Physics is used in many popular movies today. Iron Man, Fast & Furious, and Transformers are a few top box office movies that utilize physics concepts.
Iron Man uses physics when Tony Stark, the creator of the Iron Man suit, creates an arc reactor to go inside his chest to survive a chest injury. In this movie the arc reactor was a energy source and used electromagnets.
The Fast & Furious series of movies explores the relationship between physics and street cars. The characters in the movies modify engines to achieve maximum speeds, and explore the concepts of force, motion, and electrical systems.
The Transformers movies also relate physics to the real world. The uses of weaponry and fast cars in the movie both relate to physics.
My challenge to you is to think of some of your favorite movies and how they may use physics concepts. I am very interested to see your responses!
Walter Hill
Pretty much any Modern War movie applies physics with the trajectory of a bullet from a guns barrel through the air and into the target. Examples: "Black Hawk Down", "Saving Private Ryan", etc..)
ReplyDeleteThe movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a great example of a bridge being build over a river and how the angles of the support beams must be just right or the bridge will collapse. The beams also have to be strong enough to hold heavy amounts of weight crossing it.
A great example of electronic waves, signals and, radio waves is "Crimson Tide" and "The Hunt for Red October". These are both movies about submarines that use these types of waves to communicate and to indicate enemies.
Of course all of my examples are of war related movies, so there are plenty of other movies that apply what I have stated above.
One important difference (physically, anyway) between the new CGI Transformers films and the (good old) 1980s cartoons and movie is the absence of "mass shifting." For example, in the original cartoon, Megatron transformed into a handgun, even though his robot form was just as large as the Transformers whose vehicle mode was an automobile, jet, train, etc. Also, somehow, his handgun form was able to be held and operated by both humans and (the much larger) Decepticons.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite movies of all time are the super hero movies. Most of them use physics in some form or another. Take the spider man series for example: While he swings on his web from building to building he is encountering G forces on him self and the spiders web he's holding onto. As he swings from building to building the right amount of web has to be used so that he doesn't swing and hit the ground, a car or another building. Then going on from that he has to let go at a certain point so that he is sent flying to the spot he desires, whether it be on a building, a statue, or through a window to capture those bad guys! This movie is filled with physics!
ReplyDeleteAll of these are great examples and show that physics concepts are used in a variety of ways.
ReplyDeleteAaron Gibbs - I am also a fan of all the Marvel Comics and DC (Justice League) Comics remakes to. All of the movies use one form or another of physics concepts.
Dr. Lane- The older Transformers does not seem to be realistic compared to the newer versions.
Elamon White- You also pointed out some good movies and you are correct because all modern warfare movies incorporate physics. I have seen Black Hawk Down but not the others
There are many movies with physics but one that caught my eye was In "The Day the Earth Stood Still," there's a scene in which a physicist is working on a general relativity problem on a blackboard. The alien comes in and corrects a couple of equations, thus unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics.
ReplyDeleteEven almighty, to build the arc he had to use physics!
ReplyDeleteIn Armageddon the NASA scientists use physics to predict the trajectory of the asteroid
ReplyDeleteSemira how was physics used in Evan Almighty?
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