3 Minutes To Impact

[Russ]

Last night I was rewatching "3 Minutes To Impact" on the Discovery Channel. They have updated some, including scenes of landing NEAR on Eros. Good stuff!

The thing that disapointed me was they left in a bad astronomy point. They are talk about an astroid about 15 miles across hitting the Earth and releasing as much energy as 100 nuclear bombs. As TBA pointed out in his review of the original show, they are short of the mark by a couple of orders of magnitude. I find it strange that they left this error in the show while removing/correcting other things.

Anybody else see this?

[Geo3gh]

On 2001-10-23 10:40, Russ wrote:
Last night I was rewatching "3 Minutes To Impact" on the Discovery Channel. They have updated some, including scenes of landing NEAR on Eros. Good stuff!

The thing that disapointed me was they left in a bad astronomy point. They are talk about an astroid about 15 miles across hitting the Earth and releasing as much energy as 100 nuclear bombs. As TBA pointed out in his review of the original show, they are short of the mark by a couple of orders of magnitude. I find it strange that they left this error in the show while removing/correcting other things.

Anybody else see this?

I saw it, but I was cooking dinner too and missed the 100 nuclear bombs bit. Oh well.

It reminds me of a genetics class I took. The lecturer, Dr. Zegura, said that we were using this particular textbook because it had the least errors he'd seen so far.

I'm going to cut Discovery Channel some slack--no one's perfect.

Jeff

[Mr. X]

On 2001-10-23 16:44, Geo3gh wrote:

I'm going to cut Discovery Channel some slack--no one's perfect.

Pobody's nerfect in Australia [Simpsons reference] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Jim]

On 2001-10-23 10:40, Russ wrote:
As TBA pointed out in his review of the original show, they are short of the mark by a couple of orders of magnitude. I find it strange that they left this error in the show while removing/correcting other things.

Probably had to do with the current state of world affairs... terrorism, war, anthrax... just didn't want to add to the panic by mentioning the true destructive possibilities.

[Azpod]

On 2001-10-24 06:42, Jim wrote:

Probably had to do with the current state of world affairs... terrorism, war, anthrax... just didn't want to add to the panic by mentioning the true destructive possibilities.

I thought starting panic was the primary reason for the media's existance! None of the shows that I have ever seen have intentionally toned down reports of potential destruction. If anything, they've played them up. This whole anthrax scare is a good example; you have a much greater chance of getting a fatal case of the flu from someone you know than dying of anthrax. But watching the TV, it sounds like there's anthrax in everyone's mailboxes! No wonder ppl are getting paranoid! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img]

Getting back to the topic, they probably don't know what the impact of such a large asteroid would be if they are saying that it's only 100 nukes worth! Many people get confused by orders of magnatude. So 100 nukes versus 100 * 100 nukes-- it's all the same to them.

Heck, how many ppl still think that 1 megatonne-class nuke would destroy the Earth?

[Conrad]

Ah, but they didn't say what the yield of those 100 nukes were, did they? Fudging the issue, I know, but they could simply divide the assumed megatonnage equivalent of the strike by 100 and then say "Hey! Big coincidence! That's the yield of each nuke!"

And if a 1 Mgt nuke = End of World,then we're in trouble; as I recall, the Soviet Union let off a 55 Mgt nuke in the last century!

[Phobos]

You only need 1 nuke to destroy most life on Earth.

How ?

Simple really, use it to nudge a near Earth asteroid onto a collision course. There are many larger than the one beleived to have wiped out the dinosaurs, and you only need a small deflection if you hit it far enough out.

Jeff

[James]

On 2001-10-29 06:13, Phobos wrote:
You only need 1 nuke to destroy most life on Earth.

How ?

Simple really, use it to nudge a near Earth asteroid onto a collision course. There are many larger than the one beleived to have wiped out the dinosaurs, and you only need a small deflection if you hit it far enough out.

True, but given how lazy humans can be and given how much calculation would be needed to target your bomb to not only go off at the right time, but in the right location on the asteroid, I'd say we've got better odds of not only a random asteroid hitting us from our blind spot(the Sun), but of our using a many many megaton nuke to take ourselves out. But that's just me. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Russ]

[quote]

I thought starting panic was the primary reason for the media's existance!
[quote]

Russ Replies: You'll get no argument from me on this comment. My general opinion of the news media is only slightly above lawyers.

[quote]
None of the shows that I have ever seen have intentionally toned down reports of potential destruction. If anything, they've played them up.
[quote]

Russ Replies: "Intentionally" is the operateve word here. In this case the >unintentionall< played it down. I doubt the average listener noticed, sadly enough.

[quote]
This whole anthrax scare is a good example; you have a much greater chance of getting a fatal case of the flu from someone you know than dying of anthrax. But watching the TV, it sounds like there's anthrax in everyone's mailboxes! No wonder ppl are getting paranoid! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img]
[quote]

Russ Replies: Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they are not out to get you.

Getting back to the topic, they probably don't know what the impact of such a large asteroid would be if they are saying that it's only 100 nukes worth! Many people get confused by orders of magnatude. So 100 nukes versus 100 * 100 nukes-- it's all the same to them.

Heck, how many ppl still think that 1 megatonne-class nuke would destroy the Earth?

Russ Replies: I find your percepeitons of the general publix ignorance of this order-of-magnitude thing disturbing. I also find them true and valid, which is even more disturbing. VERY CREEPY! Is Boris Karloff or Lon Chainey going to appear out of a dark corner???!!! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]