Background
Jody Gaines
Phys 212, F07
4/16/14
Website Project
Bibliography
Source [8]
These characters are, from left to
right: Professor Farnsworth, Turanga Leela, Bender Rodríguez,
Phillip J. Fry, and John Zoidberg.
David X Cohen
For those who don’t know, one of the creators and Executive Producers of “Futurama” has a Bachelor’s degree in Physics (from Harvard). His name is David X. Cohen, and area of interest in physics is applied math. Although most of the scientific concepts used in Futurama are used for laughs, he does try to make the physics explainable. For example, most of the space ships in “Futurama” need to travel faster than the speed of light to reach their destinations at the appropriate time. Instead of explaining that objects travel faster than the speed of light, the scientists in “Futurama” instead claim that they simply figured out how to increase the speed of light. As Cohen admitted, “…As much respect as we have for science, we have to make the show entertaining…we try to come up with an explanation that will amuse scientists, even if it is bogus. [1]”
But...
With that being said, “Futurama” does try to make the science as realistic as possible. The writers of the show do have deep respect for science, so this show is worth studying (for its science concepts). Since this website can only present a sparse amount of images relating to “Futurama” (again, due to copyright issues), here is the list of “Futurama” characters that will be mentioned in this website:
Characters
Phillip J. Fry: He is the protagonist of the show. He was frozen in 2000 in a cryogenics lab, for which he remained frozen for 1000 years. He is dim-witted, but very sincere. He has feelings of infatuation towards the character Turanga Leela.
Bender Bending Rodríguez:
Bender is a robot that was born in Mexico. He is
programmed to bend objects. In spite of this program, he
is often very lazy and drinks alcohol all the time
(ironically, drinking makes him sober). He is also Fry’s
best friend.
Turanga
Leela: Leela
is a human-sized Cyclops. She was raised in an orphanage
on the surface of Earth, since her parents are mutants
that live underground (for a while, mutants couldn’t live
on the surface). She used to work at the cryogenics lab
(same on where Fry was frozen), until Fry convinced her to
quit her job and work for Planet Express.
Professor
Hubert J. Farnsworth:
Professor Farnsworth is one of Fry’s distant relatives. He
is well over 100 years old, but he still makes new
inventions. He also owns the business Planet Express, a
delivery service that delivers packages to other planets.
Amy Wong is one of her assistants.
Amy
Wong: Amy is
technically a Martian (her home planet is on Mars), but
she retains full Asian heritage. She is a Graduate
professor, and she helps Professor Farnsworth with his
inventions. Later in the show, she eventually earns a PhD
in applied physics.