Another reference to hyperbolic functions in a movie

[Gene Wright]

The image below is from one of my favorite TV movies from 1971, "City Beneath the Sea" by Irwin Allen.

Movie info at imdb

The circumstances of this screen being shown was discussion about firing nuclear missiles to deflect an incoming asteroid from hitting the earth. The results appear to be in meters. Anyone recognize the formula? No wonder TI put hyperbolics on most of their calculators! They were trying to save the earth! :-)

[tony (nz)]

Hi Gene, I remember that formula! From Special Relativity. Hyperbolic motion. It must be on wiki, yep - they show the c^2/a. That "Wpp" could be an indication of "warp" - it approaches 1 as the terminal speed approaches c. Oh I found the formula in my old text by Rindler called "Special relativity" published 1966, page 41. Thanks for the memories! Cheers, Tony

[troy]

whoa! that is one long distance. i haven't seen the movie so don't know what context this was used. but 4.8e17 m is about 50 light years?