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Hollywood movies create excitement with their special effects at the expense of contributing to students’ ignorance about science, according to two University of Central Florida professors.

The article published in the German journal “Praxis der Naturwissenschaften Physik.” highlights how poorly Hollywood writers and directors understand science.

Hollywood feeds on scientific ignorance and gullibility by showing stunts that defy laws of physics, the physicists point out.

Some people really do believe that a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed, the study finds.

Even to be realistic a ramp would be needed to adjust the direction of motion to even try to make the leap, professor Costas J. Efthimiou, who co-authored the article explained.

“Students come here, and they don’t have any basic understanding of science,” he said. “Sure, people say everyone knows the movies are not real, but my experience is many of the students believe what they see on the screen.”

Efthimiou said students across the United States seem to have the same challenge with science, and it starts from young age.

The Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 report seems to support his observations.

The report shows that the average science scores among 12th graders in the US slumped from the previous year, while the scores remained stagnant in the fourth and eighth grades.

The professors expressed concern that only about one-third of all students tested had a solid understanding of what they should know.

If youngsters aren’t getting the basics at the elementary level, it becomes very difficult for them to continue to study the subjects in college and virtually impossible for them to make significant contributions to the scientific community, Efthimiou said.

Efthimiou began teaching a basic physics course at UCF in 2000, and described the experience as “horrible.” asthe students feared the subject matter and complained his class was too hard.

To remedy the situation, he came up with the movie approach now known as “Physics in Film.” with some help from UCF physics chair R.A. Llewellyn.

They launched the course in the summer of 2002, and today it is among the most popular on campus.

“I needed a hook to get the students interested in science,” Efthimiou said. “I needed something to get them beyond this fear. Now it is one of the most popular classes.”

Efthimiou spet hours watching hundreds of films to find scenes that illustrate the physics concepts he needs to teach.

In one instance, he uses a scene from Superman when the hero flies around the earth an in effort to reverse time and save Lois Lane from death.

Student critically analyse the scenes and learn the real laws of physics, and he explains how angular momentum really works.

“It’s a lot of work, but it is worth it,” he said. “It’s a way to get them science literate.”

The veteran professor, like many scientists across the United States, is worried that if science and math education doesn’t improve, society will pay the price.

“All the luxuries we have today, the modern conveniences, are a result of the science research that went on in the ’60s during the space race,” Efthimiou said. “It didn’t just happen. It took people doing hard science to do it.”

The paper, “Hollywood Blockbusters: Unlimited Fun but Limited Science Literary,” is a direct product of the class he’s been teaching for five years.

Efthimiou, who holds a doctorate from Cornell University, enjoys a good movie, but points out that we should be as eager to get a good science education as we are to see the next big blockbuster.