Biologicals vs. radiation: important point here is to remember that the measurement unit Gy is a unit of radiation absorbed by tissues (i.e. how much you should care :), which is affected more by tissues in question and the type of radiation in question. If you are 'irradiated', your tissues have absorbed radiation in the form of cell damage. Would be nice if you could radiate that away, but no such luck; this is why medical personnel can go in to treat a patient of radiation therapy as soon as the treatment is over without fear of being exposed themselves. For example in the case of the spy the concern was for people exposed at the same time as the spy; if the source of radiation was something he carried with him unknowingly, people he met during that time might have been exposed (though of course total irradiation much less due to the smaller time involved).
One popular tv show which featured Newtonian physics in space battles was Babylon 5, which managed to even make it look cool, with all kinds of clearly space-only maneuvers, as well as ships losing power drifting far out battles if without power. This has also been tried in a number computer games (I-War for example), and while requiring some getting used to, turned out to be both doable and logical after a little while.
The initial #4 and the following commentaries both have a point in them. Yes, it is possible to kick people backwards without flying back yourself, by e.g. assuming a proper martial arts stance. In think the point in #4 is that in order to punch or kick anyone across a room would result in at least multiple fractures, if not in catastrophic implosion of hand or leg bones. Compare energy needed to kick someone 10 meters away with dropping from a height of 10 meters, and add the upward power needed to keep the target aloft for the distance. Not to mention breaking, say, causing the target to break a concrete wall at that distance. Boom.
A pure hypothetical: one could also imagine that a laser cannon with sufficient power to destroy spaceships from ranges of several kilometers would have sufficient power to cause interplanetary/stellar dust to emit radiation, which could result in visible laser shots. I'm sure someone will correct me in this :)...
So; movies are fun, but trying to learn physics from them can be awkward and dangerous :).
Biologicals vs. radiation: important point here is to remember that the measurement unit Gy is a unit of radiation absorbed by tissues (i.e. how much you should care :), which is affected more by tissues in question and the type of radiation in question. If you are 'irradiated', your tissues have absorbed radiation in the form of cell damage. Would be nice if you could radiate that away, but no such luck; this is why medical personnel can go in to treat a patient of radiation therapy as soon as the treatment is over without fear of being exposed themselves. For example in the case of the spy the concern was for people exposed at the same time as the spy; if the source of radiation was something he carried with him unknowingly, people he met during that time might have been exposed (though of course total irradiation much less due to the smaller time involved).
One popular tv show which featured Newtonian physics in space battles was Babylon 5, which managed to even make it look cool, with all kinds of clearly space-only maneuvers, as well as ships losing power drifting far out battles if without power. This has also been tried in a number computer games (I-War for example), and while requiring some getting used to, turned out to be both doable and logical after a little while.
The initial #4 and the following commentaries both have a point in them. Yes, it is possible to kick people backwards without flying back yourself, by e.g. assuming a proper martial arts stance. In think the point in #4 is that in order to punch or kick anyone across a room would result in at least multiple fractures, if not in catastrophic implosion of hand or leg bones. Compare energy needed to kick someone 10 meters away with dropping from a height of 10 meters, and add the upward power needed to keep the target aloft for the distance. Not to mention breaking, say, causing the target to break a concrete wall at that distance. Boom.
A pure hypothetical: one could also imagine that a laser cannon with sufficient power to destroy spaceships from ranges of several kilometers would have sufficient power to cause interplanetary/stellar dust to emit radiation, which could result in visible laser shots. I'm sure someone will correct me in this :)...
So; movies are fun, but trying to learn physics from them can be awkward and dangerous :).