Comments on: Things Required Where You Are Going

By: Intyalle

Intyalle — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 03:51:31 +0000

It should have been a pie graph

By: penguinbloke

penguinbloke — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:56:45 +0000

In the United States, it is well documented that the National Bureau of Standards issued pronunciation guides for the metric prefixes in the 1960s and again as late as the 1980s, giving the ‘g’ in “giga” a soft “j” sound, thus formalizing the pronunciation as “jiga”[2] within the United States

from wiki

but yeah, I would have said
Flux Capacitor = 1
Watts (giga) = 1.21
miles per hour (x100) = .88
roads = 0

By: toto

toto — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:40:13 +0000

I would argue that according to the story structure, the neccesity of the flux capacitor was never really in question, as the objective of the plot revolved around getting what the characters needed: the jiggawatts and the speed, preferably at the same time.

In the first movie, which is obviously the one called into question, having the flux capacitor, or the car for that matter, was never a problem and thus according to the comical rule of thirds, this graph is most concise and relevant by containing only these three items.

By: agwspilot

agwspilot — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:11:07 +0000

Sorry for beating a dead horse, but though the Doc said Jigawatts he was referring to Gigawatts.

By: doc brown

doc brown — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:01:51 +0000

I’m with you Phil Shearer. It’s weird to have the quantity of 88 miles an hour equal 1. It should just say “Miles per hour” and the graph should go all the way up to 88. Then it should read “gigawatts” and the graph go up to 1.21.

That could create a pretty empty graph though. Maybe there’d be room for “years” and the graph would show “30.”

It’s a nice round number.

By: cjk

cjk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:23:42 +0000

Even if we assuemd Jigowatts were some unit above Giga/Tera/Peta/Exa, it would either fry the electronics (note it is MAGNITUDES larger), or not power them up at all (if they are laid out for a Jigowatt, then a Gigawatt won’t bring the energy).
But Gigawatt actually sounds plausible for lightning strikes, as well for nuclear power plants (even the ‘tiny’ one in the car). WP also has a paragraph about jigo/gigawatts.

By: cjk

cjk — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:19:56 +0000

The road is long enough to get to 88 mph. Note that Pine Mall (in the 1st part) seemed even shorter, and he still got his 88 mph there (though from 40 or so after the sharp turn).

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:38:58 +0000

The comments on this are made of win.

I think you also need to bring along Doc’s sunglasses from the future too. They definitely seemed important to the driving.

By: someguy

someguy — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:22:17 +0000

1.21 Gigawats = 1201 Megawats, however I think its actually JiggaWats, ie an undefined yet no doubt large number of wats.

By: wood

wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:01:54 +0000

That is true, and so is that. My favorite part was when marty made out with his mom.

By: Jak

Jak — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:15:51 +0000

Dude, This is GRAPHJAM, we are ALL nerds and geeks here.

And besides, if anybody could make a nuclear reactor small enough to fit in a DeLorean DMC-12, the Doc could.

By: wood

wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:45:32 +0000

Well if you wanna get technical the wattage Dr. Brown is refering to is electrical power from some sort of generator run by his plutonium reactor. That power is somehow used to generate “Flux” to be stored in this capacitor (i guess). The smallest nuclear reactor used to generate power could be housed in a large train car, but it only generated 200KW (and killed 3 men). Also Reactors used to generate electrical power almost always require U-235….wait……………………………………..OMG I’M A NERD, how did this happen to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: wood

wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:28:33 +0000

don’t forget the miller high life!

By: ethana2

ethana2 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:16:32 +0000

miles an hour: 88
Megawatts: 121
Banana peels: 3
Roads: 0

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:13:06 +0000

Besides, capacitors (flux or not) aren’t measured in watts. That makes the movie even funnier. Technobabble, it ain’t just for Star Trek ™ any more.

By: wood

wood — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:44:42 +0000

Ya you definatly need the flux capacitor….
And im pretty sure it is the fictional value the equivalent to Jay-Z gayness level
1.21 JiggaWatts. 1.21 Gigawatts is only 1.21 billion watts, not nearly enough for traving through time.

By: DaveF

DaveF — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:00:53 +0000

Uhm, hello? Flux capacitor?

By: Phil Shearer

Phil Shearer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:09:15 +0000

Hmm, could be better.
as both your fields for “1.21 gigawatts” and “88 mph” have values in them already

surely “gigwatts”
—————–>
1.21

is the way to do it

By: Sir VG

Sir VG — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:25:49 +0000

Where are we going?
Back to the Future!

Doc, back up we don’t have enough road to hit 88!
Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need…roads.