Movie Reviews with a difference
After my mid terms got over, I decided to relieve myself by watching a few movies. It occurred to me, why not watch some science videos for a change. It was then that I watched a string of science videos. Here are some of them:- Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time
- Hong Kong Airport
- Pyramids-The Giza
- Super Massive Blackhole
Ever Wondered: what Event Horizon is? (boundary of a black hole. Once you cross this, there is no escape)
What singularity is? (point where space and time cease to exist, which is the centre of a blackhole)
what happens if a person is sucked into a blackhole? (ever heard of fast forward of time?)
is the univ actually expanding? and will it contract again? (meaning will we rise from the grave and go back to the womb?)
For any astronomy enthusiast, these questions are bound to raise the curiosity levels
Hong Kong Airport: Can we blast mountains, create land, build the tallest two-railed bridge in the world, build underwater roadways, overhead highways over extremely busy roads, double deckered bridges, all for the sake of an airport? The Hong Kong guys thought they could.....and they did! And that too in a record time of 8 years where it was deemed impossible to do it in not less than 12 years.
This is a video that is bound to make the viewers drop jaws. The Hong Kong International Airport was built as a substitute for the crowded and infinitesimally small Hong Kong Airport already existing inside the city. As HK is an already overloaded city, it was decided that two small islands just outside the coast of HK will be levelled, joined and converted into airport land. It was also decided that the project will be completed before the 100 years treaty of UK with China expires, after which China will take over HK (back in 1998). Hence the work was begun for the airport in 1991 and was finished within 8 years
Pyramids-The Giza: This video takes the viewer through the building of Giza, the largest Pyramid in the world. The protagonist of the story is one of the masons, who devoted his life for the structure. Khufu, the king at that time decided that a structure has to built that will remain as the biggest structure ever built, hence embarked on this gargantuan task. After an integrated effort of close to 40,000 labourers, the structure is built, which consists of three chambers.
Unfortunately, the shine and glamour of the structure (because of its limestone covering) has been eroded through its lifetime. Apparently in its hey days, the structure looked as if it had a golden coating, especially when viewed during daytimes.
Super Massive Blackhole: Can you guess how the galaxies were created? Because of the super massive black holes (SMBHs). This video tells us that all the galaxies in this universe have their centres as super massive black holes. Ironically, the galaxies are created because of these black holes. Seems that once upon a time, there was only dust and gas (in astronomy parlance) whirling around blackholes. Slowly, the gas starts to revolve so fast around the black holes (in the process being sucked up) that it pushes the outer layers away. This results in the outer layers moving away from the control of these black holes, which in the due course of billions of years, form the galaxy.
So at the centre of all galaxies lie the dormant SMBHs, which given a chance, will eat away the whole galaxy. The next logical question will be: Will these SMBHs become active again? Accd to researchers, in a few billion years, the Andromeda galaxy is going to collide with our milky way and will result in utter chaos reawakening not one, but two SMBHs (remember, Andromeda also has a SMBH!).
posted by Vamsee @ 4:19 PM
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