Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

Second Term Paper

Unrealistic Physics in the movie Hancock

From the beginning until the end of the movie Hancock, several principals of physics are violated, starting as early as the opening action sequence. The movie is about a seemingly human man (and later we discover a woman, too), with above-average abilities, including super strength, the ability to jump into flight, the power to deflect bullets, and apparent immortality. Even if the man, Hancock, played by Will Smith, were incredibly strong, the feats he accomplishes in the film would still be unreasonable by the measures of physics. Specifically, in the opening scene, three identifiable physics principles are violated: first when Hancock jumps off the ground in order to fly, then when he stops a car using the friction of his feet against the asphalt, and finally when he swings a car around while suspended in mid-air.

The first violation of physics in the film is clearly when Hancock jumps up and takes off into flight, practically causing an explosion on the ground as he does so. With not a lot of force exerted (only the force of his own body pushing against the ground), he is able to accomplish a huge takeoff. Hancock squats down, but very quickly, not allowing for much time to rebound and gain momentum. It takes a mere instant for Hancock to go from a stationary state of no acceleration, to full speed flight. It would take a great amount of energy and force to make this possible. Even cars, which are propelled by an engine, take a number of seconds to speed up; yet, Hancock seems to skip the acceleration phase and reach his maximum speed immediately. In terms of animation, there is no slowing in or out when Hancock takes off or lands. He also leaves behind a great deal of destruction on the ground during take off and landing. This can be attributed to the force Hancock exerts on the ground as he takes off. He relies on the reactionary force of the ground to help push him off. However, the extent of the damage is far too exaggerated. There are large pieces of gravel that fly up at least thirty feet into the air, and the area of the destructed area is much too large to be attributed to Hancock’s feet.

The second time the film shows unrealistic physics is when Hancock is in a moving car with a group of criminals, and He pushes his feet through the floor of the car, using the friction of his feet against the ground to stop the car. His feet dig into the road, leaving the cement upturned and broken underneath the car. It stops in roughly ten car lengths. There are a few problems with the realism of this scenario. First, the driver of the vehicle still has his foot on the acceleration, so Hancock would need to not only stop a moving object with simple friction, but that object is simultaneously being set in motion by the force of an engine. Second, the force he needs to exert on the ground must be reciprocated back onto him. As he is sitting inside the car, the only force he has is his own weight, which would not be enough unless he had something to push off from, but it shows in the film that he does not use any other force. Last, Hancock’s body is moving at the same speed of the car, so even if he were able to exert a substantial amount of downward or “normal” force on the ground, his feet are still travelling in a forward motion. In addition, the car stops in such short a distance, almost shorter than if the driver had slammed on the brakes. All of this combined makes this action very unrealistic.

A third and hugely obvious violation of physics in the film concerns the principle of gravity in relation to Hancock’s ability for flight. Aside from the fact that it is not possible for a person to fly without any propulsion device or extended surface area parallel to the ground to create air resistance, Hancock’s flight is chaotic and is impossible both within Earth’s atmosphere as well as out in space. After stopping the criminal’s car using friction and his own feet, Hancock springs the car up into the air with him as he flew or hovered over the city of Los Angeles. Keeping hold of the car with hands, he swings the car around, drops it, grabs hold of it again, then lets go and kicks it down onto a building. The way he is able to exert forces while in mid-flight shows that something is fundamentally wrong with the equation. He has nothing to push against to perform the movements he does in he air. If every force must have an equal and opposite force, then he is exerting a lot of force onto empty air under the unrealistic assumption that the air’s mass will sustain the force and push back. Although Hancock is able to violate gravity, he does not act as though gravity does not exist. If he were immune to the effects of gravity, he would not be able to change speed, direction, or exert force the way he does while in the air. In addition, his pattern of flight is chaotic, not streamline or aerodynamic. In other words, nothing about unaided human flight is possible or realistic in any sort of physics related way.

There is a part, also early on in the film, when Hancock stood on the tracks of an oncoming train, and was hit. Part of this was incorrect, but another part was shown correctly. The part that was incorrect is the actual impact, in which Hancock immediately stops a train moving at full speed. He is able to stop the motion of the first car of the train in an instant and with no impact to himself. For Hancock not to have a visual reactionary force, he would have to have a greater mass and opposing force than the train. However the scene is done well because of the reaction of all the cars of the train that are connected. They have impact one after the other, and crumple up on each other, falling off track. The law of inertia states that an object in motion (the train) will stay in motion until acted upon by an equal or greater force. The force of Hancock hitting the train does not affect the entire train all at once – it affects only the first car, while the following cars remain in motion until they hit the stopped car in front of it. It is a chain reaction that moves from one car of the train to the next, as it was shown in the film. For that, which was shown correctly, I give the makers of the movie credit.

In conclusion, the physics in this movie were completely unrealistic and obviously so. However, I do think it was a great film, despite what I heard about it from other people. The emotional impact it had really drew me in, and I thought all the main characters had something special to offer. The physics portrayed in the computer generated images, however, were unrealistic because they violated the laws of gravity, action-reaction principle, and demonstrated an imbalance of forces, all in the opening scene. But because I enjoyed the movie so much, I forgave the bad physics. Any movie about a hero that doesn’t violate physics would be an amazing feat, because if they follow all physics correctly, then technically we all could be superheroes, and we wouldn’t marvel over them in the movies.

Reason for deviating significantly from my original outline is because the first outline wasn't very good for this paper, and you suggested I look for another film. I watched a lot of films (well a lot for me.. I don't tend to watch a lot of movies) and unfortunately I wasn't able to find a really good one before this paper's deadline, which is why it is late. But before writing this paper, I made another outline, which I just kept elaborating on until it kind of became this paper.

Lighting a Scene in Maya

One-Point Lighting: (just a spotlight from the left)

Two-Point Lighting: (spotlight and ambient light)

Three-Point Lighting (spotlight, ambient, and directional rim light)

Building a Scene in Maya

A scene in Maya with my initials, MJ.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

I don't know if this is exactly within the realm of this assignment - I'd like to discuss waves in Daredevil because his sensitivity to waves are far beyond the normal human level. However, I'm not sure if that's an unrealistic effect that the assignment asks for, or if it's just the concept of the comic character and if I shouldn't talk about it in this paper. I would discuss the normal human wave sensing abilities to hypothesize how unrealistic Daredevil's senses are. Would that be okay? If not I can come up with another outline.

I. Introduction

Thesis

II. Sound Waves

a. sound waves help him "see"

i. he hears sounds as if the amplitude were much higher

b. can also impede his sense of "vision"

i. loud train

ii. explosion

III. Air (wind) Waves

a. contributes to his acute sense of smell

i. can find elektra by her scent

b. smoke (can obscure his senses)

IV. Water Waves

a. When it rains, Daredevil can "see"

i. unrealistic because water is not falling on every area at once unless really heavy rain

b. inconsistent because Daredevil sleeps in water

i. he sound be hyper-sensitive to movement in water

V. Conclusion

Restate Thesis

Summarize points

Stop-Motion Animation

I know it's hard to think of this as a character.. but I tried. I'm no animation major here. I thought I would try to make it look like the lamp was waking up, checking to see if anyone was watching, and start dancing, then go to sleep. It came out poor, I know, but like I said this isn't my major.. this is the first animation I've ever done.

Analysis of Walking

Clip A:

Clip B:

Clip C:

Clip D:

(meet my bunny!)

Clip E:

Mid-Semester Survey

"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."

1st Term Paper - Superman

Laws of Physics in the 1978 Superman Movie

The premise of the Superman story is the remarkable heroism of someone from another planet, who looks very much human, but is capable of defying the laws of physics on earth in ways that humans cannot. Because superman is the only being who is able to defy physics as it is known on earth, I will make the hypothesis that the irregularity lies with him, and not with humans or physics itself. In other words, the reason Superman is unique in his abilities is that there are certain things about Superman (some explained, some not explained) that make him exempt from earth’s physics; the fault is not the failed portrayal of the laws of physics in the movie. While Superman is able to endure many trials that a human would be incapable of, such as direct exposure to fire and being shot by close-range bullets, the focus of this paper will be on his strength (force), speed, and flight.

One of Superman’s unique abilities is his incredible strength. As soon as he landed on earth as a three-year-old child he demonstrated his strength by lifting up the back end of a car above his head. Because a car’s weight is distributed throughout the body, and not centered in the front end of the vehicle, the boy would need to have incredible strength to be able to lift one end on his own.

Superman shows his strength, one way, by breaking through a thick (at least a few feet) of solid ice that was frozen around him. Ice doesn’t seem as impressive to break through as steel would be, but ice shouldn’t be overlooked as an easy obstacle to break through. Take a simple ice cube, for example. Using only my own body strength, I wouldn’t be able to break it. Only by hitting it on another object would I be able to create a split or weakness in the ice. Superman, however, was able use only his muscular strength (primarily arm strength, as we see his arms swinging out horizontally when he emerges from the massive block of ice) to crack the ice enough to escape.

Another demonstration of Superman’s strength is that he can lift a falling airplane while in flight himself. He does this twice in the film – first to save Lois Lane when the helicopter topples off the side of a tall building and he flies up from below and grabs both Lois and the helicopter, lifting it back to the top of the roof, and second when a commercial sized airplane loses an engine and he supports the weight of the wing while in flight at the same speed of the plane. More remarkably, when he does these things, he experiences no rebound force. According to the action-reaction theory of physics, the upward force Superman exerts on the falling helicopter should be equaled by the force of the helicopter pushing back down on him. He should rebound downwards at the enormous force of the helicopter, but instead he seems to follow a straight path upward even when the helicopter collides with his hand. There is one explanation for this in the laws of physics, and that is that Superman’s mass is so great that the force of the helicopter wasn’t enough to move his large mass downward. Although Superman admitted to Lois in their interview that he weighs 2,225 lbs, I am doubtful that that mass would be even close to enough to not feel the effects of a falling helicopter.

The last, most impressive, and least probable demonstration of Superman’s strength I will discuss is when he is able to lift the earth’s sinking crust. When Lex Luther sets off two missiles, one headed for New Jersey and one for California’s San Andreas Fault line, Superman is able to divert the path of one missile in time, leaving the California fault to be blown apart by the second missile. As the earth’s crust begins to fall, Superman rushes to help support the fault before the western coast of the state crumbled into the ocean. He is able to reach the fault and fly under the crust, raising it up with him from below. We already know that Superman has incredible strength, so there is no doubt that he could support that weight. There is a problem, however, with the amount of land that must be supported in relation to the very small area of support provided by his hands. A distance of over five hundred miles of coast could not be supported by one set of hands in one place. It is comparable to a tiny needle supporting the weight of a large sheet cake. Although the needle is strong, it would pierce the object it meant to support because it doesn’t provide a large enough base of support.

The next remarkable ability Superman has is his speed. He first shows off his speed as a teenager when he runs home from school and reaches his house faster than the people in a car who left the school before he did. Along the way, he races a train, and although they seem to be tied for a short time, Superman ultimately wins by running at a higher velocity than the train, then changing direction and crossing the tracks just barely before the train passes.

Superman’s speed in flight is much faster than his speed on foot, as is seen when Superman thwarts the first missile, and then flies across the United States in only a few short moments to rescue the coast from the second missile. He is able to fly faster than a missile, so much faster in fact that even though the missile was launched several minutes before he got up into the air (he was drowning first with kryptonite around his neck) he was still able to catch up with it in time to throw it off-target before making its mark. Immediately after, he flies all the way across the country and helps minimize the damage there. He reaches the coast it seems only seconds after the missile hits.

The most impressive display of Superman’s speed is without a doubt when he flies circles around the earth in order to reverse the earth’s orbit and go back in time. He does this in order to save Lois Lane, which leads me to the hypothesis that Superman is able to exert greater energy and reach higher speeds when there is a great personal need involved as motivation. The great difficulty of this task is not only that Superman covered a great distance in a short period of time, but also in order for time to actually be reversed, he would need to have travelled faster than the speed of light, or 299,792,458 meters per second, which is no small task.

The final superhuman ability Superman possesses is the aptitude for solo flight. The manner in which Superman flies is unrealistic within earth’s atmosphere, given his mass and earth’s gravity. Even with a huge push-off, or initial force upon leaving the ground, superman would not be able to continue in straight flight for the amount of time and distance he does in the film. There are three main factors make Superman’s flight impossible, even with his super-human abilities. The first is that when he takes off from the ground, he does not exert a large force on the ground to aid in his lift-off. Second, he is out of balance with the action-reaction law of physics. And the third, he flies in a linear movement, not parabolic.

The amount of force required to take off in flight as Superman does would need to be immense. Even with the Hulk, who is able to jump very high and travel many miles needs to exert a noticeable force on the ground to accomplish the large jump. Superman, on the other hand, exerts seemingly no force before he takes flight. There is very little to no noticeable bend in his knees or push-off. It looks effortless, and with his mass, even given his extreme strength, it is unlikely that he would be able to gain as much upward momentum as he does with so little force exerted on the ground.

Given that Superman has little initial force when he begins flight, he would need to gain momentum somehow while in flight in order to sustain his velocity (speed and direction). Rockets, missiles, and airplanes use the action-reaction force to their advantage when in flight, to help propel themselves forward by exerting a force, air or fuel exhaust, back behind them. Superman, however, does not displace anything behind him in order to propel himself forward. Without this force, due to gravity and air resistance, he should eventually slow and follow a parabolic path of action down to the ground.

The third impossibility of Superman’s flight is that his movement is linear, rather than a parabolic arc as it should be given that he exerts no action-reaction force to sustain his velocity while in the air. He always appears to be moving in a straight line, following the same velocity. Even when an object rises it follows a parabolic, or slightly curved, path upward. Superman’s path upward isn’t curved at all.

To conclude, the character of Superman, while not plausible on planet earth, makes for great superhero movies and comics. They made some attempts to rationalize his abilities, for example by noting that he is unhurt by bullets because of his density and incredible mass. Some abilities, however, such as the ability for flight, were left completely out of the discussion, making it unrealistic according to the known laws oh physics on earth, even for someone from another planet.

1st term paper Outline

Physics in "Superman" The Movie (1978 version)

I. introduction

a. Superman's body chemistry is different from humans

b. laws of physics on earth don't apply to him

c. thesis statement

II. Denser molecular composition

a. when hit with a crowbar, not affected

b. falls faster than a human

c. not hurt by close-range bullets

III. Strength

a. can lift the earth's crust

b. can rescue a falling airplane

c. can break through a thick layer of ice frozen around him

IV. Speed

a. How fast can he run?

i. runs faster than a train

b. how fast can he fly?

i. flies across the country faster than a rocket

V. Flight

a. flies in a linear movement, not parabolic like falling

b. can fly up, down, or remain stationary with enough leverage to lift objects

i. newton's law of action-reaction (he would experience a reaction to a run-in with a heavy falling object)

VI. Conclusion

a. Summarize points

b. Restate thesis

I'm very unsure about this outline. I think this movie will be a good choice, but suggestions on how to organize the paper would be greatly appreciated.

video analysis of path of action

original reference: (i couldn't jump 5 times in that size room, but I did take multiple videos, so I did jump a total of over 5 times.. but I'm only going to upload the reference I ended up using.

then the image capture..

And the quicktime video with the movements tracked..

Tracker video analysis of falling

Finally!!

It didn't come out perfect, which I think is the fault of my camera. The object would sometimes appear to remain in almost the same place for two or three frames...

I don't know if this picture is too small.. if it is, let me know so I can upload it larger.

Trouble with Tracker

I've been trying for a couple of hours now to import my reference video into Tracker to get started on the assignment, but I'm running into problems. :( I have converted my movie file into both .mov and .avi file formats, and neither will successfully import into Tracker. If I can try using another computer, or find someone who may be able to help me troubleshoot, I would like to turn this assignment in late. I realize some points will be taken off. I guess this is why I shouldn't procrastinate :(

hw #3 Video Reference

I dropped 5 headbands on the floor..

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how many frames per second my digital camera records. I looked it up online and read from one source that the SonyCybershot DSC-P200 can record "up to" 30 frames per second, and from another source I found that the continuous shooting speed is 16 frames/sec. Other places didn't list anything for the recording speed at all.

mini-portfolio

As far as art classes, I've taken Art History in college, and yearbook and art in middle and high shcool. The only animation class I've taken was at the Art Institute using the Maya software and was a challenge. I have not taken physics, but have taken Biology, Chemistry and Astronomy (which had more physics than I expected).

My major is Graphic Design, although I am not sure if it is what I'll stick with. My experience in graphic design has been more than any other art form. I worked at a small studio putting together wedding albums using photoshop extensively. And I've done graphic design on my own for about seven years.

This semester I'm working on my SJSU studies. I'm taking Electronic Media in Culture, Dance in World Cultures, Success as Transfers and Jazz Dance. I'm not sure what I want to do once I finish school, but I definitely want to do something that will make me a lot of money.