Gandalf, Balrog, Physics…

So while you have a look at the following enthusiastic and amusing discussion about how far the Balrog and Gandalf must have fallen (in the film version of the Two Towers), involving discussions of terminal velocities and Balrog profile approximations for air resistance estimates (and so forth)…

(links here, here and here*)

…ask yourself why on earth nobody in the discussion (as far as I can tell from a quick scan) seems to care about the fact that Gandalf manages to quickly catch up with Glamdring (er… his sword) in his fall, enabling him to put it to good use later on. Shouldn’t that be much more of a concern?

-cvj

*Thanks Amara!

Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Gandalf, Balrog, Physics…

  1. fly, you fools!

  2. Clifford says:

    You mean, as opposed to SWEATER?

    -cvj

  3. spyder says:

    Does JUMPER make any sense???

  4. mollishka says:

    Gandalf is a wizard…. he can do magic. Duh.

    At least that’s what I told myself when I saw it in the movie the first time, to prevent my head from imploding.

  5. I think the laws of physics are broken too often in too many movies from too many countires to really care. But ’twas an interesting calculation, though!

  6. Wow. Obviously there are people out there who have watched the LotR films more times than I have.

    –IP