The Physics of ‘Stranger Things’

The new season of Stranger Things has just come out, and besides all the telekinesis, Russian agents, and exploding rats, there were a lot of cool physics ideas in there too. So let’s go through them, and see how accurate the show was. Falling magnets Let’s start off with the everyday physics – fridge magnets. …

Arrival and the Perception of Time

Why do we distinguish between the past, present, and future? Is it a fundamental property of the universe, or is it linked to our own unique perception of time? This is a key question tackled in Arrival, a sc-fi thriller depicting the first contact between humans and extra-terrestrials. The film follows the linguist Louise Banks, …

Leaps of Faith in Film and TV: The Physics

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the trailer for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s new film Skyscraper, where he is shown attempting to jump into the open window of a skyscraper in a way that seems to defy the laws of physics. According to one Twitter user who actually crunched the numbers, The Rock …

Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty’s Blackboard (Part 2)

This is the second part of my blog post about Guy Ritchie's film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. See here to read the first part. Before we get started, let's have a brief recap. In this film, Sherlock Holmes is pitted against his nemesis, Professor James Moriarty. As well as being a criminal mastermind, …

Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty’s Blackboard (Part One)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is Guy Ritchie’s second film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective stories. Set in the midst of the industrial revolution, Holmes works to foil the schemes of his nemesis Professor Moriarty. In between quickfire action sequences and snappy dialogue, there is a wealth of maths and physics hidden …

Community, Chaos, and the Many Worlds Interpretation

Remedial Chaos Theory is the third episode in the third season of the TV show Community, created by Dan Harmon. As you might guess from the title, this episode draws inspiration from chaos theory, but also happens to explore one of the most thought-provoking interpretations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Troy and Abed have …