He’s one of the most beloved actors of all time, and a staple for trivia nights. Tom Hanks has appeared in wildly successful movies since his big screen debut in 1980’s He Knows You’re Alone. But what are the need-to-know tidbits for showing off your movie knowledge? Let’s take a look.
Tom Hanks’ Biggest Money-Turning Hit Movie
Tom Hanks’ most successful box office movie is Toy Story 4! While the movie was not the most popular one in the series, it became the highest-grossing of the series, earning over $1 Billion all around the globe. The movie went over just a tad from Toy Story 3 and is officially the best-selling film in Hanks’ career.
According to IMDb, Hanks’ highest-grossing live-action movie is The Da Vinci Code, which made $758 Million at the box office. Forrest Gump made $677 Million, while The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons earned $486 Million. Rounding out the top five, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away made $482 Million and $430 Million at the box office respectively.
Forrest Gump Won Six Academy Awards
Hanks’ most critically acclaimed movie is definitely Forrest Gump, which earned six Oscars, including Hanks’ second consecutive Academy Award for Best Actor in 1994 (following his win for Philadelphia the previous year).
It also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Not a bad haul.
And if you’re wondering what Tom Hanks’ worst movie is, a trip to Rotten Tomatoes will tell you that 1990’s The Bonfire Of The Vanities has a rating of just 15%, narrowly edging out 2017’s The Circle (16%)! They can’t all be hits…
This 17-Year-Old Might Change the Electric Car Industry With His New Motor Design
Do you remember your childhood when your friends and you might open the motors of some old toy cars and attempt to be engineers? Well, you might have done it for fun but Robert Sansone is doing it to change the world.
The Engineering Prodigy
17-year-old teenager Robert Sansone loves to tinker with new inventions in his leisure time, and has completed a minimum of 60 engineering projects. This teenager has created super-fast running boots, a go-kart that has a speed of 70 miles/hour +, an animatronic hand, and much more.
The Initial Years
A few years back, Sansone came across the fact that the motors that the industry uses are created with magnets that need some rare and expensive element, he got curious. He decided to come up with a motor that doesn’t use raw materials that can cost hundreds of dollars for one kg, he started brainstorming. For years, Sansone experimented and researched, and then he learned about synchronous reluctance motors. You can find them in your ceiling fans and water pumps, but they don’t generate enough energy to run an electric car. He chose these motors because they don’t require magnets to create rotational energy to spin a rotor.
The Journey Continued
The high schooler invented many prototypes of the motor to increase its rotational force. He even won his very first award at the largest international high school STEM competition, Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), with a prize of $75,000 for his 3D printed prototype made with copper wires, plastic, and steel rotor.
Technicalities
Sansone knew that to generate more rotational force or torque, he needed a greater saliency ratio (difference between materials and magnetism) and that could be done by using air gaps. However, he decided to walk down a different path. Sansone incorporated an additional magnetic field inside the motor to hike up the ratio. After 14 failed prototypes of this design, he finally accomplished what he wished for. He got a running prototype when he gave this idea a 15th trial.
The Out Blast
Sansone’s prototype proved that increasing the torque can actually end up in a higher saliency ratio. Although he did have other details to his design, he hasn’t disclosed them as he wishes to patent his design in the future. This new motor can actually be used in electric cars once experiments are done on bigger levels and it might change the industry forever.