Hilarious Viral Video Demonstrates Gravity on Other Planets by Smashing Car

"Science rules" has long been Bill Nye the Science Guy's catchphrase, and a silly viral video demonstrating surface gravity on different planets proves Nye correct.

In the video, posted on Reddit by u/Multipace under the subreddit r/InterestingAsF*ck, an animation shows a blue sedan repeatedly hit by a bundle of two-by-fours, showing the damage if the drop took place at different places throughout our solar system.

The video, which appears to be created with the game BeamNG Drive, starts with Earth gravity—the baseline, measured at 1 G with an acceleration due to gravity of 32 feet per seconds squared—and as one might expect, the wood crushes the top of the car and pops the hood. From there, we see gravity on Mars—about .38 G or 12.2 feet per seconds squared—where there's much less damage to the car, which also bounces much higher.

Though we see a few planets where the gravity is much less than Earth's, like Pluto (0.063 G, 2 feet per seconds squared), causing the car to float—and a few planets like Saturn (1.065 G or 34.3 feet per seconds squared) and Uranus (0.886 G or 28 feet per seconds squared) where surface gravity is close to the Earth's—the most fun parts of the video are where gravity is significantly more than Earth.

On Jupiter, where surface gravity is more than two and a half times the Earth's (80 feet per seconds squared), the car is crushed with the wood popping the hood clear off.

But the sun, though not a planet, gives the best response. With gravity a full 28 times what can be found on Earth, with acceleration at 896 feet per seconds squared, the car itself immediately slams itself against the ground. By the time the wood hits it, the car is flattened wherever the wood touches it—and the wood itself starts warping into the ground.

On Reddit users celebrated the video with nearly 95,000 upvotes and over 1,900 comments.

Redditor u/Rod7z was quick to point out that the simulation doesn't depict gas giants entirely accurately.

"That's because they're showing gravity at the surface of the bodies. Gravity at the surface of Jupiter/Uranus/Neptune/Sun isn't that high but since they're mostly gaseous you'd keep falling until you reached a point where the gravity/pressure is so high to crush you into a mass of atoms," they wrote.

Others praised the humor of the clip.

"The sun has some amazing comedic timing lmao," u/equalsolstice wrote.

"It reminded me if the Mr Bean intro," u/RectalcANAL wrote, invoking the opening sequence of the classic Rowan Atkinson comedy series, which opens with a spotlight, and Atkinson's title character falling to the pavement from above.

While the video likely won't find itself cited in many scientific papers, it's a fun and funny way to demonstrate gravity to the layman.