Bad Physics
This weeks NY Times magazines features a long article about how people (with lower education, in my opinion) drive NASA (and other a little more educated people) crazy. OK, everybody can state their opinion in this country, they can believe in whatever they choose.
But sometimes it costs money (and nerves) what they are doing. I don’t know how much money NASA spend on public education, but it still seems to be not enough. And all the work they had to do, to undo the damage the Fox mokumentary about the fake moonlanding caused.
Fortunately there are a few enlighted people out there working hard on public education and damage control, like Phil Plait and his badastronomy.com site. He is doing a pretty good job explainig that NASA WAS on the moon, as well as ripping movies apart for using “wrong” or no physics, like Signs or Armageddon. (I think Signs was kinda nice for suspence, but an insult to my intellect.)
Also worth reading is Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. He has his own movie rating system, from GP (good physics) to XP (obviously physics from an unknown universe). The target is not only SF, but more general movie making. I like the idea to use movie segments in schools to find out if the physic is OK or not (Movie physics in the classroom). I wish my physics teachers would have done this.
Be careful. All the links above contain serious scientific nerd talk that can spoil your happy, low-brain movie experience.
