Though Titanic remains one of the most iconic films ever, fans new and old have always wondered, did Jack reeeeeeally have to slip into the freezing water so Rose could stay afloat on the door? Author Roxane Gay phrased this skepticism best: “It’s fucking bullshit that Jack dies. There is plenty of room on that door. I am going to bed.”
It’s fucking bullshit that Jack dies. There is plenty of room on that door. I am going to bed.
— roxane gay (@rgay) December 22, 2015
If you’re one of those #JackCouldveLived truthers, three teen girls from Westminster, Australia have just set you free. Abigail Wicks, Christy Zhang and Julia Damato are 15, 16, and 15 respectively, and while they weren’t even born when the original film came out in 1997, they’ve crunched the numbers and oh yeah, Jack could’ve lived.
Abigail shared some of the group’s process—which, by the way, was for a national math competition—in an interview with the Adelaide Times: “We looked at how buoyant the door would have been, and how that would have changed if there were people on top of that. There was a lot of exploring and testing, and we had to fiddle with different buoyancies and look at what materials were realistic for that time.”
While this interview doesn’t give more information on their calculations, the teen trio did take home the top honors for, uh, Year 10 in the National Maths Talent Quest. And almost more importantly, they’ve closed the book on this decades-long debate for good.
From: ELLE UK
