Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Indy science: all it's cracked-the-whip up to be?


We are producing a show this week on the science of the latest Indiana Jones movie for Skeptical Sunday. Has anyone seen the movie? Wonder whether he could really survive falling over three 100 foot waterfalls? Etc.
Have questions for us? We'll try to answer them in the program!

6 comments:

Lourdes / Hypatia said...

The first of many things that bother me in the movie is the weird electro-magnetic behavoir... does the gun powder have metal? if that so is more metal in gun powder than in the roof lamps? Should the bullets fired change trajectory due to the magnetic pull of the alien box?

I can't wait to listen that AWA? show!!!

Best regards

Lourdes

Unknown said...

My question is: Would a lead lined fridge really protect you from a nuclear blast?

I have a funny feeling that it probably wouldn't, but if not, what would?

What would Indy's best chances for survival be in that test-site town scenario?

Jamie, Tokyo

Anonymous said...

When they were fighting on top of their trucks through the forest. Would it be possible for them to stay up standing like that, while fighting with swords? Let alone I can't imagine the terrain would be very flat and even. And could you really swing on a bull whip just buy throwing it around a branch?

Anonymous said...

OMG - I wonder how much money and time went into a show that scrutinizes the scientific validity of an action/adventure movie made purely for fun??? Glad I missed the tear down of Raiders of the Lost Ark (wth - ghosts, melting faces, the lightning hand of God???). Please, leave science to the scientists and movie MAGIC to the movie makers. Donate that money and time to the SETI project or something worthwhile, then go see Indiana Jones, sit back in your seat, and enjoy the fantastic, adventurous ride through fiction that the movie was meant to be.

Anonymous said...

The first two movies pretty much set up the franchise as 'fantasy' (the Ark REALLY wipes out civilizations).

This is the first time I've heard this podcast and it was very well done. However, podcasters have to get rid of that great amateur identifier-bad puns! They're EVERYWHERE!:)


I haven't seen the latest indy movie but was listening to the information about the fridge scene. I'm assuming the fact that kids got locked inside old fridges all the time was addressed. Once you get in, its not easy to get out.

Good special effects and bad science have plagued hollywood movies for too long. Thanks for the podcast, these guys aren't getting any money from me! And they wonder why people download movies!

Anonymous said...

Magnetism from Crystal at the MOVIES strenght is that possible?
What i mean is A handful of stable crystalline organic radicals exhibit ferromagnetic behavior.
Ferromagnetism in these materials arises from crystal packing. Galvinoxyl (13) shows
ferromagnetic behavior between 300 K and 85 K, which arises due to parallel stacking
between planar galvinoxyl radicals.