May 27 2006
Tired of Hollywood pseudo-science?
Enjoy picking a movie apart as soon as it ends? Bickering about what was portrayed on the screen and why that couldn’t possibly have worked in real life? Pointing out serious “liberties” taken by the writers in an effort to add dramatic effect?
You are not alone.
Intuitors Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics is on your side. Spending time breaking down typical movie mistakes involving physics, the site also has a series of reviews rating the movies “for their portrayal of excessively bad physics”.
One of my favorites?
First, let us point out that the thirty-round magazine in a Mac 10 will be expended in a mere 1.8 seconds of sustained fire! If our shooter blazes away steadily for a total of only 3 minutes, his or her Mac 10 will spit out around 3000 chunks of lead at roughly 15 grams a piece. This amounts to 45 kilograms or a little less than 100 pounds of lead. And that doesn’t account for the weight of the 3000 cartridge cases or 100 empty magazines scattered on the ground.
[Hat Tip: Cousin Theodore]
How very like Teddy…
ironically, the only chapter I’ve had a chance to read was the one you quoted. did they get into blowback? and bodies flying? I’d make time to read it, but, well, it’s the internet, and it’s not work or the kid.
They get right into Newton’s Law, Physics and the flying bosies thing. Equations that hurt my feeble brain.