The Science of Knight Rider at Discover Magazine

With all the cool gadgets and gismos that appear on Knight Rider one is often left wondering at the end of an episode, "is that real?" Well our friend Eric Wolff over at Discover Magazine is always ready with an answer for us. Have a look at his most recent article where he helps us break down the science of Knight Rider.

Knight Rider: Because Hafnium is better than none-ium

I know you all caught the "stay tuned" clips at the end of Knight Rider, right? It looks like we're going to get our big fight, our KARR v. KITT battle at last! I can hardly wait, but as long as I have to wait, let's talk about the cliff hanger from last night's episode. We left our heroes driving straight north at 100 miles per hour carrying a hafnium bomb in the trunk. Dip below 100 miles per hour and BOOM! Keanu-er, Michael and KITT explode, destroying everything in a 10-mile radius.

Now hang on, a hafnium bomb? Hafnium actually exists (which is more than I can say for some elements), but can it actually blow up like that? Well, some scientists believe it can. In the real world, hafnium is closely related to zirconium, and it has many of the same properties. The structure of the hafnium solid is especially effective at storing energy. That makes it useful in control rods in a nuclear reactors, and also as a way to store energy as a kind of atomic battery...