Physics and RoTK??!

[yavanna II]

Originally Posted by Meneltarmacil

Wasn't there something about how Frodo would have been incinerated in real life if he had been as close to the fire of Mount Doom as he was?

Nice one. I think this has something to do with the thermodynamics thingy.

Originally Posted by hewhoarisesinmight

Surely sliding down the trunk of an oliphaunt or whatever Legolas Bond did must break some law of physics but maybe it just broke the law against crap sequences in films

I thought of this too the first time I watched the film. Gravitation and all that kinda stuff.

Thanks guys for the ideas! I appreciate these.

[Sir Kohran]

In the Middle Ages, trebuchets often had trouble just launching stones the size of a human head, but the (wooden!) trebuchets in ROTK launch rocks the size of houses without any trouble whatsoever.

[alatar]

One of my favorites is the Black Gate at the Morannon. Two trolls, however strong, swing open the gate by pushing on a bar. By my guesstimates that would be like me opening a heavy door using a toothpick! Figure out the lengths on both sides of the pivot point, estimate the mass of the Gate and figure out the force that must be exerted by the Trolls and what substance on Earth, Middle or otherwise, would withstand such stress.

And does the bar which they push even bow/bend a bit?

[Rumil]

I think I have spotted another Middle Earth Physics violation,

JRRT claimed that the Sun and Moon were derived from fruit.

Now cheese maybe but fruit, naaaah!

(OK its in the Silmarillion but the very same Sun and Moon were depicted in the movie RoTK, though their parts were acted by a gigantic mass of fusing hydrogen and helium with a surface temperature of more than 5000 C and a 2000 mile diameter lump of rock, respectively, which I think worked quite well)

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Rumil

JRRT claimed that the Sun and Moon were derived from fruit.

We're discussing the movies, and so I think that you meant to write nuts...

[Meneltarmacil]

Regarding the Black Gate, was the bar perhaps made of mithril?

[Beanamir of Gondor]

I've got one! How about Grond the battering ram used during the Siege of Gondor? Calculating the weight, angle, and velocity needed to break the Gate of Minas Tirith must have been a pain for those silly trolls.
How about the perfect angle at which to attach the stirrup to David Wenham's leg as not to break his ankle when Faramir was being dragged in though the Gates... in full armour... stuck full of arrows... *trails off into grumbling*

The trebuchet one was great, Sir Kohran.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Meneltarmacil

Regarding the Black Gate, was the bar perhaps made of mithril?

Not sure. In one telling of the story the Gates of the Morannon are made by the Men of the West, and I don't think that they would have invested precious mithril into this gate. The Gate for Minas Tirith contained mithril, but from my reading it was more decoration than function. After King Elessar becomes King, the Gate is newly wrought with mithril (I'd use it in the hinges ).

Anyway, in PJ's Black Gate, we have a troll team used to open it. Would Sauron, who coveted mithril, used this precious metal for something so base as a door handle?