What is the mass of an adorable pegasus, anyway?
As part of a high school science assignment to determine how real the physics in movies and TV shows is, student “Stephen Magnet” has revealed the shockingly low standards of scientific research that goes into the average My Little Pony episode.
Magnet took three clips from the show – the scene where Rainbow Dash finally achieves a “Sonic Rainboom,” the scene where Applejack launches Rainbow Dash flying on a seesaw, and the scene where Fluttershy is saved from a fatal fall by a passing cloud of butterflies – and deconstructed the faulty science contained therein. He also offered solutions on how the animators could have tweaked and altered the clips to make them more in line with the laws of physics. Magnet has to assume a few things, like Fluttershy’s mass, but even though he is working with uncertain numbers, he neatly demonstrates that there is significant room for improvement on the science side.
Of course, this obviously isn’t meant to be super serious – a serious discussion about the science in a kids’ show about magical talking ponies is almost too tragic to imagine – but it’s funny and it’s interesting, and a pretty entertaining way to spend a ten minutes. There’s even a small chance that someone might learn something from it, although I wouldn’t depend on that.
Source: Geeks are Sexy
Published: May 25, 2011 04:59 pm