Physics and RoTK??!

[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?

[Knight of Gondor]

Scenes from Return of the King in which physics might be discussed:

• Gollum hanging down towards the beginning
  
• The arrow fired by Legolas to pierce Wormtongue
  
• Saruman's plunge
  
• The distance of the Palantir and how far it rolled
  
• Sam's fall down the stairs after leaving Frodo, perhaps including the fall of the Lembas crumbs
  
• Siege towers for the assault against Gondor
  
• The Witchking's mace; wielding it, dislodging it from the ground, etc.
  
• Grond and other siege weapons
  
• The return-fire from Gondor (using sections of their own wall)
  
• The difference of siege weapons between the lever action of Mordor and the sling-type action of Gondor
  
• The Nazgul terrorizing the people and weapons on the tops of Gondor...the distance it took for the Gondorian victims to fall before hitting the roofs below
  
• Bracing the door (brace versus the force from the other side, being banged on by the troll with the hammer) when Gandalf and Pippin are waiting for the breech of the second (third/fourth?) tier gate, when they discuss the white shores
  
• Denethor's flaming plunge
  
• How Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would likely have sustained injuries from their jump off the ship if they'd made it in real life
  
• Legolas versus the Oliphants...sliding off the trunk and landing unharmed right in front of Gimli
  
• Aragorn dropping the Evenstar pendant, and its subsequent shattering
  
• Gollum's fall
  
• The fall of one of the Dark Riders when his mount is attacked by an eagle
  
• The destruction of the Dark Tower (Golly, I hope you've already seen the film! )

Covered enough topics? I'm guessing if you want to narrow in, the siege weapons would be a good thing to go with. It's a topic of physics that still affects battle strategy today, and has several facets of interest in the movie.

[yavanna II]

I've just finished my paper.. and took a lot of ideas from here. I quoted this site of course, to avoid the university plagiarism thingy....