Bad science in fiction Hall of Shame

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Related to that (but not sci-fi in particular) it also causes the main characters of a show to not wear helmets when going into a firefight, even though EVERYBODY ELSE present is fully armored.

And they are those who survive.
Being a chosen gives better protection than a helmet. And if he hides the face, how could you know who is chosen?

Open armored tops with naked bellies on the chosen heroines play the same role.
Just review WonderWoman or so.

3 hours ago, p1t1o said:

Which also causes another major sci-fi thing that I hate - space helmets with internal lights that illuminate the wearers face.

A highlighted combat helmet can make sense if a character's morning face can scare every enemy.

Also maybe they use biometric identification and the sensors work badly at low brightness.

Edited February 26, 2018 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

A highlighted combat helmet can make sense if a character's morning face can scare every enemy.

Or their mug is tougher than most helmets.

[razark]

The toughest helmet is no match for plot armor.

[DAL59]

1 hour ago, razark said:

The toughest helmet is no match for plot armor.

Unless your in The Expanse.  Then you get your head blown off by a railgun.  I like how they correctly depicted a hole into space as not sucking all air out immediatitly.  @nyrath said the airflow rate was correct.

[ARS]

If I want a realism, I'd rather have an obscured helmet like in real-life astronaut suit, with the wearer's name written above the faceplate/ on the side of the helmet rather than excessive LED lights inside the helmet just so we can see the actor's face. In real life, this can blind the wearer and makes the wearer cannot see clearly what they're doing (Especially considering space equipment and orbital repairs are extremely delicate operation, you don't want to screw up even once like 'my hand slipped')

Planetes does this right, in fact, every aspect of it seems plausible in real-life, probably the hardest space-based story so far with realistic depiction of commercial spaceflight less than a century in the future and almost completely limited to the Earth Sphere itself. Detailed orbital mechanics, realistic effects of space on health, dependency theory, diapers under spacesuits, and invisible laser beams. Even the trope of "In Space Everyone Can See Your Face" is justified as mere thematic close-ups on the characters' faces — with their faceplates down. Its premise — the collection of space garbage to prevent multimillion-dollar spacecraft from being scrapped by loose screws from orbital junk — is a real life problem but economically unfeasible (nowadays we just ignore it - military satellites are fitted with maneuvering thrusters to dodge but nobody cleans it up), but this is actually a major plot point — though the job is essential to actual commercial space travel, the fact that nobody can find a way to make money off it means they ignored it right up until the accident that killed one of the character. Then the Debris Sections were formed in response to public outcry — and staffed by underpaid office drones with gear older than they are.   Even the Tandem Mirror drive is named after/based on a real magnetic confinement fusion technique, which has been noted to be uniquely suited to application as a space drive.

Edited February 27, 2018 by ARS

[kerbiloid]

For me, the best helmet evah.

Spoiler

It has (if I understand this right) a touchscreen right on the facial glass. They from time to time tap right on it like on a keyboard.
Instead of pip-boys or other external devices.

It has a quickly reacting mechanical shield protecting the face.

It has a binocular camera with wide base which allows to estimate distances more accuratey.

Spoiler

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

It has a binocular camera with wide base which allows to estimate distances more accuratey.

Noobs.

[Nibb31]

I just watched Geostorm. It had so much bad science in it, I wouldn't know where to start. It was really bad.

[DDE]

On 27/02/2018 at 9:32 AM, Nibb31 said:

I just watched Geostorm. It had so much bad science in it, I wouldn't know where to start. It was really bad.

It can get worse. Geostorm is a warning. From THEM.

[Video removed by moderator because it contains bad language]

Edited February 28, 2018 by Deddly

[YNM]

4 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

I just watched Geostorm. It had so much bad science in it, I wouldn't know where to start. It was really bad.

Seems like even the nukes-in-hurricane idea was a bit more legit. There were also the storm-generation-machine film, but I don't know whether it contains the only scene I have in mind (weirdly. I remember only that scene from somewhen but I didn't even know the title).

Edited February 27, 2018 by YNM

[ProtoJeb21]

Apparently, in Star Wars, some Force Nexuses like Dagobah, Ahch-To, and Mortis can cause time dilation...except its inverted. Time dilation in our Universe essentially makes time seem to go faster for objects that are either going high fractions of the speed of light, or are near a strong gravity well, or both. However, the opposite happens in Star Wars: MORE time passes in a Force Nexus than the outside Universe. On Ahch-To, three days pass there while only 18 hours pass in normal space, like near Crait. It’s even more extreme on Mortis: multiple days pass over the course of a few seconds in normal space. This is rather ridiculous and could only be achieved through the use of HUGE amounts of Negative Mass, which has an inverse effect on space-time than regular “positive” mass. The problem is that you need to create regular matter to create Negative Matter as well. For something like Dagobah or Ahch-To, the amount needed could be equivalent to the mass of a small asteroid to the mass of a moon or greater. For an extreme case like Mortis, it’s possible that a supermassive black hole’s worth of Negative and Positive Mass would need to be created, which is an obvious problem to anyone nearby that wants to, you know, live. 

I could go on and on about bizarre science...things...in Star Wars, like the extremely dangerous outcomes of using an Interdictor Cruiser to the interdimensional gateways just introduced in Star Wars Rebels, but I value everyone’s sanity, so I’ll just stop for now. 

[StrandedonEarth]

I just watched Battleship. Um, yeah, where to start. I don’t think I’ll bother, since I don’t think it made any claim to sci-fi. Let’s just say they threw science out the window in the first five minutes with a transmission that was apparently FTL, if not instantaneous  

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by StrandedonEarth

[Bill Phil]

5 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Apparently, in Star Wars, some Force Nexuses like Dagobah, Ahch-To, and Mortis can cause time dilation...except its inverted. Time dilation in our Universe essentially makes time seem to go faster for objects that are either going high fractions of the speed of light, or are near a strong gravity well, or both. However, the opposite happens in Star Wars: MORE time passes in a Force Nexus than the outside Universe. On Ahch-To, three days pass there while only 18 hours pass in normal space, like near Crait. It’s even more extreme on Mortis: multiple days pass over the course of a few seconds in normal space. This is rather ridiculous and could only be achieved through the use of HUGE amounts of Negative Mass, which has an inverse effect on space-time than regular “positive” mass. The problem is that you need to create regular matter to create Negative Matter as well. For something like Dagobah or Ahch-To, the amount needed could be equivalent to the mass of a small asteroid to the mass of a moon or greater. For an extreme case like Mortis, it’s possible that a supermassive black hole’s worth of Negative and Positive Mass would need to be created, which is an obvious problem to anyone nearby that wants to, you know, live. 

I could go on and on about bizarre science...things...in Star Wars, like the extremely dangerous outcomes of using an Interdictor Cruiser to the interdimensional gateways just introduced in Star Wars Rebels, but I value everyone’s sanity, so I’ll just stop for now. 

That's why it's sometimes not considered science fiction. 

Although in a world with literal magic, it's not that surprising.

[mikegarrison]

On 2/25/2018 at 10:02 PM, Bill Phil said:

Both large airship aircraft carriers (Akron and Macon) crashed before the Hindenburg did. This was around the early 30s.

It ended up being poor for offensive tactics, but had some potential for reconnaissance and searching for targets. Airships were used to help defend the US coast during WWII, but this was after the crashes of the Akron and the Macon and used small blimps, not rigid airships.

The idea with airships carrying airplanes was the same as the idea of a B-36 carrying an airplane. The airships were the bombers, but they were vulnerable to fighters and had too much range for fighters to escort them. So they carried fighters for defense.

[YNM]

9 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

However, the opposite happens in Star Wars: MORE time passes in a Force Nexus than the outside Universe.

Slo-mo ? I'd say that as fiction, but to be really honest, time is more than just physics, your computer can compute faster than you so perhaps to it's "mind" it's been taking long.

But yeah, not science.

[kerbiloid]

H.G.Wells's "The War in the Air" is all about this. But with airships.

_{Upd. I mean, about airships with airplanes, not about bad science.}

Edited March 1, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Bill Phil]

6 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

The idea with airships carrying airplanes was the same as the idea of a B-36 carrying an airplane. The airships were the bombers, but they were vulnerable to fighters and had too much range for fighters to escort them. So they carried fighters for defense.

Not really. Maybe the original concept, but the actual airship carriers? They weren't bombers at all. They were reconnaissance craft with planes.

To put it this way: they carried slow biplanes (the biplanes had to have a low enough speed to match speeds with the airship and a decent cruising speed). Barely a defense against other fighters in the 1930s.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Bill Phil

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Bill Phil said:

They weren't bombers at all

Some of them were.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by kerbiloid

[razark]

7 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Some of them were.

Those aren't airships.

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Some of them were.

  Hide contents

  Hide contents

 

I'm afraid that those are airplanes, not airships.

[wumpus]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Some of them were.

Looks like the fighters need 3/4 of the range of the bomber, because they aren't going to dock back into those positions (they should extend their range by drafting off the bomber).  The modern equivalent would be to bring a tanker along with the bombers and fighters, and keep refueling the fighters as you go (allowing you to spend little mass on fighter fuel).  I've never heard of this being done (tankers certainly extend fighters/bombers range for long range strikes with little time to move carriers, but not bringing fighters along with heavy bombers).

[kerbiloid]

39 minutes ago, wumpus said:

Looks like the fighters need 3/4 of the range of the bomber, because they aren't going to dock back into those positions (they should extend their range by drafting off the bomber).  The modern equivalent would be to bring a tanker along with the bombers and fighters, and keep refueling the fighters as you go (allowing you to spend little mass on fighter fuel).  I've never heard of this being done (tankers certainly extend fighters/bombers range for long range strikes with little time to move carriers, but not bringing fighters along with heavy bombers).

With 3 fighters per carrier those fighters were mini-bombers with 250 kg bombs.

P.S.
I got it, this is not an airship.

Edited March 1, 2018 by kerbiloid

[phantom000]

In Stargate: SG-1 they talk about 'mining' neutronium. I would love to know how you 'mine' neutronium considering it is literally the hardest substance possible, i.e. that the laws of physics say it is impossible to have anything harder.

[Just Jim]

25 minutes ago, phantom000 said:

In Stargate: SG-1 they talk about 'mining' neutronium. I would love to know how you 'mine' neutronium considering it is literally the hardest substance possible, i.e. that the laws of physics say it is impossible to have anything harder.

Hehehe... In Emiko Station I've made the monoliths from Neutronium... and the newer green ones from "Anti-Neutronium"...

And the first thing my character Thompberry said when he saw the tests results from one was...

"No... No, that's impossible... that CAN'T exist!"

Problem solved... hehehe  

 

[kerbiloid]

Btw could we feel something touching a thing made of neutrons? Could we really touch it? (If it could have normal density).
As our sensors detect electromagnetic interaction, while neutrons are neutral.