That's Just SciencePsst! Hey, kid: wanna see something cool? Check out these lists of neato facts, pics, and vids of science working around you, all day in every way.
Updated September 23, 2021 4.7k votes 1.3k voters 127.1k views
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Vote up the scenes you didn't realize could actually happen.
Unfortunately, it actually is impossible to build an Iron Man suit, but that doesn't mean there's no real science in movies. While the science of movies is often inaccurate (even in science-fiction films), Hollywood occasionally gets a few things right. Disaster movies are perhaps the biggest culprits when it comes time to shirk science, but even they've been known to impress a scientist now and again.
Some movie plots are so outlandish that they just have to be based on reality. Despite what logic might lead you to believe, it's totally possible to split an arrow with another arrow, and there's a slim chance that you might wake up to a sea of sharks raining from the sky.
Once one considers all the things that can happen in real life from movies, one has to wonder whether films like Iron Manare also a few years away from actually occurring.
In the most terrifying news you'll ever hear, it turns out that the predator-filled storms seen in Sharknado are actually scientifically feasible. The first recorded "sharknado" happened in a small Australian town called Ayr during a tropical storm.
Cyclone Debbie caused major damage to Australia in the spring of 2017, and one of the most phenomenal incidents involved the discovery of a dead bull shark, which had been apparently plucked out of the ocean by the 160 mph winds and dropped over 10 miles inland.
While it's not exactly like the scene where sharks reign from the sky across Los Angeles, no amount of falling sharks can be considered good.
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The Rock Could Actually Redirect A Torpedo With His Bare Hands
The Fast and the Furious movies are chock-full of laughably impossible stunts, but it turns out some of the craziness could actually happen in real life. One such feat occurs in Fate of the Furious, when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) redirects a two-ton torpedo using only his muscle.
According to MythBusters, this insane display of strength actually is possible. "Because it’s on ice and the other car was about nine car lengths away... The Rock would have to push about 450 foot-pounds of force to veer this torpedo." The crew admits that "it would be a heroic feat,” but still technically feasible for someone as buff as The Rock.
The 2010 film adaptation of The A-Team is full of crazy action, most memorably the skydiving tank scene. There is no way that could possibly happen, right? Wrong! The YouTube channel Escapist breaks down this seemingly impossible feat of science in their "Reel Physics" segment, and the findings are unbelievable.
First of all, the tank requires three giant parachutes to slow its descent, which is indeed what SpaceX uses for their crafts. When the tank lands in a lake, the impact only involves about 3.5 gs of force, which is survivable. At this point, it seems like the team should be stuck at the bottom of the lake. However, the real-life equivalent of the tank is a hybrid, meaning that it could indeed accelerate while lacking the oxygen required for an internal combustion engine. The whole thing seems utterly impossible, but it's not.
Despite being one of the more ridiculous modes of inflicting harm, Oddjob (Harold Sakata) — the diminutive henchman of Goldfinger — really could mess you up with his razor-brimmed hat. To prove it, a blacksmith made his own version of the hurtful headgear by lining the rim of an otherwise normal bowler hat with steel. The result was a deadly garment capable of shearing through more than just martini glasses.
Of course, human scientists have yet to achieve wormhole travel, but that doesn't mean the journey is scientifically impossible. Carl Sagan actually included theoretical physicist Kip Thorne's study of wormhole travel in the screenplay for Contact, meaning that the events of the film's third act are at least plausible, if not proven.
What's more, virtually all of the science in Contact is accurate, right down to the sound of the radio frequencies used to communicate with extraterrestrials.
In the opening scene of GoldenEye, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) bungee jumps off a dam, then fires a grappling gun into the ground to pull himself to safety. The sequence instantly raises some red flags, as shouldn't the force of the bungee slingshot him back upwards?
As it turns out, 007's escape is actually physically possible. The guys behind Reel Physics broke down the math, determining that 007 would have had to hold onto the gun with 295 lbs. of force. While that would be difficult, it's not impossible, and Britain's finest agent should be the type capable of such a feat.