What is your biggest science pet peeve in movies?

[Frybert]

Just now, Vanamonde said:

My peeve is when people argue about others' peeves instead of having fun griping about their own peeves. 

If the hint wasn't enough, get back on-topic, please. 

What movie was this from?

[Vanamonde]

It's called, "Do you want this thread locked? Because this is how you get threads locked."  

[Frybert]

1 minute ago, Vanamonde said:

It's called, "Do you want this thread locked? Because this is how you get threads locked."  

Never saw it, sounds bad though.

[Codraroll]

But I've posted most of my peeves already!

 

Oh well, there's always more (always). How about this?

 

So... your average alien invasion. Or invasion from some other dimension, whatever works. A genocidal race of hyper-advanced or even magical beings is coming to Earth to destroy us all. Their chosen method of widespread destruction? Flying around downtown and zapping small objects. Maybe blowing up cars (one at a time), or single rooms in some unfortunate buildings. Zip-boom, zip-boom, panicked crowds running around, individual people being hunted down by death rays. All in all, less firepower going off than your typical New Year's Eve celebration.

Wouldn't it take an awful lot of time to destroy humanity this way? I mean, depopulating the Earth using the explosive equivalent of hand grenades is an awfully tedious and inefficient process. Even in Independence Day, the aliens took out one city per ship per day or so, which seems rather modest too, considering the size of the Earth. But those aliens deserve credit for using a somewhat effective method, I mean, the guys in Avengers and Battle: Los Angeles and even TRON: Legacy decided to do the job with foot soldiers. The aliens in War of the Worlds had vechicles (or whatever the three-legged equivalent is called), as did the Galactic Empire in Star Wars Episode V (four legs), but they still packed a comparatively modest amount of firepower for their operations.

Savvy aliens would realize they had the technology to accelerate tons of mass up to a significant fraction of light speed (that's what their ships are doing, after all), and instead play the orbital mechanics game with a big rock and a pair of engines. Instant extinction-level-event without the hassle of getting guys on flying scooters to fly around skyscrapers. Even Starship Troopers got this somewhat right.

 

Then again, if the alien invaders knew what they were doing, most alien invasion movies would have been rather short and depressing, though...

[monstah]

On 31/12/2016 at 10:42 PM, Codraroll said:

Then again, if the alien invaders knew what they were doing, most alien invasion movies would have been rather short and depressing, though...

Avatar 2: Nuke'em From Orbit, It's The Only Way To Be Sure.

[Superfluous J]

On 12/31/2016 at 7:42 PM, Codraroll said:

Then again, if the alien invaders knew what they were doing, most alien invasion movies would have been rather short and depressing, though...

This reminds me of a pet peeve specific to video games (and sometimes long running TV shows), but close enough to add here. The bad-guys-du-jour attack your good guy forces in such a way that we always have a way to defeat them, and each time they attack it's a little stronger even though there's no logical reason why they couldn't attack on day 1 with the force they use in the big final battle and totally obliterate the Human race in the prologue.

Examples: Mass Effect and XCOM. For TV, the show that comes to mind is Stargate SG1.

[todofwar]

4 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

This reminds me of a pet peeve specific to video games (and sometimes long running TV shows), but close enough to add here. The bad-guys-du-jour attack your good guy forces in such a way that we always have a way to defeat them, and each time they attack it's a little stronger even though there's no logical reason why they couldn't attack on day 1 with the force they use in the big final battle and totally obliterate the Human race in the prologue.

Examples: Mass Effect and XCOM. For TV, the show that comes to mind is Stargate SG1.

Related to the final final final form trope in rpg games. Normally, armies get more desperate and throw more and more rash things out as you get close to defeating them. They throw everything into round one and hope there is no round two. See: Germany in wwii. Now, individual battles can have this sort of escalation if it was say a sneak attack that didn't immediately succeed so you start sinking more and more resources into it to try and force the other side. See: also Germany wwii. 

On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 5:42 PM, Codraroll said:

But I've posted most of my peeves already!

 

Oh well, there's always more (always). How about this?

 

So... your average alien invasion. Or invasion from some other dimension, whatever works. A genocidal race of hyper-advanced or even magical beings is coming to Earth to destroy us all. Their chosen method of widespread destruction? Flying around downtown and zapping small objects. Maybe blowing up cars (one at a time), or single rooms in some unfortunate buildings. Zip-boom, zip-boom, panicked crowds running around, individual people being hunted down by death rays. All in all, less firepower going off than your typical New Year's Eve celebration.

Wouldn't it take an awful lot of time to destroy humanity this way? I mean, depopulating the Earth using the explosive equivalent of hand grenades is an awfully tedious and inefficient process. Even in Independence Day, the aliens took out one city per ship per day or so, which seems rather modest too, considering the size of the Earth. But those aliens deserve credit for using a somewhat effective method, I mean, the guys in Avengers and Battle: Los Angeles and even TRON: Legacy decided to do the job with foot soldiers. The aliens in War of the Worlds had vechicles (or whatever the three-legged equivalent is called), as did the Galactic Empire in Star Wars Episode V (four legs), but they still packed a comparatively modest amount of firepower for their operations.

Savvy aliens would realize they had the technology to accelerate tons of mass up to a significant fraction of light speed (that's what their ships are doing, after all), and instead play the orbital mechanics game with a big rock and a pair of engines. Instant extinction-level-event without the hassle of getting guys on flying scooters to fly around skyscrapers. Even Starship Troopers got this somewhat right.

 

Then again, if the alien invaders knew what they were doing, most alien invasion movies would have been rather short and depressing, though...

You may enjoy planetary annihilation. The only game I've played where smashing your own planets moon into the enemy planet is an available and encouraged way to end a conflict. 

[wumpus]

2 hours ago, todofwar said:

You may enjoy planetary annihilation. The only game I've played where smashing your own planets moon into the enemy planet is an available and encouraged way to end a conflict. 

Spaceward Ho! was based (well, there is a current mobile edition) on star system/planetary attacks to the death.  It typically went badly for any existing populations (although unguarded established populations could typically defeat scout ships without issue, it did give away how valuable the planet was).

But in general, any population capable of traveling interstellar distances is simply not going to notice our destruction as they terraform Earth into something more suitable.  20th century tech could wipe out Earth military and most of the population in 30 minutes.  Interstellar tech would be so far beyond that to be unimaginable.

[Mitchz95]

On 2016-12-31 at 7:42 PM, Codraroll said:

So... your average alien invasion. Or invasion from some other dimension, whatever works. A genocidal race of hyper-advanced or even magical beings is coming to Earth to destroy us all. Their chosen method of widespread destruction? Flying around downtown and zapping small objects. Maybe blowing up cars (one at a time), or single rooms in some unfortunate buildings. Zip-boom, zip-boom, panicked crowds running around, individual people being hunted down by death rays. All in all, less firepower going off than your typical New Year's Eve celebration.

Wouldn't it take an awful lot of time to destroy humanity this way? I mean, depopulating the Earth using the explosive equivalent of hand grenades is an awfully tedious and inefficient process. Even in Independence Day, the aliens took out one city per ship per day or so, which seems rather modest too, considering the size of the Earth. But those aliens deserve credit for using a somewhat effective method, I mean, the guys in Avengers and Battle: Los Angeles and even TRON: Legacy decided to do the job with foot soldiers. The aliens in War of the Worlds had vechicles (or whatever the three-legged equivalent is called), as did the Galactic Empire in Star Wars Episode V (four legs), but they still packed a comparatively modest amount of firepower for their operations.

Savvy aliens would realize they had the technology to accelerate tons of mass up to a significant fraction of light speed (that's what their ships are doing, after all), and instead play the orbital mechanics game with a big rock and a pair of engines. Instant extinction-level-event without the hassle of getting guys on flying scooters to fly around skyscrapers. Even Starship Troopers got this somewhat right.

 

Then again, if the alien invaders knew what they were doing, most alien invasion movies would have been rather short and depressing, though...

It seems to depend on what the aliens are after. Loki and Clu wanted to conquer and rule humanity, while the WotW and Independence Day aliens wanted to get us out of the way without demolishing their prize. (Still, biological or chemical weapons would be quicker...)

[p1t1o]

Passengers.

I actually really enjoyed the movie, and whilst Im sure realism wasn't exactly a priority...

(Spoilers)

Spoiler

...it was nice to see debris being treated seriously in the context of interstellar travel and the starkness of the times/distances involved, and there is a nice bit where Chris uses momentum transfer to change his motion through space, they talk about a slingshot maneuver, and most other inaccuracies could be glossed over with "any technology sufficiently advanced something something magic", commercial design imperatives and good old fashioned suspension of disbelief.

However just to tabulate some inaccuracies for the fun of it:

You just dont get visibly dense clouds of rubble in space outside of ring systems. And the chances of finding a large asteroid directly in your path in interstellar space are unbelievably small, though I suppose not technically impossible.

"Gravity" fails a few times during the crisis, given that gravity was simulated with rotation, it'd would be pretty hard to turn it on and off at the flick of a switch (you'd have to kill/re-inject the angular momentum of almost the whole ship), it should not even require power to maintain, or not much anyway.

One time when the gravity fails, all the water in the swimming pool balls up. Whilst a very pretty effect, I doubt that the whole mass of water would be very happy in one ball, it would likely fragment (if it did not mostly remain in the pool instead of immediately leaving it), water is not that viscous. The violence of that amount of water re-equilibrating on reassumption of gravity is nicely handled though.

Jennifer Lawrence finds it impossible to reach the surface of a ball of water, I fail to see how her swimming would not have propelled her to the surface (and possibly even out of the water altogether), she just kind a flounders in the middle of the bubble.

But its OK! Even though she drowned into unconsciousness, merely the reappearance of gravity (not removal from the water) wakes her back up totally not brain damaged.

The "always on" "ion" drive is ok-ish, its a long journey, a very low thrust may be all that is required for the accel/decel profile, and if hollywood is to be believed, most of the audience would be thrown into confusion if the spaceship didnt have a ball of flaming death at one end, its confusing enough that this space ship has another one at the front.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by p1t1o

[wumpus]

11 hours ago, Mitchz95 said:

It seems to depend on what the aliens are after. Loki and Clu wanted to conquer and rule humanity, while the WotW and Independence Day aliens wanted to get us out of the way without demolishing their prize. (Still, biological or chemical weapons would be quicker...)

Considering mankinds' treatment of other species "conquer and rule" would effectively mean domestication (although whether we would get the cow or the dog treatment remains to be seen).  If you were planning to colonize Proxmia Centauri (and even more so further away), wouldn't you want an initial probe that terraformed the planet a bit (especially removing any dangerous species and converting the ecology to something more suitable).

We wouldn't live to see the "invasion force" (unless already fully domesticated).  The first thing that would hit us would be a biological payload that would basically wipe out Earth's biosphere and replace it with something more friendly to aliens.  Expect to be wiped out (probably via disease) once the probe detected us interfering with the process.

[Kosmonaut]

On 12/31/2016 at 1:59 PM, maas1248 said:

Spaceships going to orbital stations by going straight up (Elysium).

To be fair, that was in a geostationary orbit, so going straight up is viable

[Tex_NL]

7 minutes ago, Kosmonaut said:

To be fair, that was in a geostationary orbit, so going straight up is viable

No it isn't. Without sideways velocity, even at geostationary altitude, you will fall down.
You might be stationary relative to the ground but that does not mean you are not moving in space.

[Kosmonaut]

6 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

No it isn't. Without sideways velocity, even at geostationary altitude, you will fall down.
You might be stationary relative to the ground but that does not mean you are not moving in space.

But you already have your sideways velocity from the earth/other planet.

[Tex_NL]

16 minutes ago, Kosmonaut said:

But you already have your sideways velocity from the earth/other planet.

If it is that easy why don't you give it a try in KSP. The numbers may be different but the physics is the same. (FYI: 2863.33 km)

Your sidereal velocity on the surface is not nearly the speed you need at geostationary altitude. You're mixing sidereal velocity up with angular velocity.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Tex_NL

[DDE]

On ‎13‎.‎12‎.‎2016 at 5:23 PM, Jonfliesgoats said:

Surface to Air and Air to Air missiles are always in a boost phase and never in a ballistic phase in the movies.  You always have nice trails of flame and vapor to look for rather than scanning visually for a nearly invisible rod traveling toward you at Mach 3.

Which is why I've started scratching my head into how many officers you'll need to execute to 'convince' them to go back to throttleable liquid fuel motors.

[kerbiloid]

Any kind of computer displays in far future spaceships or ground bases. They should just wear contact lenses or so, connected through wi-fi to the local network 3d renderer.
From outside they should look like patients of an asylum, staring at nothing, gesticulating with hands, looking at nothing, speaking with nobody.
(The first phase of it we could see when cell phones with wireless earphones just appeared.)

[p1t1o]

Star Wars universe/The Force Awakens

Re-watched Ep.VII last night, so here's a fun peeve from that:

Kylo Ren's pimp lightsaber with the LightSabre-Crossguard^TM - Not much can stop a lightsaber and saber handles have been shown not to, a crossguard of this nature makes no sense as it would not stop a sabre from slicing through your hand/weapon. Each crossguardy-bit should start on one side of the handle and point back across the blade, forming a continuous flattened "V" of sabre.

That is all.

[Superfluous J]

31 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

Kylo Ren's pimp lightsaber with the LightSabre-Crossguard^TM - Not much can stop a lightsaber and saber handles have been shown not to, a crossguard of this nature makes no sense as it would not stop a sabre from slicing through your hand/weapon. Each crossguardy-bit should start on one side of the handle and point back across the blade, forming a continuous flattened "V" of sabre.

Maybe it uses the same material that that stormtrooper's sword/staff/whatever used. the one that deflected Finn's lightsaber even though it was a material object and not made of "lightsaber blade"

I personally think it's cool when they do stuff like that and don't explain it, but only in fantasy universes like Star Wars'.

[razark]

2 hours ago, p1t1o said:

a crossguard of this nature makes no sense as it would not stop a sabre from slicing through your hand/weapon.

Hasn't this been endlessly debated yet?

 

[Kerbart]

8 minutes ago, razark said:

Hasn't this been endlessly debated yet?

 

"The Sith lords have red light sabers because the don't have access to Kyber crystals"

"Kylo Ren used a cracked kyber crystal which is why it's venting to the sides"

and yet he still has a red light saber?

[p1t1o]

56 minutes ago, razark said:

Hasn't this been endlessly debated yet?

No idea, its just bugged me since I first saw it. Most things in StarWars get a pass since it is more a fantasy than a "science" fiction, the thing with the sword though would still be a problem (or at least a missed trick in the design of the sabre, since the crossguards are apparently necessary for the function of this particular sabre) within its own context, assuming that its not handwaved aside by having a lightsaber-proof lightsaber, for which there is little precedent - Darth Maul's sabre was sliced in half and wasn't Luke's at one point?

[Racescort666]

On 1/3/2017 at 6:14 AM, p1t1o said:

Passengers.

I actually really enjoyed the movie, and whilst Im sure realism wasn't exactly a priority...

(Spoilers)

  Reveal hidden contents

...it was nice to see debris being treated seriously in the context of interstellar travel and the starkness of the times/distances involved, and there is a nice bit where Chris uses momentum transfer to change his motion through space, they talk about a slingshot maneuver, and most other inaccuracies could be glossed over with "any technology sufficiently advanced something something magic", commercial design imperatives and good old fashioned suspension of disbelief.

However just to tabulate some inaccuracies for the fun of it:

You just dont get visibly dense clouds of rubble in space outside of ring systems. And the chances of finding a large asteroid directly in your path in interstellar space are unbelievably small, though I suppose not technically impossible.

"Gravity" fails a few times during the crisis, given that gravity was simulated with rotation, it'd would be pretty hard to turn it on and off at the flick of a switch (you'd have to kill/re-inject the angular momentum of almost the whole ship), it should not even require power to maintain, or not much anyway.

One time when the gravity fails, all the water in the swimming pool balls up. Whilst a very pretty effect, I doubt that the whole mass of water would be very happy in one ball, it would likely fragment (if it did not mostly remain in the pool instead of immediately leaving it), water is not that viscous. The violence of that amount of water re-equilibrating on reassumption of gravity is nicely handled though.

Jennifer Lawrence finds it impossible to reach the surface of a ball of water, I fail to see how her swimming would not have propelled her to the surface (and possibly even out of the water altogether), she just kind a flounders in the middle of the bubble.

But its OK! Even though she drowned into unconsciousness, merely the reappearance of gravity (not removal from the water) wakes her back up totally not brain damaged.

The "always on" "ion" drive is ok-ish, its a long journey, a very low thrust may be all that is required for the accel/decel profile, and if hollywood is to be believed, most of the audience would be thrown into confusion if the spaceship didnt have a ball of flaming death at one end, its confusing enough that this space ship has another one at the front.

 

 

 

 

I saw Passengers with my gf and her parents. Overall, not too bad.

Spoiler 1:

Spoiler

I feel a bit like I was duped into seeing a romance movie rather than a SciFi movie. Still, it was enjoyable.

Spoiler 2, regarding technical problems:

Spoiler

In the end of the movie, the ship has the ion drive pointing away from the planet when it should be pointing toward the ship slowing down. They even say in the movie that it would take more time to go back to Earth than to continue on to their destination because of having to change direction acknowledging the fact that they have long acceleration and deceleration times alluding to the fact that the ship has to decelerate when it gets to its destination. 

 

[todofwar]

20 hours ago, wumpus said:

Considering mankinds' treatment of other species "conquer and rule" would effectively mean domestication (although whether we would get the cow or the dog treatment remains to be seen).  If you were planning to colonize Proxmia Centauri (and even more so further away), wouldn't you want an initial probe that terraformed the planet a bit (especially removing any dangerous species and converting the ecology to something more suitable).

We wouldn't live to see the "invasion force" (unless already fully domesticated).  The first thing that would hit us would be a biological payload that would basically wipe out Earth's biosphere and replace it with something more friendly to aliens.  Expect to be wiped out (probably via disease) once the probe detected us interfering with the process.

I think we're basically going to be depending on space peta and space green peace to protect our biosphere from total annihilation. 

 

Unrelated but they'll merge anyway, but one of my biggest pet peeves was definitely in one of the iron man or avengers movies where Tony stark is giving a presentation at MIT and at the end he says all the students projects have been fully funded. Afterwards, someone walks up and asks if maybe some of that money could go to faculty, and it's played off like that faculty is unimaginative and greedy unlike the students with genuine good ideas. Who do people think do all the research at universities? Undergrads do what grad students tell them to do and grad students follow the lead of their faculty adviser. If those students projects are funded than that money will go to faculty one way or another.

[TheKorbinjer]

On 12/9/2016 at 1:40 PM, cantab said:

With a moment's thought, it would do neither. It can only explode if a small to medium sized breach would grow rapidly, and I feel confident speculating the hab would be designed to not do that. You can do a simple experiment. Stab a balloon with a pin, and you know it pops. But stick some sellotape on the balloon and stab the pin through where the tape is, and the balloon will be pierced but it won't explode. So it's not hard to make an inflatable structure that doesn't pop. And it wouldn't exactly implode either. If breached the hab would just deflate and collapse under its own weight. The aftermath would kind of look like it had "imploded" but the process would have been slower.

That makes sense, but his hab does pop in the movie, killing his crops. The hole is big enough him to walk through. Such a rapid decompression would prove to be fatal if he wasn't already his suit.