This is a riot. The Movie Physics Page
Regarding the movie "Armageddon":
"...As is our policy we won't reveal the exciting conclusion but will offer a parting thought. Downing a fifteen-mile-diameter saucer would be a disaster. Krauss estimates it would weigh about 100 billion tons and that dropping it from a height of about a mile would release more than 10,000 times as much energy as the nuclear bomb used on Hiroshima.
However, that would be minor compared to the effects of releasing the antimatter fuel aboard the ship. The saucer would still be loaded with enough antimatter fuel to toast several cities as well as return to the mothership. The return trip would lift the saucer thousands of times higher than the one mile fall described. Hence, there would be thousands of times more energy stored in the antimatter fuel than released by a one-mile saucer fall. Breaching the antimatter's containment field would cause one gigantic explosion."
Posted by Matt at August 31, 2003 05:47 PM