A very, very small detail, but, seriously, in a world where checking this sort of stuff is trivial and literally at the palm of your hands, it's a sign of lazy writers. And once I start feeling the writers are being lazy, it makes me less willing to follow the story. - Victor Ganata

I love the comments that characterize him as a troll. Their mistake is lazy and stupid. They could have easily done 5 minutes of research. If they'd said Chicago was 2 hours east of LA... - Ha3rvey #teamMonique

OTOH, personally, I probably could've let the wrong stars in "Titanic" slide ;) Mainly because I hate that movie anyway. - Victor Ganata

Yeah, bad science wouldn't make me hate that movie more than I already do. :) But for sci-fi films, I hold them to a higher standard. BECAUSE THEY'RE SCI-FI. They're supposed to get it as close to theoretically right as possible! - Hookuh Tinypants

Tangent: I find it amusing that Flipboard shortened the URL to HHHGG #shoutouttoDouglasAdams - Victor Ganata

I caught her 'mistake,' but took it more as a sign that her character had little concept or respect for what they were doing. - Jennifer Dittrich

i didn't figure it for a mistake on the writers part. more like apt character building. she didn't seem to give one iota of a fuck about where or when they were. just as long as she (her family) got there first. - Lnorigb

She's blond ;) - Eric

Isn't her character a corporate suit and not a scientist? I wouldn't see that as an error. It's a light into how little she knows, as Jennifer said. - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart from Android

I have to admit, I tend to be prejudiced against Hollywood writers. There are probably a lot of charitable ways to interpret this sort of thing, but laziness just seems like a very likely reason. - Victor Ganata

What Jenn said. I thought it was more of a figure of speech rather than actual hard science. - Derrick

If she got that wrong in the movie as part of her character, I would hope one of the scientists would correct her, as part of their character. - Heather

Considering that any high schooler (who has had physics, that is...and probably many jr. high schoolers) can figure out in a minute--on the back of an envelope or more likely a calculator--that light travels more than eleven million miles in a minute, which means that in less than FIFTY MINUTES it traverses MORE than a half-billion miles. Fifty minutes vs. 35 years... that's a pretty serious 'order of magnitude' difference. So there's really no excuse for it unless it is specifically inserted to betray the character's non-scientific mindset. But then, that sort of inaccuracy can easily be 'picked up on' by the audience, who then unquestioningly accept it as a found truth... to me that's the real problem with putting it in a movie like this without it being called out as wrong by another character. - Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ