Independence Day/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

*** Weight = Force = mass x acceleration constant of gravity. So long as you are in an environment where the gravitational constant (e.g. ''earth''), weight and mass are linearly related. You are also heavily underestimating the force of the winds. Skyscrapers sway constantly several meters or more due to regular wind activity, and significant engineering is required to prevent them from tearing themselves apart ''in normal everyday weather conditions''. And the alien ships are flat discs with a vertically protuding spine. In short they are presenting sail and aerofile-like profile in three of four possible directions of airflow. Something the size and shape of those alien ships, no matter what it was made of, no matter how much it weighed, no matter what its mass, would move significantly in the regular winds, unless it was actively counteracting those forces constantly. Possibly they were using their antigravity tech to actively change the local value of the acceleration of gravity, on the fly.

**** Anyway, [[Rule of Cool|we're talking about city-sized spaceships that can defy gravity and obliterate hundreds of square miles with a single shot,]] [[Completely Missing the Point|and you're worried about WIND?]] Just accept that there's technology at work that we can't understand and move on.

* Why would the aliens start an attack on Earth by striking the cities FIRST? Attacking the major (and minor) military installations would have been much more effective and required the expenditure of much less energy...which would definitely be something that aliens from another solar system would have been concerned about.

** They probably haven't come across a civilization with technology compared to ours before, so they were doing what they always do: Wipe out population centers. They wanted to wipe out everyone, so best to hit the biggest clusters first before they scatter and hide. Also, until the climax their ships were invincible anyway, so they weren't concerned with attacking military installations because they weren't a threat.