Considering Ultron is a robotic genius, he really dropped some major mathematic clangers with his hair-brained scheme to recreate the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs (except Arlo the Apatosaurus). The simple fact is that his intended impact wouldnt have come anywhere close to the strength of the Chicxulub impact of 65 million years ago. Avoiding writing reams of mathematical equations about this, Ill simply note a few key points. Firstly, the dinosaur-killing meteor of the late Cretaceous period was around 10km wide, while the section of town that Ultron fired into the sky with rockets was less than a single kilometre in diameter. So what? Maybe thats still enough? Well, no. On top of the fact that it was relatively tiny, he dropped his lump of rock from far too low. Its hard to know exactly how high it got before it began tumbling back to earth but it was certainly still within the atmosphere. Factoring everything in together, the city would probably have hit Earth with a force of around 50 megatons of TNT. This is equivalent to a hydrogen bomb detonation, which we know all too well is not enough to wipe out the human race. By comparison, that infamous prehistoric 10km space rock slammed into earth at 20km per second with a force of 240,000 gigatons of TNT (approximately 5 million times stronger than a hydrogen bomb), which is hilariously far off. So sure, Ultron would probably have ruined everyones Sunday afternoon if hed managed to follow through with his plan but he ought to be ashamed of such a slapdash approach to his calculations. Mass human extinction would not have been the final result.
Peter Austin initially joined WhatCulture as an occasional contributor to our Film, Gaming and Science sections, but made the mistake of telling us that he'd been making videos in his bedroom for over a decade. Since then he's been a vital member of our YouTube team and routinely sets the standard for smart-casual wear in the office.
