Bad science in fiction Hall of Shame

[YNM]

  On 4/13/2018 at 7:18 PM, kerbiloid said:

Especially if look at samurai statue or so and other decorations onboard.

Expand  

Can just be a shell.

[kerbiloid]

  On 4/13/2018 at 7:19 PM, YNM said:

Can just be a shell.

Expand  

And probably is. ~30 kg of metal, and this is just one of luxury things in the ship.

P.S.
They should make traps along the ship.
A highlighted false switch inside a niche closed with a glass door.
A hero breaks the door with fist, and the fist is...
1) ... in a sticky goo, attached to the wall
2) ... under a mini-guillotine from the top of the niche

P.P.S.
Not sure about the Martian Marine Corps physical training.
Sgt Draper looks not very sporty without the suit.
Could everybody become a Martian Mariner?
(I would understand if Draper was portrayed by Zoe Bell).

Edited April 13, 2018 by kerbiloid

[kerbiloid]

How do they call the people who:

• are playing cards while deorbiting,
• get their spaceship sunken right after the landing splashing ice landing doesn't matter, it anyway has sunken,
• happily avoid suffocation from a hand-size hole in a spacesuit which they have occasionally found fifteen minutes after the EVA beginning;
• almost lost two children of three: one in an icy water, another one in a forest fire near glacier;
• have crossed a whole space to keep makimg each other's brains even on another planet?

...s? ...es? ... of ...?

No. Robinsons.

P.S.
If a whole mountain of magnesium keeps burning so long, where does it take the magnesium all this time?

P.P.S.
Looks like they are the smartest between 9 other crews.

Edited April 14, 2018 by kerbiloid

[DAL59]

  On 4/13/2018 at 12:37 AM, Just Jim said:

OK... wow...

I just watched this trailer, and I almost fell over myself laughing...

This looks like it has the potential to be packing some really, really fun bad science!!!  

Enjoy

 

Expand  

Speaking of giant fish:

Why would that be in shallow water?  

[DAL59]

  On 4/14/2018 at 6:54 PM, kerbiloid said:

Looks like they are the smartest between 9 other crews.

Expand  

Apparently, in this version the other 9 are stranded in various locations far from each other.  Sounds like an aPROXIMAtion of a far superior book that they should have adapted for a netflix series instead.  

[NSEP]

  On 4/15/2018 at 7:40 PM, DAL59 said:

Speaking of giant fish:

Why would that be in shallow water?  

Expand  

Cool more scaled reptile like Dinosaurs /:

[NSEP]

  On 4/13/2018 at 12:37 AM, Just Jim said:

OK... wow...

I just watched this trailer, and I almost fell over myself laughing...

This looks like it has the potential to be packing some really, really fun bad science!!!  

Enjoy

 

Expand  

Glass submarines, cool and all, but wouldn't that be extremely hazardous, especially when you are chasing down a big shark with big sharp teeth? Thats almost like a spacecraft made out of wood.

[KG3]

  On 4/15/2018 at 10:41 PM, NSEP said:

Glass submarines, cool and all, but wouldn't that be extremely hazardous, especially when you are chasing down a big shark with big sharp teeth? Thats almost like a spacecraft made out of wood.

Expand  

Wow, another Jaws remake!  The original Jaws did have a fair amount of humor in it.  This one doesn't seem to take itself too seriously either.  Looks like it could be a really fun movie.

[Bill Phil]

  On 4/15/2018 at 10:41 PM, NSEP said:

Glass submarines, cool and all, but wouldn't that be extremely hazardous, especially when you are chasing down a big shark with big sharp teeth? Thats almost like a spacecraft made out of wood.

Expand  

If I recall, there is a transparent material that increases strength when under pressure. Probably wouldn't help against big sharks, though.

[DAL59]

  On 4/15/2018 at 11:42 PM, Bill Phil said:

transparent material that increases strength when under pressure

Expand  

 

[Bill Phil]

  On 4/15/2018 at 11:54 PM, DAL59 said:

 

Expand  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)

Used in submersibles from what I can find.

[Superfluous J]

  On 4/13/2018 at 5:21 AM, kerbiloid said:

Btw why she ship surface is illuminated? They hope that somebody looks at them in binoculars? 

Expand  

Any time in any TV show or movie that something that should not be illuminated is illuminated, as if it's only being illuminated so you as the viewer can see it better... it's so you as the viewer can see it better.

Asking why it's lit is like asking why there's music in the scene.

[StrandedonEarth]

So "The Meg" is the megalodon from Jurassic World that apparently escaped. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[kerbiloid]

  On 4/16/2018 at 12:17 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Any time in any TV show or movie that something that should not be illuminated is illuminated, as if it's only being illuminated so you as the viewer can see it better... it's so you as the viewer can see it better.

Expand  

Yes, but why put the lamps on the ship, not just raise the scene brightness?

  Reveal hidden contents

  On 4/16/2018 at 12:17 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Asking why it's lit is like asking why there's music in the scene.

Expand  

Btw
How do we hear this music in vacuum?

  Reveal hidden contents

  On 4/15/2018 at 7:40 PM, DAL59 said:

Speaking of giant fish:

Why would that be in shallow water?  

Expand  

Why do they never cook a dino's tongue?

P.S.
(3 series of Robinsons later)
A survival championship between Robinsons & Co and Prometheus / Alien: Covenant would be a thing.

Edited April 16, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Superfluous J]

  On 4/16/2018 at 4:14 AM, kerbiloid said:

Yes, but why put the lamps on the ship, not just raise the scene brightness?

Expand  

Very likely someone in the art department decided it looked better.

[razark]

  On 4/16/2018 at 5:39 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Very likely someone in the art department decided it looked better.

Expand  

Indeed.

Film/TV is a visual art.  Looking good > realism.

 

Besides, if it wasn't well properly lit, you couldn't see the actors that they paid so much for.  (The same reason that helmets are so rare in film and TV, even though if you could protect one part of your anatomy, it would be your head.)

[kerbiloid]

No visible lamps. Perfectly visible.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

[Treveli]

  Reveal hidden contents

Expanse, _{including but not limited to s03e01}. And many other sci-fi movies.

I can see they use magnetic boots to walk on a ship surface.
(Not just along catwalks or corridors which can contain steel parts).
Why I can't attach a magnet to aluminium things? What I'm doing wrong?
Or do they make their ships out of steel?
Or in near future aluminium will become a ferromagnetic?

Also Expanse, s02e(last) and s03e01.

When the balloonoship diving into Venusian atmosphere breaks apart, why does it break apart?
It should be squashed into a piece of junk. 90 atm, btw.

When the marsogirl gets out of battery and activates the reserve power source of the suit, why does it need '"incoming missile" situation?
No incoming missiles - no batteries?

And why does she have her helmet lamps on — when she needs all battery power she has? It's not dark there.

While she is walking along the ship, the main engines are working, so the ship is under acceleration.
We can see that she helps herself with RCS mini-jets to climb forward. But we can never see her flying even on Ganymede. So, probably the acceleration is low, maybe ~0.001 g or so. Definitely < 0.1 g.
This makes to ask:
1. Why she flies so fast when her magnetos can't hold her? And why such efforts hanging on hands aside the engine?
2. Why does she not even bend back standing perpendicular to the acceleration? I want her abs!
(Or are her arms so weak? She has to struggle hanging along the acceleration, but stands straight standing perpendicular to it).
3. Why inside the non-rotating ship there is normal gravity? They have it switchable?

When she smashes a metal plate with one beat, cracking four bolts (she doesn't screw them out, the plate just detaches), what is  her glove made of? It isn't damaged. And probably the hull is still aluminium. So, not magnetic.
And other metal plates, too.
Why everything on this ship is so fragile? They don't have to use railguns and torpedoes, she could tear the ship apart just by hands.

Btw why she ship surface is illuminated? They hope that somebody looks at them in binoculars? 
OK, say, their windows just give light because they are windows.
But there are tens? hundreds? of lamps attached to the azure arcs when the marsogirl is getting into the escape boat dock.

And why that lock handle has lamps on? Under the metal plate where nobody sees them.
Is it an emergency handle?
Then why you have to break the plate rather than just open it?

Why does the escape boat stand perpendicular to the ship?
We can see that the door slides along the ship axis. The marsogirl pushes the door halves standing also along. And the boat is perpendicular to the girl.
But when it starts, it flies out along the ship, not perpendicular to it.

Why are the stars flickering when we look at her from inside the dock? Such thick air in the ship?

Why does the Martian combat suit have a hose dangling behind? Is it an aiguilette?

And does it get hit by electricity every time she touches bare wires?
Then why she breaks electric things here and there? When she breaks the boat ID plate, it sparkles, so short circuit is enough visible.

Why those full-3d-rotating chairs? The arrow-like escape boat can fly sideways as fast as directly?

What is the actual gravity direction on board of Rocinante Pinus?
When it's docked (so under the orbital station acceleration), the rooms and corridors look parallel to the station floors.
When it's in space, they are still walking along the same corridors,  when the acceleration is probably along the corridor, not perpendicular.

Not sure if Io is a nice place to gather ³He,
Of course, it is Jup here, but Io is too hot for anything except sulfur oxides, what helium?

In the books it's usually described as metal/steel and ceramics that make up the hull and structure of the ships. With how much they use magnets to hold things down (both people inside and outside ships and cargo in the holds) and apparently magnetic clamps for docking, building with non-magnetic materials without a good reason is just common sense.

As already stated, the Arboghast was disassembled by the protomolecule on Venus. The protomolecule  is like an extremely high-end lawyer when it comes to the laws of physics. It understands how they work and what the limitations are, but it also knows how to get around them without actually breaking any of them. Pulling a ship apart down to it's most basic components is easy, easier than moving Eros without any apparent engines.

Anything to do with Bobbies' suit being low on power can be attributed to 'dramatic effect' from the writers. It makes the situation more tense. In the novels she had a couple hours (not the minutes she had in the show) to prep and put on the suit before going out, so making sure the batteries were charged would have been on her 'to do' list. As for all it's demonstrated physical abilities, it's Martian Marine Force Recon power armor. From descriptions in the books, if you had one Martian Marine in armor, without any guns, only it's hands, to fight with, surrounded by a company of regular 'light' infantry with guns, you'd end up with a mass grave for a company of infantry and one Martian who's suit is in desperate need of a cleaning. 

The yacht. Jules-Pierre Mao, the guy who owns the ship, is basically the Bill Gates or Donald Trump of the Solar system. Massively wealthy, has a god-like amount of influence, and a god-like amount of arrogance. In the books, the ship is usually docked at a private space station (which itself is built like a high-class hotel (form over function)). It's entire design, inside and out, is meant to say 'I'm so rich I can do stuff everyone else thinks is pointless and idiotic'. Compartments that are far larger and more richly (both in cost and mass) decorated than you would have any need or reason to do on a ship. The hull painted with murals that hardly anyone will ever see. It's a trillonare's mega yacht and a flying message to the world that it's owner is superior to everyone else.

Gravity on the Roci. She (and all the ships in the Expanse universe) are built like a flying skyscraper. The decks are stacked one on top of the other. 'Down' is towards the engines, while under thrust. When docked to a rotating station (like Tycho or Ceres) the bow of the ship is pointing towards the center of rotation, and the spin pushes you 'down'.

[lugge]

  On 4/11/2018 at 10:25 AM, DAL59 said:

Bows are quieter though.  Still, why you would have an archer on an alien and robot fighting team is questionable. 

Expand  

Rule of cool.

This guy is the reason my girlfriend watches Avenger movies with me.

[ARS]

So... We know that in real life, wings are pretty much useless in vacuum, rendering any old-school fighter dogfight impossible in space since there's no air to be interacted by lifting/ control surfaces. But what about if there's air? I mean, supposedly, a space colony large enough to have internal volume for a city (we assume O'Neill Cylinder design) which has air, and the internal space is breathable, but no gravity (assume that it stopped spinning). So there's air, breathable atmosphere and no gravity. Using standard jet fighter design on earth (lifting surface, control surface and thrust vectoring), how effective the dogfight would be?

[YNM]

  On 4/21/2018 at 9:38 AM, ARS said:

So there's air, breathable atmosphere and no gravity.

Expand  

I think you'd want a "neutral" wings - those that don't generate lift unless at an angle.

Also, you only need very small amount of thrust as you don't need a lot of lift to fight off gravity.

The only advantage is that it'd only need one engine direction instead of six.

[Gargamel]

  On 4/15/2018 at 10:41 PM, NSEP said:

Glass submarines, cool and all, but wouldn't that be extremely hazardous, especially when you are chasing down a big shark with big sharp teeth? Thats almost like a spacecraft made out of wood.

Expand  

I know this thread has the attention span of an ADHD kid on meth, but I'll throw back to this.

Glass subs are fairly common, albeit not for giant shark hunting.   Common, as in, they are quite a few models that exist in the world today.

  On 4/21/2018 at 9:38 AM, ARS said:

Using standard jet fighter design on earth (lifting surface, control surface and thrust vectoring), how effective the dogfight would be?

Expand  

Well, unless we're discussing RC drones or inside Rama, dog fighting inside a zero G space would be kinda pointless.   The craft would bounce off a wall before it could do anything. 

But that aside...

Lift would be pointless.  It may have it's use in a rotary wing (propeller), but as a fixed wing, it's noting but a hinderance.  It would be adding a force vector in one direction, based on the velocity in another direction. 

Using a quadcopter concept, with fully 360 gimballing props, you could achieve amazing mobility and speed.   You would not have to worry about lift, as there is no down.  All you would have to worry about is thrust vectors.  And as long as you have electric charge, your little props can provide thrust.  

[KG3]

Scott Manly did a video a while ago about "flying" a fighter in space.  What I got out of the video is that wings in an atmosphere provide a whole lot of thrust when making a turn.  He points out that while the engine pushing the craft forward at a fraction of a G the wings can pull something like 9 Gs!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYPxJtra1ws

Flying in an atmosphere without any gravity would be interesting.  I think you can try it in KSP if you turn off the gravity?

[Gargamel]

  On 4/22/2018 at 11:59 AM, KG3 said:

Flying in an atmosphere without any gravity would be interesting.

Expand  

Interesting would be one way of putting it, if you kept the wings on.

It would be like driving a car that pulls hard to the left, all the time. 

That's a great video by scott. 

  On 4/14/2018 at 6:54 PM, kerbiloid said:

How do they call the people who:

• are playing cards while deorbiting,
• get their spaceship sunken right after the landing splashing ice landing doesn't matter, it anyway has sunken,
• happily avoid suffocation from a hand-size hole in a spacesuit which they have occasionally found fifteen minutes after the EVA beginning;
• almost lost two children of three: one in an icy water, another one in a forest fire near glacier;
• have crossed a whole space to keep makimg each other's brains even on another planet?

...s? ...es? ... of ...?

No. Robinsons.

P.S.
If a whole mountain of magnesium keeps burning so long, where does it take the magnesium all this time?

P.P.S.
Looks like they are the smartest between 9 other crews.

Expand  

I got to the point where the girl gets frozen in the ice (about 5 minutes in, so no spoiler there) and turned it off....

[Superfluous J]

  On 4/16/2018 at 8:50 AM, kerbiloid said:

No visible lamps. Perfectly visible.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Expand  

So star wars is more realistic than the expense?