surface.
Compare linear dimensions
The authors of the picture "Armageddon" initially actively consulted with experts. However, then the filmmakers got tired of their endless corrections, and they continued to shoot "as God puts it on their souls." As a result, according to scientists, a monstrously untrue film was created, albeit a "box office". The number of absurdities that violate the basic laws of physics in it is incalculable.
Take, for example, an asteroid "the size of Texas" rushing to Earth, that is, an area (by no means a diameter) of almost 700 thousand square kilometers, on which astronauts land. For some reason, it has a normal gravitational force.
Another blooper to match the first. The heroes decide to blow up the space killer and drill a hole 250 meters deep in order to plant a 100-megaton bomb. Compare at least the order of numbers: 700,000 km2 and 250 m! It's like "what an elephant has shot." The explosion will actually occur on the surface.
According to experts, in order to fulfill the task set before the "saviors of the world", the asteroid should be stuffed with several thousand shells of the declared power.
It's all about gravity
The creators of the blockbuster "Independence Day" (the first part) quite generously endowed the giant mother ship of evil aliens with a mass equal to a quarter of the Moon's mass, and, moreover, "parked" it in the geostationary orbit of the Earth. Now imagine what would happen if the "quarter" of the moon really appeared so close to our planet?
Under the influence of the gravity of such a body, ocean waters would instantly overflow the coast and completely flood half of the United States. The second half went underground due to catastrophic earthquakes. So what could have done, even without using weapons, only by virtue of their mass, smaller ships hovering over American cities ("only" 24 km across) is not worth talking about.
Nevertheless, the audience liked the film.
There are no hurricanes on Mars
The audience also greeted The Martian with delight. However, scientists found a lot of inaccuracies in the film, correcting which, the authors of the picture would have to rewrite the plot from the very beginning, which tells about a monstrous sandstorm, because of which the astronauts left Mars, leaving the main character alone.
In fact, the Martian atmosphere is so thin and thin that no matter how strong the hurricane may be, it will be felt on the planet only as a light breeze.
Even senior schoolchildren drew attention to another "puncture". On the surface of the Red Planet, you can only move by jumping, since gravity there is not an example lower than that of the Earth.
The odyssey of the Martian potato grower lasted four years, despite the devastatingly high levels of ionizing radiation. As physicists have estimated, during this period the protagonist would have to "get" 60 roentgens, which is many times higher than the maximum permissible annual dose of radiation, which is considered safe for employees employed in the nuclear industry. From which it follows that the main character would have died in a year.
No diapers
And finally, the main, so to speak, flaw in all films about man's presence in space, according to experts, is the absence of … diapers, which are an integral part of any space traveler's underwear!
Here, however, the creators of science fiction pictures can be understood. If they had followed the path of the most realistic filming, it is unlikely that the same Sandra Bullock would star in "Gravity", and Sigourney Weaver - in "Alien."
By the way, for the sake of fairness, it should be noted that scientists criticize "space blockbusters" not always. It happens that they are praised. In particular, they proposed to consider "Interstellar" as a textbook in physics lessons that passed a deep scientific test. In their opinion, the film clearly explains the general theory of relativity and the concept of a black hole.
Gennady Fedotov, "Anomalnye Novosti" newspaper
