TV show writers suck when it comes to science!

Nothing new about science and technology in TV shows. I remember a scene in a Hawaii 5-0 episode where McGarret is talking into a radio mic, but he is just simply holding the mic and not pressing down on the push-to-talk switch.

More recently, in a Numb3rs episode, Charlie's girlfriend is soldiering on a circuit board, and it sparks and blows the circuit.

"More recently, in a Numb3rs episode, Charlie's girlfriend is soldiering on a circuit board, and it sparks and blows the circuit."

And, do you think I've not done that?

I love the equations on that show. Granted, I can't understand all the diagrams and symbols they use in symbolic math (heck, I do good to remember Σ), but one of the characters will write four or five symbols up and immediately see how a bald man, wearing a yellow shirt with a red hat is standing on the corner of Fifth and Maple with 4 kg of cocaine in a #8 brown paper bag. And, they always write these backwards on a glass screen in his garage!

Seriously? You mean all that stuff on TV is not real? OH MY GOSH, NEXT YOU WILL BE TELLING ME THAT THE EASTER BUNNY IS JUST MADE UP, SORT OF A FICTIONAL CHARACTER!

Of course it's not real! This is known. By the tenor of your reply, you are missing the point. Therefore, you are of the same ilk as those my original post was focused on.

The Easter Bunny is a fake to sell candy.

The Great Pumpkin is real. Join me in the pumpkin patch next Halloween and I'll show ya.

Hooker

What ! Are you saying Buffy The Vampire Slayer isn't real ?! NNNNOOOOOOOO.........

Of course that one is real.

1960's Star Trek; bad guy roaming the halls of the Enterprise; to find him, Kirk configures the ship's computer to amplify heartbeats.

After the fact, Kirk is asked how it worked; he proudly stated that it amplified the baddie's heartbeat by a factor of 1 to the 4th power.

I wonder if Kirk failed algebra at Starfleet Academy. Guess he was too busy reprogramming the Kobayashi Maru scenario to study for his math tests.

I like Bill Nye the Science guy.

But you have to realize those shows are trama.....I mean drama. Just about all movies are full of science twists and bloopers

oh and for god's sake....Don't refer to them or base your knowledge off of them....its a tv show for christs sake.....let your mind go blank, and keep you mouth shut if you watch them, and let the less informed enjoy themselves

What's that line from the Moonshiner, "I don't make this stuff to drink, I make it to sell."

The job of a TV Writer, writing for a Dramatic Series is to write a story people will watch, and advertisers will buy ad time on.

I think in some similar thread I mentioned that I was impressed when I was briefly an electrician for The Guiding Light they'd hire a real Doctor to oversee situations set in hospital rooms.

As far as the production staff of stunt people, special effects, grips, electrics, or the make up departments, they may well go home and tell their girlfriend, "Wow I heard some really stupid stuff on set today!"

"Why didn't you tell the Director honey?" "Are you crazy? Do you think I want to get fired!"

I had a friend who told me a story about how an actor asked Roman Polanski, "What's my motivation?" Polanski's answer was: "Your paycheck." Truly sometimes I am amazed how much good information you can find on the TV. The availability of the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, some of the things like Nova on PBS that succeed in both educating and entertaining are a source of optimism.

I'm old enough now to remember TVs made of wood, and the only time I saw any "Science" on TV, there was nothing but Mr Wizard.

I also remember a time when a household would have only one TV, and the family would watch the same show together after dinner.

I remember watching Combat, that show with Vic Morrow and my Dad sitting there watching it with us saying, "If you stood up like that, you got shot."

So if you are sitting there with your son, or daughter, watching the same TV show, and you see representations of things that are unrealistic, or scientifically false, then even that is not all bad, if you can then say, really terminal velocity is 125 miles an hour, though maybe I ought to look that up...

I remember watching Combat,

You must have also watched Rat Patrol too.

I used to watch Combat. I used to go to a babysitter on Saturdays and the husband new German would translate what the German soldiers were saying.

When they make movies that have portions that are related to real life fields we get critical about the authenticity of the movie.

I was in the Navy and any movie that involves Navy they make a bunch of errors.

I also am a trained firefighter and the movie Backdraft was completely false. Those guys would have been dead in those fires. Same with Tyler Perry's House of Pyne when they had that fire episode.

They are movies. They do what they think will attact an audience, not what they think is real.

In every movie and TV shows there are so many mistakes it is not funny anymore

(and always the same cliche's)

I remember the movie "swordfish" where travolta has a long monologue about the bad quality of movies, and then the movie degenerates into the same. (like a TVR 12speed chased by hummers could not get rid of them )

I watched Star trek the movie a real roller-coaster, i did not analyze it much but one thing annoyed me, Kirk attacked by an alien rodent on a ice planet, the Rodent gets attacked by a starship trooper like bug, instead of eating the rodent, the bug throws it away and starts chasing Kirk, very basic animal behaviour? throwing away a big chunk of meat and go for something smaller?

I watched Star trek the movie a real roller-coaster, i did not analyze it much but one thing annoyed me, Kirk attacked by an alien rodent on a ice planet, the Rodent gets attacked by a starship trooper like bug, instead of eating the rodent, the bug throws it away and starts chasing Kirk, very basic animal behaviour? throwing away a big chunk of meat and go for something smaller?

The New Star Trek

I usually ask my friends when they begin talking about the new Star Trek movie if they liked it. If they answer yes, then I leave them be. If they say 'yes but...' then I feel free to point out the obvious issues.

For example, a material that can create a massive black hole out of ordinary matter in minutes.

Being able to transmit from the heart of a Black Hole.

Any object surviving passage through/near a massive black hole.

A Supernova large enough to consume the galaxy?

We're okay placing a black hole near Romulus to absorb a Supernova. And this is going to save Romulus how?

Delta Vega is apparently an ice moon of Vulcan which is a desert planet? Yet both are habitable.

That's not even mentioning the huge open spaces inside a ship that could be potentially exposed to space (as in the opening sequence) and have your entire crew blown into space. Or where the villian went for the 20+ years it took for Kirk to grow up and defeat him. Don't get me started on the energy requirements for beaming two people from Saturn to Earth...

So, in short while it is entertaining and an exciting story, the new Star Trek has much more Fiction than Science...

i don't even start about the science in star trek, i don't take it serious, star trek is so much founded in pulp SF, star trek is more about the archetypes.

I like it when they screw up in movies and TV shows. Makes it fun to pick out the stupid stuff.

One of my favorites is in the recent Batman movie. A cable flips a large truck and trailer end for end. Totally ridiculous but very cool to watch. HA!

Transporter 3 - Audi manages to get it's self up on two wheel during a car chase. Again, rediculous but cool.

It's simply entertainment. But if people are believing this stuff then let them. It makes it even more entertaining.

Yeah, nothing new to me. I am in the fire sprinkler field. 'Ever see those movies where all the sprinklers go off at the same time? Fire sprinklers operate when heat melts a fusable link or causes a frangible glass element to fracture. Most of the time, 1-4 heads control a fire in a building with an operable Fire Sprinkler system, and they react INDIVIDUALLY to the heat. Pretty much, it has become accepted in the industry that much of the time Hollywood will get it wrong.

In the interest of accuracy (Because this is not a movie, but a forum for the engineering-minded) there are applications where all the heads need to go off at the same time. However, the instances where I have seen this occur in Hollywood productions are NOT applications compliant with major building regulatory bodies.

And the heads are activated by touching the deflector with a cigarette.

But: try to explain a frightened customer that it is not the way it functions.

I too pick up on those statements, but don't forget, TV programs are directed towards an (8th grade?) mentality. (maybe 6th grade?).

I once wrote a letter to the producer of JAG criticizing him on his sets. They were scenes that were supposed to be inside a navy ship. Knowing about navy ships, I could see the sets were rather crude, (lack of items like piping, vent systems, correct shipboard components, etc.) In one scene, an officer on the deck was wearing a ball cap from a different ship. I received a reply from the producer. He said budgetary concerns didn't allow him to create a perfect recreation of a ship's interior. I stopped watching the program for a while, but later on found that the sets were improving and in some cases were actually being filmed inside an actual ship.

just like college math books are written on the eighth grade level

I haven't seen a recent college math textbook, but when I was in college it didn't seem all that easy! In 8th grade, all I knew was arithmetic.

I suspect you are making a point on the downhill slide of our educational system and I'm with you. However, I think it's more focused on grade school and high school levels. Complementing this is the increased focus on the liberal arts at the expense of the three Rs and critical thinking. "As long as I feel good about myself, I'm good to go" seems to say it all in these times.

Mike

You wanna see upset?

YOU WANNA SEE UPSET??????

Just watch me when a news video is showing Marine CH-46 Phrog's (Sea Knights) and some dumb reporter is calling them Army CH-47 Chinooks!!!!

AAaaaaagggghhhhh!!

And it's never the other way around.

Oh, and the movies that show people having normal conversations while sitting around in the cargo area of a flying Chinook.

Hooker

I have to hearken back to a sentiment expressed earlier - I'm just relieved when the industry stays away from things I love 'cause they screw them up so badly.

Many of the ideas that authors get when writing SciFi novels get their ideas from JPL and NASA. They have a room specifically set up for SciFi authors to observe experiments. Many of the SciFi books use the theories that have been proven to be workable but shelved for someone else's ideas.

One for example is launching a craft into space using a huge iron plate and detonating several nukes under it.

My favorite is when some 'lab' takes security camera video and manages to zoom in 500x without any loss of resolution.

I have to admit, that's pretty bad. I'll usually cut shows some slack but that is pretty unforgivable.