Physics and Science
- Aaron and Abe start the film by attempting to create a device to somehow counter the effects of gravity. They have plans for such a device from another development team, but wish to improve on the viability of the design. Their main approach to achieve this is to drop the coolant bath for the required superconductors. They instead increase the transition temperature of the superconductor to "something more usable" by "knock out the interior magnetic field." The machine operates on the principles of the Meissner effect. The characters allude to this as they design the machine.
- Aaron and Abe require palladium to build their machine. This is the reason they take the catalytic converter from a car (catalytic converters contain small amounts of palladium).
- The principles of time travel in the film are inspired by Feynman diagrams. Carruth explained: "Richard Feynman has some interesting ideas about time. When you look at Feynman diagrams, there's really no difference between watching an interaction happen forward and backward in time."
Read more about this topic: Primer (film)
Famous quotes containing the words physics and/or science:
“The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission bomb forces upon us the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb. We do not choose our problems, we do not choose our products; we are pushed, we are forced—by what? By a system which has no purpose and goal transcending it, and which makes man its appendix.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“The well-educated young woman of 1950 will blend art and sciences in a way we do not dream of; the science will steady the art and the art will give charm to the science. This young woman will marry—yes, indeed, but she will take her pick of men, who will by that time have begun to realize what sort of men it behooves them to be.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)