8 phenomena in cinema that Hollywood misrepresents

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We figure out how a lie detector works, whether gasoline has an expiration date and whether it is possible to survive in a volcano.

1. The sea of lava is relatively safe

Lakes and rivers of molten rock are, of course, hot, but if you don't step directly into the magma with your foot, nothing bad will happen. Therefore, the mouth of the volcano is a great place to build an impregnable castle or villainous base. In addition, magma flows in much the same way as water, so you can ride on it on fireproof surfboards.

What really is

There is such a thing as convection. Lava heats not only objects placed inside it, but also the air above it. This means that if you try to cross the bridge over the lava or jump from stone to stone at the foot of the volcano flooded with it, you will still be roasted.

Not to mention the fact that hot air cannot be breathed without causing burns to the lungs. Volcanoes also delight those around them with gifts such as toxic gases and suffocating ash. And by the way, magma is molten rock with temperatures below 1,200 ° C, not liquid, so you cannot swim on it.

You won't be able to immerse yourself in lava, molten metal and other similar substances like the Terminator: they are too dense. So a person thrown into a volcano will, no matter how awful, lie on the surface of magma … and burn.

2. If you move at the speed of light, the stars will look like glowing lines

When a spaceship - for example, in Star Wars - accelerates to the speed of light (or even greater, although this is impossible from the point of view of physics), its crew does not see the stars. They literally smudge and turn from dots into lines from such a fast movement.

What really is

Let's assume that it is possible to accelerate a spaceship with people inside to near-light speed and not turn it into elementary particles. In this case, the picture that the crew will see will be much stranger than what we are shown in Star Wars.

Phenomena such as relativistic aberration and the Doppler effect will cause stars in front of you to turn blue and purple, and those behind you turn red. The surrounding space will be distorted. Moreover, due to the aberration of the light, you will feel that you are not moving forward to your destination, but backward.

A group of physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a simple game that clearly shows these effects. In it, you can move at the speed of light and look at the world around you.

This will not be shown in Star Wars, otherwise the audience will think that the heroes are taking psychedelics.

3. A nail gun is a good weapon

In the movies, pneumatic nail guns, or nailers, are used to dashingly shoot enemies. If the nails are silver, then they can put a vampire down. And if you hold down the trigger, the nailer turns into a rapid-fire analogue of the Uzi submachine gun.

What really is

Real construction pistols are designed so as not to kill anyone. They have a safety clip that prevents the nail from being released unless the device is pressed against a surface.

Even if you bypass this mechanism, the pneumatics throws the nail hard enough to pierce the cardboard at the slightest acceptable distance. What can we say about the human body. In the worst case scenario, you will hurt yourself or gouge your eye out.

One YouTube experimenter demonstrates the destructive power of his nail gun. And in this confrontation, the cardboard box wins, not the nailer.

4. Truth Serum Works

With the help of truth serum, you can easily bring some villain to the surface or break the will of a noble hero. One injection, and the prisoner happily tells everything he knows.

What really is

There are many chemical compounds called truth serum. For example, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinylbenzylate, midazolam, flunitrazepam, sodium thiopental and amobarbital. However, there is no convincing evidence that these drugs are effective. Therefore, they are not used in investigations in most countries.

Moreover, most of these drugs,, enter the interrogated into a state of narcotic intoxication. Because of this, he will be extremely suggestible and will easily agree with everything he hears. So, if you need to find out the truth, all sorts of sodium pentothals are not your helpers.

5. And the lie detector too

If sodium pentothal is not at hand, but you need to get to the bottom of the truth, you can use a lie detector, or a polygraph. The villain will certainly betray himself: a rapid pulse and increased sweating will indicate lies. But the positive hero can easily deceive the polygraph, even if it requires a tremendous effort of will.

What really is

In some US departments, such as the FBI, NSA and the CIA, the polygraph is still used when questioning new employees. However, most countries have abandoned it and do not consider the device data to be at least somewhat legally significant.

The reason is simple: there are no specific physiological reactions,,, of the organism to a lie. The polygraph is only able to determine the level of stress of the subject, no more. Therefore, at the moment, polygraph examination is classified in the section of pseudosciences.

6. Anything explodes on a shot

If you have a pistol, you can blow up everything that lies badly with one well-aimed shot. This could be a propane tank, a barrel of gasoline, or a bag of explosives. Even nuclear bombs detonate when hit by firearms.

What really is

In order to ignite gasoline, propane or other flammable substances, a pistol is not enough: you need a rapid-fire weapon and incendiary cartridges. The Mythbusters used a minigun for this.

It is also impossible to detonate modern plastic detonating substances like C-4 or TNT without a fuse. Americans in Vietnam even set C-4 on fire to heat canned food on it.

Well, and making a nuclear bomb detonate is an even more difficult task. And if you fire it with a pistol, then it will sooner fail than explode.

7. Gasoline does not spoil

The hero finds in an old abandoned garage a car that had been there for years. Sits behind the wheel, twists the wires or finds forgotten keys under the visor, starts the engine … Great, the tank is almost full! You can go anywhere.

What really is

Even if we omit the fact that the car itself needs care and cannot help but be damaged over long periods of inactivity, one less obvious problem remains. Namely, fuel. In a car tank, gasoline retains its properties from three to six months, in a sealed canister from a year to three years.

Therefore, the characters of the post-apocalyptic universes, who continue to dissect in their rattle cars, years after the end of the world and the collapse of the oil refining industry, look simply ridiculous.

It would be much more realistic to attach a harness to the car and transfer it to horse traction - such an "engine" can even be interrupted by pasture.

8. Jumping into the water is safe

Heroes are in danger - fire, explosion, attack by predators, enemy special forces, alien attack, or all of the above. But they, running away, jump from the bridge under 10 meters high, surface and escape.

What really is

Water can cushion a fall, but not always. Due to the surface tension, it is quite possible to break on it as much as on asphalt if you jump from a sufficient height.

That is why extreme sportsmen, doing high-diving, observe a special technique when jumping, trying to reduce the area of contact with the surface of the reservoir - falling vertically on the heels. But the overwhelming majority of movie characters neglect this.