r/AskEngineers

There’s a scene in the first Iron man movie where Tony and Rhodes are on Tony’s private jet and after Tony orders drinks for the two of them we cut to a “stripper” pole emerging from the floor and the flight attendants begin dancing on it. My question is, where does the pole come from? It doesn’t telescope in to place and it doesn’t stand up from a horizontal position. It appears to raise straight up from below the floor. Is this possible on what I would imagine is a Lear jet? And yes, I see the irony in taking issue with this in a superhero movie. Just curious.

I swear cheap 3D printing has completely ruined how some people think about manufacturing.

We've been getting parts from the new hires lately that are literally physically impossible to make. sharp internal corners on deep pockets, crazy tight tolerances on non-critical faces, blind holes with flat bottoms... its exhausting. We outsource a lot of our overflow work to a shop down in texas, and I spend half my week just intercepting these models so we don't look like complete idiots when they open the step files

like no, you cannot mill a perfect 90 degree inside corner. No, that bracket doesn't need aerospace tolerances to hold a plastic sensor

how do you actually bridge this gap? do you force new designers to spend a week on the shop floor watching machines run? Trying to find a structured way to teach design for manufacturability without just being the angry guy rejecting their tickets all day. Any advice is appreciated

I’m currently researching a feature film and am trying to capture genuine electrical effects —things like corona discharge, electrical arcing, plasma, or electricity interacting with cables — in camera rather than relying entirely on VFX.

I’m not sure where to begin with the research side of this, so I was wondering if anyone here has experience with it or knows someone who does. Whether it’s a university, a research lab, an engineer, or even another cinematographer who’s explored this, I’d really appreciate any guidance or introductions.

If you’ve come across references, papers, people, or institutions that might be helpful, I’d love to learn more.

Thanks in advance!