Red Planet (2000) - 6 major mistakes
Directed by Antony Hoffman, starring Benjamin Bratt, Carrie-Anne Moss, Simon Baker, Terence Stamp, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer (add more)
Factual error: Misunderstanding of centripetal acceleration. When the ship accelerates out of orbit early in the movie the rings are spinning to create artificial gravity (agrav). Using this method agrav gets weaker nearer the hub of the rotating section, yet, with the exception of the "stand him up" error already mentioned, agrav seems to be the same throughout the ship when the rings are spinning. When the ship loses power the agrav is gone immediately, and when power returns it comes back immediately, but this can't happen with a spinning ship. The ship and everything in it has angular momentum. That doesn't just go away. The rings will continue spinning and agrav will remain. If there are brakes to slow the rings down anything not secured (people, silverware, etc.) will continue in the direction of spin until it impacts something. To people inside it would seem as if the floor moved out from under them and the walls came over to hit them. When the rings start spinning again agrav doesn't just return and everything just fall to the floor. The agrav will increase with the spin rate. Anything/one floating will not be affected by the spinning until coming in contact with something connected to the walls of the ring. If there are no walls except the outer hull, around the ring where they are they will float until the air, which is slowly accelerated by the spinning ring, pushes them to the floor.
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