Thursday, March 11, 2010

Way Cool.


Thanks, Bill.

13 comments:

prof_hale@yahoo.com said...

Silk sheet (frictionless).  Highly polished table and china.  No hems or seems on the table cloth.  Might be possible.  Throw in some CGI and I think anyone could do it.  Seriously, the motorcycle could not accelerate fast enough from a stop to keep the objects on the table from gaining at least some momentum.

Bill said...

the motorcycle could not accelerate fast enough from a stop to keep the objects on the table from gaining at least some momentum.

That, professor, would be the point of the exercise.  BMW is saying that they can, in fact, accelerate that fast.  Note that with the slack in the rope and tablecloth he's got about two or three feet to get moving fast enough for a good clean jerk.

I, for one, don't think it's CGI'ed, I think BMW actually did it.  It is, after all, a commercial, and you know people will try to duplicate it.  It would look really, really bad if BMW could not credibly reproduce that on demand.

WaterBoy said...

Fake.  Pause it at 0:37 just after the end of the tablecloth comes off the table, and you can see the digital overlap of the man's legs showing through the cloth -- which isn't transparent.

WaterBoy said...

This frame also, where the man appears to be standing "inside" the cloth.

Digital overlay.

JACIII said...

I, too, am tempted to call "bullshit".

Nate said...

The bike absolutely could produce enough jerk.  That's an awefully long table though.  Then again... my wife actually owns some silk sheets... and I have to say... friction there ain't.  A fart can slide ya right outta bed.

WaterBoy said...

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who ya are.

Michael Maier said...

Fun video either way, though I'm leaning towards fake myself.

WaterBoy said...

It is, after all, a commerical...it would look really, really, bad if Pepsico could not credibly reproduce that on demand:


http://www.youtube.com/v/1eLq0dTdrFA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140


:-P

Mikesbo said...

I think the initial vertical snap from the bike pulling the cloth up from the floor would likely topple some of the tableware nearest the end, and others would follow. If you had something holding everything at the right level until it got rolling (spooling out from a reel of some kind), it might work.

Bill said...

Well, there's a few useful facts buried in here;
http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/2010/03/tablecloth_and_dishes_trick_-.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss 

According to the physics guys, it took .12 seconds for the tablecloth pull the guy did (one place-setting), then .6 seconds for the bike to pull the cloth off the table (24 place settings = 12 place-settings long).  Obviously, the bike was WAY faster than the guy, twice as fast overall and gotta be several times as fast for the last few feet.  And, it's probably not a cotton table cloth, not that big, it's almost certainly a poly tablecloth.  Also, the stuff on the table moved, you see it wiggle during the pull and there are displaced items on the close-in shots after the pull.

Wendy said...

Agreed.

Gary T said...

WOW!! now that had to be slightly fixed.