Bad Astronomy May Term: Armageddon

I recently finished teaching my two week May Term titled Bad Astronomy.  The course focuses on the misconceptions the general public has with many science concepts, specifically in the field of astronomy.  We watch several movies and have a discussion on the bad science in them.  We always start with Armageddon because it is FILLED with bad science.  I won't go into full details of the bad science in this movie as I previously discussed it last year around this time.

Bad Astronomy: Armageddon

This movie never gets old for me.  It's interesting because it's filled with many action scenes, but WOW is the science horrible.  The movie starts with horrible science, has horrible science in the middle, and ends with horrible science.  Once could probably count the number of good science scenes on one, maybe two hands.  There are a couple of scenes with good science, but trust me, those are few and far between!

If you've never seen this movie, please watch it.  It is an interesting and fun movie to watch.  I won't call it a good movie, but it's not entirely a waste of two and half hours.  There's an all star cast in terms of well known people.  I encourage you to make a game out of it.  Watch it with your kids.  It's PG-13, mainly for some intense scenes and the dropping of the f-bomb once.  See who can come up with the greatest number of bad science moments.  After the movie share and discuss.  Movie, popcorn, and science.  The movie is filled with bad science, but if you find those moments and discuss why they are bad science, you've turned bad science into science!