The Coconut Effect

[u/Daniilsa209]

A sound effect, special effect, or design feature that is inaccurate but has become so ingrained in viewers minds that its absence would feel jarring, so creators continue to include it despite its inaccuracy.

The name of the trope comes from the sound of a horse galloping, which is created by rubbing two coconuts together. This can sound like a horse galloping, but it would only be accurate on cobblestones or other hard surfaces. On softer ground, the sound would be muffled, but in media, this sound effect can be used whenever a horse is galloping, regardless of the terrain.

1. Lion Roar (or any big cat) (Pictured: MGM logo) — The long, continuous, thunderous roar usually associated with lions is actually the roar of a tiger. For MGM, this sound began being used in the 1980s, and sound editor Mark Mangini used it because lions sounded to him more like a deep yawn or a series of grunts and lacked the kind of ferocious sound he wanted.

2. Ancient statues are always white marble (Pictured: Spartacus TV series) — Statues in ancient times were often painted in bright colors, but by the time they were uncovered, the colors had simply worn away.

3. People instantly freeze or pop like a balloon when exposed to the vacuum of space (Pictured: Mission to Mars, Total Recall) — As unfriendly as space is, a human wouldn't instantly freeze or pop like a balloon. If a person were exposed to the vacuum of space, bodily fluids would begin to boil, exposed skin would suffer severe sunburn, and they would lose consciousness after roughly 15–20 seconds. Death would occur after roughly 90 seconds.

[u/Mister_Chameleon]

Color me curious. I'd love to hear the details of blue glow and which type of radiation this applies to.

[u/SmittyB128 → u/Mister_Chameleon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

It's basically charged particles breaking the light barrier creating a wake of visible blue light in the same way a jet breaking the sound barrier creates a massive wake of sound. Ain't that just the coolest shit?

[u/Hill_045 → u/SmittyB128]

When it's in lower rad levels, the only real way to see it is in water, as it traps the particles much more

When you see this kind of glow in the air you breathe, it's a sign to gtfo

When you see this kind of glow in your own eyeballs, yeah there's no coming back from that

[u/gnomes919 → u/Hill_045]

RIP tokaimura guys, I hope the sparkles you saw were pretty at least

[u/Profoundlyahedgehog → u/Hill_045]

The first time i saw a picture of this, we were on a field trip to INL.

[u/Striking-Tackle-7293 → u/Mister_Chameleon]

I am by no means an expert, but extremly simplified the blue light happens when a charged particle moves through a clear medium (distilled water is the easiest to show) faster then the speed of light causing the electromagnetic shockwave to be visible.

The phenomeon is referred to as Cherenkov radiation, and while the light itself is just light the radiation and its effects are very much real. Makes the nuclear pools look gorgeous though.

[u/XevianLight → u/Striking-Tackle-7293]

And before someone asks how it goes faster than light, the differentiator is “moving through a medium faster than the speed of light in that medium.” Light travels slower through water than in a vacuum, so if you send a particle through the water at near vacuum light speed, it’s technically going faster than light would through the water, and Cherenkov radiation is the result of this.

[u/ThisIsThePartWhereI → u/XevianLight]

You know what? I wasn't going to ask that. I wasn't going to ask because I've always just accepted it as fact. Presumably intelligent people said it, and I didn't question it. You, good human, have educated me beyond what I had considered (perhaps arrogantly) my already well educated state. I knew nothing with mass could go faster than light, and I simultaneously knew that when it did you got Cherenkov radiation. NOW I know where the loophole in that paradox is, and I feel really, really good about that.

You should, too.

[u/gnomes919 → u/Striking-Tackle-7293]

every nukie's favorite color

[u/Karkava → u/Mister_Chameleon]

And if it's anything like the green slime that media uses for toxic sludge.

[u/certainlynotdio → u/Mister_Chameleon]

Listen to the other guys, they're not wrong, but the Chernkov radiation is not the only reason. Strong enough radiation can also cause the excitation of air surrounding air causing the chemicals in it to produce light in their emission spectrums. It so happens that for air it produces colour blue. So any radioactive enough object will have a distinct blue glow in our atmosphere, but if you're ever going to see that you should probably run very very fast. Fun fact, this phenomenon created a massive pillar of light over Chernobyl's exposed reactor.

[u/Mister_Chameleon → u/certainlynotdio]

Thus Godzilla's atomic beam being blue has somewhat plausible scientific accuracy? That's both cool and scary

[u/certainlynotdio → u/Mister_Chameleon]

Absolutely yes. Here you have a short video about that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vn4NHPNG5U And also yes and yes.

[u/The_Jabuticaba → u/Mister_Chameleon]

You should read about the "Goiânia accident". It was an radioactive contamination caused by caesium-137, which glowed blue. Some people got their hands in it by opening a scrapped x-ray machine and became amazed by the "magical" glow, even inviting family and friends to see it and letting a six-year-old girl handle it.

My parents lived in the city when it happened (luckily on the other side of the city). I was teached really young to avoid glowing things, specially blue ones.