Thursday, February 18, 2010

Can you stand it? Cloud footage running backwards

I'm going to be honest:

I can't stand anyone running cloud video footage in reverse. This drives me crazy; whether it's my physics and chemistry of the atmosphere classes or just my sensibilities but whenever I see it it drives me crazy (c.f. Survivor this season). If the cloud droplets are evaporating or condensing the wrong way, anyone with meteorological experience (or someone who has watched Koyaanisqatsi) will call shenanigans. Convection has a distinct look to it; as well as evaporation; and when producers try to reverse the video it shows.

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1 comment:

  1. Well sure, anyone with the experience to see it is going to go "Aah! They've got their entropy running the wrong way!" But I'd bet that for most of the TV watching audience, it's the sort of little thing that slots nicely into the Uncanny Valley. So even if the producers don't necessarily know why it works, I wouldn't discount the possibility that the effect is intentional.

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