Yes, we all know that in many ways Hollywood’s grasp of science is weak – but it is still fun to read in some detail why some things that you see on screen make no sense. And the creator of this site does point out some things that I hadn’t thought of, like:
“A single inexpensive passive sensor can be used to detect the presence of human motion for an entire room. While multi-beamed laser security systems are not impossible, there’s usually no reason to use one…
…When a sniper looks through the telescopic sight on his rifle, he knows where the bullet is going to go relative to the crosshairs. Adding a laserbeam would do nothing except tip off the victim that he’s about to be shot and give him time to duck before the bullet arrived. It would also help reveal the sniper’s location.
Hitting a moving target using a laser sight would be extremely difficult. The sniper would have to lead the subject and so the red dot would be projected in front of the target where it could easily be lost in the background.”
… to say nothing of the fact that a laser won’t help you aim if there is any wind…
The writer also gives mini reviews of several popular movies discussing just how scientifically accurate they are (usual answer: not very)
Thanks again to Harald/chk for the link…
