The Physics of Science Fiction: Radiation Part 1

Radiation is a word that has struck fear and terror into the screens of movie and TV for over 70 years. Its reared its ugly head in nearly every sub-genre of science fiction including starship battles, superheroes, B-movie monsters, and even time travel. Here, finally, is an explanation for all the terror. Using movie-clips you're bound to recognize I tackle the big scary word and all the cliches it generates once and for all. Radiation is a natural force of existence with natural scientific concepts. Its process and existence can be described and understood. Here is the beginning. Part 1 of 2 WOW. Its over. ;) I'd tell you that I started this 6 months ago, but I honestly dont want to admit it. I'd say YET AGAIN, a quick "5 min" movie got all out of control, but I really knew from the beginning that this one wasnt ever going to be short, and I've known for months that it would be my first one in two parts. Sooner or later that was going to happen, going all the way back to "Lasers and Kinetic Energy," which just barely squeaked under Youtubes limit. Ironically, "Lasers" only took me 3-4 WEEKS from start to finish. But honestly, I dont have that kind of free time anymore. All my previous movies were extensions of extended lectures I gave over the years in my career as a Physics Instructor. With them I could draw on the previous material and remember what I did when. Now, however, I have a NEW job at a nuclear engineering plant. And it has huge demands on my time (4:30 am wake-up :ahem:). This is the first movie based off of my new career in that field. New explanations, new ideas, new editing goals. It was bound to take longer, bound to be harder to get a handle on, no matter what. "Lasers," for example, darn near almost wrote itself. But this one, being based on new material fought for every inch. I always knew what topics I wanted to cover and more or less the order I would cover them, but getting it on the screen was an utter and and absolute chore. Most of that was due to the available video clips. Having spent years and years as a physics instructor, I had a large mental library of material to draw from. I just ordered it from Netflix and took off. This time however, I had to find everything the hard way. Search movies for clips one frame at a time in some cases. This was agonizingly slow by itself, but as the movie started to take shape I would find more and more movies with better clips, forcing me to go back and redo sequences I had thought finished. Indeed, almost the entirety of Part 2 was not only re-edited but re-WRITTEN from front to back during the course of creation, adding at least another month to the whole process. At that time "progress" was defined as 5 seconds of footage at a time : ( Agonizing. ;) The movies will necessarily come slower now. I have little doubt that I'll make another one. This one here barely grazes the extent of my new job ("new" being relative in that its only a few years along, compared to my decade and more in the educational field). There's more advanced concepts to cover, and always more movies to use. This movie here also has the distinct claim of being the first to have my sizable collection of Star Trek edited OUT. What you see here is only the smallest fraction of what I burned for stock footage, and even a lot of what made it in the first cut was eventually removed. I wanted this to be more serious in its own way, more down to earth, and by necessity there were some great clips from trek that didnt make it in. But the clips that replaced them were better. I cant make "Starship Battles" forever you know. They are plenty of other sub-genres. This is just the first of many. ;) So for the record, my new job title is Radiological Control Technician. And if I'm not living in stark raving terror of radiation, neither should you. ;)
Originally Uploaded May 4th. +485 views from previous upload.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Physics
• radiation
• alpha
• beta
• gamma
• star
• trek
• battlestar
• mutant
• monster
• movie
• radioactive
• spreadingthemuse

[Ryagful]

RADIATION IS YOUR FRIEND!

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@Ryagful Just ask anyone who owes their life to chemotherapy ;)

[jasonlajoie]

"Radiation is NOT a holy terror." - Unless you're one of the thousands of Japanese tsunami survivors who's home is now to radioactive to live in. Unless you're living in Japan wondering if you can drink the water or eat the food without getting sick.

I looked at your page after you decided to spew ignorance at me regarding WMDs. I put you in the category of educated-ignorant. You know well from books you've read the mechanics of systems but fail to understand their place in the broader picture.

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@jasonlajoie

Looking at the many many images of Japanese who are enduring their disaster with dignity and grace and zero panic, they obviously dont think its a "holy terror" either. Dont spout off about what you're obvious newb in.

I was absolutely correct about your stupid WMD claim. Your mad charge in here in juvenile "IM GONNA GET EM!" only proves your insecurity. I watched every second of debate about the Iraq war and know damn well what the russians said. You're ignorant

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@jasonlajoie

BTW, I work hands-on in a nuclear lab, working inside radioactive digs with airborne radiation levels 800x the lethal amount. My work, my personal work experience, and you dont have one newb clue about any of it. Dont pretend to know anything about radiation and make an idiot of yourself.

[isaiahawsum]

But can't radiation burn you? So that trek clip with those peoples faces scalded would be accurate if that guy used enough radiation.

[gadionson1]

very hightech ....

[TsundereLightning]

Alpha, beta and gamma radiation is bad news in enough quantities. It's much more likely to give you cancer than to make you hulk out, I admit...

I'm not talking about the usual background stuff from the sun, or even a properly run and maintained fission power plant, but breakdowns like the one in Japan are very serious business, never mind fission weapons.

Then again, I think this is an argument for better fission plants, not for running screaming from nuclear power.

[nakazatoGTR]

win for using BSG clips

[rangeclerk]

@jasonlajoie Listen to what he is saying concerning TV/movie sci fi---the TERM RADIATION is EVERYWHERE, radiation in as of itself is not what you need to be concerned about but type, duration, distance and shielding if necessary. LIGHT IS RADIATION---the light bulb in your overhead lights, from your tv etc...

[rangeclerk]

Except for a few classical science fiction authors most wrtiers of tv/moive sci fi are Liberal Art Majors with littte or no understanding of the physical sciences (this also includes biological sciences). The other area is biology and how they love 'lamarckian biology' which is not the function of the biological process but the Darwin view (discovered). Enjoy your discussion, well done.

[jasonlajoie]

@SpreadingtheMuse I stated clearly that the French and German intelligence didn't back up the American intel and that I wasn't aware of the Russians sharing their information. As in I didn't know about the Russian claims. Jesus your comprehension is quite shit as well. No wonder you're having such problems grasping reality.