Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Mid-semester survey
"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.
As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."
As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
First Term Paper
The movie I chose to do my paper on was Dreamworks highly anticipated animation movie, Kung Fu Panda (2008). The first time I viewed it, I thought to myself that this was the first animation movie I’d seen with as much combat and fighting action and it looked like real live-action movie, which is part of the reason I chose this movie for my analysis. For the most part, the physics of Kung Fu Panda was very similar to the physics in the real world which I think contributed to its appeal to me. However, there were some aspects of its physical world that you would unfortunately, not see in our world that I am going to discuss. Some of these alternate laws of physics that I noticed in the world of Kung Fu Panda include first, the special abilities that kung fu masters often have in movies now-a-days, and not just animation movies. Next, I will address a concept in the movie that I noticed which is, bigger doesn’t always mean stronger. Finally, and what I find most interesting, is the limited effect of gravity. In between discussing the unique laws of physics, I will point out some the inconsistencies, when the unique laws do not apply.
When many people think of kung fu movies of today’s generation I think the Matrix series comes to mind most often. Many other kung fu movies, including Kung Fu Panda and one of my favorites Kung fu hustle have employed some of the special effects notably seen in the Matrix. The special effects techniques have enabled the kung fu master’s to be portrayed as having “powers” that defy the boundaries that people have in the real world. For example, Oogway, the rather large and slow turtle is able to balance his whole body on the tip of his walking stick, just using his toe. There is no way that a normal person or animal in reality would be able to achieve this feat. Being that he is an irregularly shaped object, to be able to keep the center of gravity completely balanced on a very small base of support would be unfeasible, he would assuredly fall over almost immediately, but it’s perfectly plausible for a turtle with omnipotent kung fu skills.
One of the other superhuman abilities demonstrated in the movie that stood out to me was when Shifu was able to put out a room full of candles just a wave of his arm. In the scene the frail Oogway was trying to muscle up the lung capacity to blow out the flame of a single candle in a room full of candles. Shifu, annoyed with Oogway’s distraction while he was trying to talk to him just came in, waved his arm at one end of the room and with a ripple effect all of the candles were out in seconds. It doesn’t take much thought to realize that it should take a rather large gust of wind to have an effect on area the size of a room, but that is not the case here.
Even better than being able to balance on something 1/100 one’s size or blow out a room full of candles, is the ability to jump infinite heights and then soar back down to the ground as if you could fly, an ability that Tigress demonstrated when going to meet Tai Lung. First of all, it would take an amazing amount of force to be able to jump as high as Tigress did in this scene, a force that a tiger of her size just didn’t have. Even if a tiger did have the mass to jump as high as hundreds of feet, the fall back down would not be a simple glide and then a soft landing on the feet. On the other hand, not all of the characters in the movie displayed super-animal abilities like Po before he was trained in the ways of Kung Fu.
The next noteworthy difference between the Kung Fu Panda world and our world is that size is no indication of one’s strength or power or as I put it early, bigger doesn’t always mean stronger. Case in point, Mantis, short for praying mantis, is a minute sized creature with colossal strength. Although Mantis weighs most likely no more than 15 grams, he is able to stand up to anyone. In one scene Mantis is shown beating up Po, a panda weighing probably over 200 pounds. This sounds a little disproportionate to me and violates the action/reaction laws we have in our world. Something the size of praying mantis should not be able to exert the kind of force needed to lift and throw a panda bear. However, in this movie size does not matter and comes secondary to skill and training.
In addition to being beaten up by a praying mantis, Po also gets beaten up by a snake, which I guess would make a little more sense, but not enough for it to be possible in our world. Another example of the insignificance of size in this movie is the fact that Shifu, who is a rather small red panda, is the kung fu master and mentor to Po and the rest of the furious five. Although this character is small in stature, he has enormous capacity. Another oddity of the movie, but in the other direction is the lack of strength that Po presents. At the beginning of the movie Po is trying to race up the steps of temple, however, he is finding it too difficult to carry up his noodle cart which is physically half his size. This scene stood out to me because it was funny to see such a large animal struggle with something that was so much smaller than it.
The last unusual physical property in the world of Kung Fu Panda that I would like to discuss is the limited effect of gravity. In my opinion this was the most obvious deviation between our two worlds. The first example of this I will address is when Shifu throws up two plates in the air for Tigress to break mid-air in order to demonstrate her skills. After Tigress jumps up into a split and breaks the plates, she lands on the floor and walks away. This sounds normal enough, except that she landed and walked away before any of the shards of the plate reached the ground. We’ve learned that despite how heavy or light two object are, they will generally fall and reach the floor at the same time, however, that didn’t happen. It took so long for the pieces of plate to reach the ground I almost forgot they were broken in the first place. I suppose the creators did this for dramatic or comedic effect, and it worked.
Another instance of the lack of gravity is in the scene where Tai Lung is trying to escape from prison and has to make it to the top of the ledge from a crumbling bridge. The way he accomplishes this is by jumping from one piece of the falling bridge to another. As strange and impossible as this sounds, it looked even stranger. Despite the falling pieces of bridge, Tai Lung was able to jump on them as if they were floating in mid-air or falling at an extremely slow rate. In contrast to this implausible scene in the prison there was also a realistic scene in the same location. A feather fell from the top of the bridge in the prison. The feather falling looked very similar to a leaf drop which seems probable considering that there would have been very little wind resistance inside the prison. So in this case, gravity has a normal effect.
The movie Kung Fu Panda shares a lot of the characteristics of human live-action movies. Along with most movies come the similarities and differences in between their worlds and our “real” world. Some of the alternate laws of physics within Kung Fu Panda that I’ve discussed are the powers that kung fu masters are often portrayed as having, the concept that size doesn’t matter in this world, and lastly, the limited effect that gravity as on objects. All of these aspects combined with the similarities between live-action movies based on reality as we know it, made Kung Fu Panda an entertaining, not just as an animation movie, but as a movie in general.
When many people think of kung fu movies of today’s generation I think the Matrix series comes to mind most often. Many other kung fu movies, including Kung Fu Panda and one of my favorites Kung fu hustle have employed some of the special effects notably seen in the Matrix. The special effects techniques have enabled the kung fu master’s to be portrayed as having “powers” that defy the boundaries that people have in the real world. For example, Oogway, the rather large and slow turtle is able to balance his whole body on the tip of his walking stick, just using his toe. There is no way that a normal person or animal in reality would be able to achieve this feat. Being that he is an irregularly shaped object, to be able to keep the center of gravity completely balanced on a very small base of support would be unfeasible, he would assuredly fall over almost immediately, but it’s perfectly plausible for a turtle with omnipotent kung fu skills.
One of the other superhuman abilities demonstrated in the movie that stood out to me was when Shifu was able to put out a room full of candles just a wave of his arm. In the scene the frail Oogway was trying to muscle up the lung capacity to blow out the flame of a single candle in a room full of candles. Shifu, annoyed with Oogway’s distraction while he was trying to talk to him just came in, waved his arm at one end of the room and with a ripple effect all of the candles were out in seconds. It doesn’t take much thought to realize that it should take a rather large gust of wind to have an effect on area the size of a room, but that is not the case here.
Even better than being able to balance on something 1/100 one’s size or blow out a room full of candles, is the ability to jump infinite heights and then soar back down to the ground as if you could fly, an ability that Tigress demonstrated when going to meet Tai Lung. First of all, it would take an amazing amount of force to be able to jump as high as Tigress did in this scene, a force that a tiger of her size just didn’t have. Even if a tiger did have the mass to jump as high as hundreds of feet, the fall back down would not be a simple glide and then a soft landing on the feet. On the other hand, not all of the characters in the movie displayed super-animal abilities like Po before he was trained in the ways of Kung Fu.
The next noteworthy difference between the Kung Fu Panda world and our world is that size is no indication of one’s strength or power or as I put it early, bigger doesn’t always mean stronger. Case in point, Mantis, short for praying mantis, is a minute sized creature with colossal strength. Although Mantis weighs most likely no more than 15 grams, he is able to stand up to anyone. In one scene Mantis is shown beating up Po, a panda weighing probably over 200 pounds. This sounds a little disproportionate to me and violates the action/reaction laws we have in our world. Something the size of praying mantis should not be able to exert the kind of force needed to lift and throw a panda bear. However, in this movie size does not matter and comes secondary to skill and training.
In addition to being beaten up by a praying mantis, Po also gets beaten up by a snake, which I guess would make a little more sense, but not enough for it to be possible in our world. Another example of the insignificance of size in this movie is the fact that Shifu, who is a rather small red panda, is the kung fu master and mentor to Po and the rest of the furious five. Although this character is small in stature, he has enormous capacity. Another oddity of the movie, but in the other direction is the lack of strength that Po presents. At the beginning of the movie Po is trying to race up the steps of temple, however, he is finding it too difficult to carry up his noodle cart which is physically half his size. This scene stood out to me because it was funny to see such a large animal struggle with something that was so much smaller than it.
The last unusual physical property in the world of Kung Fu Panda that I would like to discuss is the limited effect of gravity. In my opinion this was the most obvious deviation between our two worlds. The first example of this I will address is when Shifu throws up two plates in the air for Tigress to break mid-air in order to demonstrate her skills. After Tigress jumps up into a split and breaks the plates, she lands on the floor and walks away. This sounds normal enough, except that she landed and walked away before any of the shards of the plate reached the ground. We’ve learned that despite how heavy or light two object are, they will generally fall and reach the floor at the same time, however, that didn’t happen. It took so long for the pieces of plate to reach the ground I almost forgot they were broken in the first place. I suppose the creators did this for dramatic or comedic effect, and it worked.
Another instance of the lack of gravity is in the scene where Tai Lung is trying to escape from prison and has to make it to the top of the ledge from a crumbling bridge. The way he accomplishes this is by jumping from one piece of the falling bridge to another. As strange and impossible as this sounds, it looked even stranger. Despite the falling pieces of bridge, Tai Lung was able to jump on them as if they were floating in mid-air or falling at an extremely slow rate. In contrast to this implausible scene in the prison there was also a realistic scene in the same location. A feather fell from the top of the bridge in the prison. The feather falling looked very similar to a leaf drop which seems probable considering that there would have been very little wind resistance inside the prison. So in this case, gravity has a normal effect.
The movie Kung Fu Panda shares a lot of the characteristics of human live-action movies. Along with most movies come the similarities and differences in between their worlds and our “real” world. Some of the alternate laws of physics within Kung Fu Panda that I’ve discussed are the powers that kung fu masters are often portrayed as having, the concept that size doesn’t matter in this world, and lastly, the limited effect that gravity as on objects. All of these aspects combined with the similarities between live-action movies based on reality as we know it, made Kung Fu Panda an entertaining, not just as an animation movie, but as a movie in general.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)