Professor Zoom wrote:
I'm bored of them "busting" things that happen in Hollywood movies. Seriously, what are they saying: things in movies aren't real? Shocker.
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I'm with
Marc. Lots of people believe the nonsense in movies and TV. Sure, they know the characters are fictional and the invading aliens or zombies or superheroes are imaginary, but if enough movies show them that bullets spark when they hit metal or that cars explode when they crash or that a lit cigarette can ignite a pool of gasoline, they're generally not going to question that. (Indeed, the pervasive belief that crashed cars explode is genuinely dangerous, because it motivates well-intentioned bystanders to try to rush accident victims out of their vehicles and risk exacerbating their injuries.)
Besides, the swing myth this week was genuinely interesting. Movies aside, the underlying idea was something fairly basic and close to everyday experience -- we've all had experience with swings or pendulums -- and the test revealed some flaws in our expectations about something so familiar.