Buzz Lightyear and the physics classroom: Can science-fiction animated movies spark in-class discussion of time dilation

The recent animated movie Lightyear, produced by Disney-Pixar,1 presents several scientific concepts in a science fiction context, one of which is time dilation. This article aims to identify some possibilities for discussion in introductory physics courses that include relativity, based on the concept of time dilation as portrayed in Lightyear. Discussing how time dilation is presented in the movie could improve motivation and interest in students to learn about special relativity. The discussion could even be carried out in high school physics instruction, since research has shown that upper secondary students can deal with the basic ideas of the special theory of relativity,2 and the high school curricula in some countries of Europe3–6 and Latin America7,8 have started to include special or general relativity as one of their topics.