Dean's World

Scientists seem to spend a lot of time and effort debunking movie myths. Norm Geras links to their latest efforts here:

IT IS a staple scene of B-movies and Westerns: the cowboy stumbles into a patch of quicksand and is sucked under until only his stetson remains on top, or sinks up to his neck until hauled out by his sidekick.
Both scenarios have now been proved to fly in the face of physics. Research has shown that it is impossible for people to sink into quicksand much beyond the waist — but it is equally impossible to pull someone out once they are stuck...
..Just how far anything will sink depends on its density, and how much it moves. "Any unfortunate victim should sink halfway into the quicksand, but could then take solace from the knowledge that there would be no risk of being sucked beneath the surface," Dr Bonn said. One option to get out is for the person to wiggle his feet gently, gradually allowing water in around the edges. He could then pull himself up by fractions of an inch at a time.
It is only possible to drown by falling in head first. "This I think is where the myth of drowning in quicksand comes from," Dr Bonn said.

There's also the fact that a dramatic death scene featuring an actor's butt bobbing up in the water won't work cinematically, which is probably why a realistic death-by-quicksand scene never made it to film.

More bad movie science: You can't jump through a plate glass window without losing body parts, bullets ricocheting off of walls do not produce sparks and explosions don't go "boom" in the vacuum of space - but it's true, no one can hear you scream.

There is some good movie science out there. Fiction writers, from Jules Verne to Gamera vs. Viras may have been right about monsters from the deep. Giant Sea Squid are not the stuff of legend, they are more aggressive than scientists previously thought and their population as a whole outweighs ours.

Although this information may make film portrayals of giant (or collossal!) squid more realistic, it may not make them more sympathetic, something that's bound to disappoint this cephalopod fan.

(link)

Paul Burgess (www):

Nonetheless, a light saber will actually deflect blaster bolts. ;-)

9.29.2005 5:22pm

JRogge:

There was a special on Mythbusters alos on this very topic. The quicksand was just too dense to allow the human body to sink. Instead we have an amount of boyancy in it.

For all you Giant Squid fans:

Linkage

9.29.2005 5:43pm

Phelps (www):

A tracer ricochet is a thing to behold, on the other hand. Especially on a slow, heavy bullet like a .45 ACP.

9.29.2005 7:16pm

Derek:

As I recall, the Boy Scout Manual instructs scouts to lie on their back, as they will actually float on the quicksand and will be able to swim to solid ground, and out of the quicksand.

Who needs Mythbusters? Ok, I do. It's one of the few shows I do miss since we gave up cable.

9.29.2005 8:12pm

Dean Esmay:

Mythbusters is a *great* show. It's a less-edgy version of my bigger favorite, Penn &Teller's Bullsh*t!

Sometimes I think the efforts to criticize Hollywood for bad science or engineering become too compulsive and obsessive simply because, come on, it's just a movie. But I think it serves a point--as the old saying goes, when I go into a movie I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, not hang it by the neck until dead. Making Hollywood try harder to be realistic is not a bad thing. Otherwise we'd still be stuck with 1970s TV cars that all magically explode in midair when they fall....

9.29.2005 9:12pm

Doc Rampage II (mail) (www):

A few things: the danger of quicksand depends a lot on conditions. Quicksand isn't just one fluid like water, it describes several different phenomena. One of them is sand sitting in an upwelling spring. The upward moving water can carry sand particles up but not your body. This means that the usual laws of boyancy don't apply.

Things certainly can explode in space. Conventional explosives don't require air, and any sufficiently fast heating can cause things to explode.

A steel-jacketed bullet would create a spark if it hit a flint wall. Of course, steel-jacketed bullets and flint walls are fairly rare...

9.29.2005 9:17pm

maryatexitzero (mail):

the Boy Scout Manual instructs scouts to lie on their back, as they will actually float on the quicksand and will be able to swim to solid ground, and out of the quicksand

I always thought that was the rule too. I guess it's only water-like in certain situations?

Things certainly can explode in space

That's true, they can. They don't go "boom", but they do explode.

9.29.2005 10:14pm

triticale (mail) (www):

Where's the kaboom? There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!

9.30.2005 12:32am

B. Durbin (www):

Quicksand is an extreme hazard in places such as Mount St. Michel, where the quicksand can trap you long enough for the fastest tides in the world to drown you. And, of course, if you keep moving through quicksand, as Jean Valjean does in a section of Les Misérables, you can push yourself deep enough to drown. (Though it's not technically quicksand he's pushing himself through; he is in the sewers after all.)

Ah. Plate glass windows made of sugar. There's a whole Hollywood industry based around the makers of sugar glass.

9.30.2005 12:55am

nedludd (mail):

Here's another link to the Mythbusters episode on Killer Quicksand

http://www.mythbustersfanclub.com/html/killer_quicksand.html

9.30.2005 1:47pm

Drat. One of the funniest scenes in Blazing Saddles--busted!

Aw well. It wasn't that valuable a push car anyway.

9.30.2005 3:38pm