The Matrix Physics

Movie Analysis Movies are made for the entertainment of audiences. As everyone knows, these movies are full of actions that would be nearly impossible in the real world. Have you ever watched a movie scene and wondered, ¨could that really happen?¨ Now that I have a basic understanding of physics, I decided to study certain movie scenes from The Matrix and Speed to find out what would actually happen if the same thing were to occur in ¨real life.” The Matrix is an action packed movie with many scenes that include “bad physics.” Two scenes that grabbed my attention was when Morpheus broke handcuffs behind his back and when Neo dodges bullets that were shot at him multiple times. Handcuffs are used to constrict criminals; they aren’t going

The bus was traveling on a highway that was still under construction. In the middle of an unfinished bridge, there was a 50 foot gap (15 meters). Because the bus had to maintain a speed of 50 mph (22 m/s), the jump was necessary in order for the bomb to not go off. Going 67 mph (30 m/s), the bus is able to make the jump. With the help of physics, I was able to do the calculations of what would really happen if this were the case. In order to find the time it would take for the bus to make the jump, I used the equation for average velocity (velocity = change in distance / change in time). Plugging what I know into the equation (30 m/s = 15 m / change in time), I discovered that it would take .5 seconds for the bus to make that jump. The bus also made the jump with no initial ramp, meaning that both ends of the bridge were at the same height, Since we don’t live in outer space, the bus would also be traveling downward due to gravity. I used the average acceleration equation (distance final = ½ x acceleration x time final^2) to calculate how much the us would fall during this jump. Acceleration would be equal to the average acceleration due to gravity which is 9.8 m/s^2. With the numbers plugged in, the equation looked like distance final = ½ x (9.8 m/s^2) x .25, which would equal 1.225 m. It would be impossible for this bus to make this jump without the aid of a ramp

Now having a basic understanding of physics, I was able to uncover what would really happen if these scenes from The Matrix and Speed were to actually occur. In reality, nobody is breaking handcuffs, dodging bullets, or making it across a 50 foot gap in a bridge going 67 mph with no sort of ramp. This would all fail miserably. If this were to happen in the real-world (where physics does exist), I know for certain that Morpheus would still be in handcuffs, Neo would be dead before he could even bat an eye, and the bus would