All the athletes start at the same height and go down the same track. So the difference between gold and a disappointing result comes not from gravity and potential energy, but from a fast start, being as aerodynamic as possible and taking the shortest path down the track. While gravity pulls the athletes and their sleds downhill, they are constantly colliding with air particles that create a force called air drag, which pushes back on the athletes and sleds in a direction opposite to their velocity.

Climate change. Creationism versus evolution. Deep space travel. Tesla electric cars. These are just a few buzzwords that have been repeatedly popping up in current news over the last few years. What ties them all together is that they’re science-related. From literature and entertainment to advertising and education, it seems as if science, and the appreciation of science, is entering a social renaissance in the 21^st century. 

Appropriately, and in accordance with the universe-sized endeavor of which Particle Fever documents, the film’s style is of a predictable, cinema verite formulation: enmeshing moments of planet-rattling scientific discovery with footage of its purveyors training for marathons along Swiss country roads, engaging in impromptu ping-pong matches under cruel, institutional lighting and, of course, confessing their concerns about the potential “end of Physics” via Skype.