History Main / HollywoodDensity

* The [=MacGuffin=] of ''Film/RedNotice'' is a trio of jewel-encrusted 18K gold eggs, each of which is larger than a football. If the eggs are solid gold rather than hollow (it's never specified), they'd probably weigh at least 40-50 pounds each. Given how casually the things are tossed around for most of the film (the opening act features Booth doing an extended parkour sequence while carrying one of them), they probably way a tenth of that at best.

** When the gold is being taken out of Steve's mansion, Lyle figures out which of the three armored cars contains the gold because it is riding significantly lower than the decoys because of the weight of $27 million in gold bricks.

* In ''Film/DangerDiabolik'' (best watched in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E13Diabolik the MST3K incarnation]]), the authorities melt 20 tons of gold into one huge bar to move it and entice the protagonist to try to steal it. That much gold would make a cube about 3.5 feet in each direction -- about the size of a small refrigerator -- but they make a bar nearly as long as a train car, several feet wide, and a few feet high -- at least 300 tons worth, at a rough estimate. To top that off, the protagonist crashes the train into a bay and then is able to float the gold container away with nothing more than a dozen party-sized balloons.
* A solid gold object the size of the idol at the start of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' would weigh at least fifty pounds, far more than Indy's small bag of sand. When Indy looks at it, he actually removes sand from the bag to approximate its weight and later events even suggest that he guessed too low. While it's never explicitly stated that the idol is ''solid'' gold even a hollow gold object that size would be much too heavy to be toted around as easily as it is.

* In an ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' story, the density of gold was used to prove that the supposed gold ingots were really just bricks spray-painted gold, as there is no way a kid could lift a brick-sized bar of gold with one hand. Although if you're dumb enough to confuse a spray-painted brick for real gold...

** In that same arc, however, Luffy got his hand stuck in a large ball of gold, its heaviness serving to anchor him where he is.

* In ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', James Bond releases himself from a handcuff by using two gold bars as makeshift hammers. He later throws a bar through a respectable distance, hitting [[TheDragon Oddjob]] with it, but not doing any damage since the henchman is MadeOfIron. However, the film has an ActionFilmQuietDramaScene where Bond explains to Goldfinger how robbing Fort Knox, even if he killed all the troops stationed there, is impossible. Since gold is so heavy, the $15 billion worth at the fort, when added up, would weigh over 10,500 tons. Goldfinger would need at least sixty men, 200 trucks and twelve days to effectively load and take it all, while the US military will likely discover and move to stop the robbery within 2 hours of the first attack. From that, he concludes that Goldfinger's real plan is to use a "dirty" nuclear bomb to irradiate the gold, making it unusable for decades and thus making his own gold much more valuable.

** Played straight in ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}''. The deconstruction mentioned above, in the Film category? Exclusive to the film; in the original novel, Auric Goldfinger ''really was'' just going to rob Fort Knox. He made plans to account for the weight when getting the gold out of town (A powerful train), but forgot the intermediate steps (Getting the gold out of the vault and into the train).

* ''Literature/ByTheGreatHornSpoon'' uses this twice. The first when the BattleButler knocks out a huge dude with a single punch. He's regarded as a MemeticBadass from that point onwards, due to the gold dust in his gloves giving it a lot of extra weight. The second when the same man, having struck it rich, falls overboard, and has to lose his clothing (which contained a large amount of his acquired gold) to avoid drowning.
* An argument about whether or not [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_ice anchor ice]] exists kicks off the plot of Creator/{{Jack London}}'s short story ''The Men of Forty Mile''. The solution? A ''duel to the death''. Ultimately, [[spoiler:they don't go through with it after a third party intervenes.]]
* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'': Subverted. When transporting the treasure to the ship, Jim notes that two gold bars, tied together with rope, are a heavy and just this side of unmanagable burden for a grown man.

What's worse, even if the writers get it right, [[StyrofoamRocks sometimes the actors won't]], due to not compensating for the difference between the weight of the prop and the weight of the object it's supposed to represent through acting.

** This is one of the reasons for the {{Fanon}} theory that the ten-year-old player character in the games is the one writing the Pokédex entries. He/she is just making up numbers that sound right to them and wildly over -- and underestimating everything in the process.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' builds the titular Gundams from...well, [[{{Unobtainium}} Gundanium Alloy]], that would be a HandWave for them having 7-8 ton. Meanwhile, 7.0 tons LEO are made from titanium alloy.

** To say nothing of the Golden Condor, ''[[UpToEleven an airplane made out of solid gold]]''.

* ''VideoGame/CurseOfMonkeyIsland'': Elaine is turned into what Guybrush describes as solid gold. While we don't actually see anyone pick up the statue, over the course of the game Elaine is stolen twice, buried, dug up again, and finally stored in the crow's nest of Guybrush's ship, suggesting that the statue doesn't weigh much more than the flesh-and-blood version. In fact, using a little back-of-the-treasure-map math, converting even a small woman's body into pure gold [[note]] On balance, human beings are roughly the same weight per litre as water; gold is nearly twenty times heavier than water, so multiply the original weight by twenty and you'd be in the ballpark[[/note]] would result in a statue weighing close to a metric ''tonne''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", Marge effortlessly lifts a huge bag of gold coins with ''one hand''.

** Throughout the various Universal Century series, [=OVAs=] and movies, people are presented with [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney briefcases filled with gold bullion]] as bribes or payments. People are somehow able to walk unencumbered while carrying them in one hand, despite the fact that you can fit more than 1200 pounds of gold in a briefcase, and nearly 700 pounds of gold in an attache case - even if the case isn't full, it would still likely weigh more than the person carrying it.
* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', LCL has the density of water if someone is blowing bubbles in it, but has the density of air if someone is crying in it. The ways of the [[spoiler: blood of an EldritchAbomination]] are mysterious indeed.

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' episode 11, Rose puts a brick-sized gold bar into the bag of her nine-year old daughter Maria, who doesn't react even slightly to the weight that must be close to 60 pounds! However, just a bit later Rosa uses the same bag as a blunt weapon with extreme effectiveness -- consistency was just too much trouble, apparently. In the Visual Novel, the ingot is given an approximate weight of, I believe, around 11 kilograms; in addition, it's directly stated that what she carries is in a blanket which she later use as a weapon against the [[spoiler: goatmen attacking her and Maria]]

* Doll Man, in DC's relaunched Doll Man and Phantom Lady miniseries, became tiny, because his density was increased, while keeping his mass the same - thus making the fact that he can throw punches that full-sized people can actually feel plausible. Awesome, makes perfect sense. They also have scenes of Phantom Lady holding him in her hand, or on her shoulder. So the issue of his mass is ignored during those instances.

* Invoked in ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'s Siege'' by Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe and his Confederates are accused of stealing the Imperial Treasury of France (they didn't). [[TheLancer Captain]] [[TheCaptain Frederickson]] points out that the court is accusing them of removing four tons of gold, in small wooden boats, whilst under enemy fire. However, this defense doesn't work, because of the [[MilesGloriosus arrogant]], [[UpperClassTwit aristocratic]], [[GeneralFailure incompetent]], [[GungHolierThanThou pretentious]] and [[BlueBlood snobbish Colonel Wigram]] presiding over the [[KangarooCourt kangaroo court martial]].

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/TheTruth'', Lord Vetinari is accused of trying to abscond with a large amount of money supposedly stolen from the city's treasury. Commander Vimes and William de Worde both realise the story can't be true after they calculate how much that amount of money would actually weigh.

** Subverted in the short story "[[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights Octopussy]]". The sheer exhaustion of carrying ''two bars'' of NaziGold[[note]]Which isn't even pure - typical of the Third Reich, it's got a lot of lead mixed in[[/note]] through some hills almost drives the main character insane. Later, when he has to get it through customs, he carries the bars in a briefcase and takes amphetamines to be able to lift it easily enough to conceal its weight.

* In the [[MemeticMutation infamous]] "What's heavier?" sketch from ''Series/LimmysShow'', Limmy is [[EntertaininglyWrong humorously incapable]] of comprehending that a kilogram of steel would weigh the same as a kilogram of feathers-- even when other characters bring out a kilogram of both and put them on a scale-- because "Steel is heavier than feathers."

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" plays this straight when some gangsters steal a truck full of gold and hide out in a cave where they hibernate for many years. When they wake up, they crash the truck trying to get back to town, and hike back to town instead, carrying backpacks full of dozens of gold ingots each. Later on, one man drops his canteen and the other offers him a drink for a bar of gold - he eventually ends up with both their shares of gold on his back, but doesn't even slow down.

* Detractors of the Mormon faith have often derided the idea of the Book of Mormon having been translated from solid gold plates - particularly the idea that Joseph Smith says he had to run about a mile with the plates when he first recovered them. If the plates were solid gold they would have been very heavy, but if they were a copper-gold alloy (which is more likely) they may have weighed only around 60-70 pounds, a more reasonable figure for Smith, up to that point a manual laborer noted for his strength, to run with.[[/folder]]

** This is one of the reasons for the {{Fanon}} theory that the ten-year-old player character in the games is the one writing the Pokédex entries. He/she is just making up numbers that sound right to them and wildly over- and underestimating everything in the process.

* ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' assigned weight to coins, as well as having money come in different denominations (copper, silver, gold and platinum). Along with the way fall damage was calculated, it meant it was entirely possible to commit unintentional suicide by grabbing a couple thousand platinum from the bank - and abruptly taking 20k damage from the "drop" when you stepped off the threshold of the bank's front door.

* The first expansion for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', ''Dead Money'', subverts this at the end when the player finds a vault with 37 gold bars. Each bar is worth 10,439 caps, a ridiculously large amount, but each bar also weighs 35 pounds. You're under a strict time limit to escape with whatever you can carry, and if you carry more than your encumbrance limit, you move far too slowly to make it out. If a player wanted to take all the bars—-a total of 382,913 caps, enough that you'd basically never need money again—-they would be carrying 1,295 pounds. The highest possible carry weight a player could have (i.e. max Strength and various Perks) is 375 pounds, so a player could only carry 10 of the bars at most without being over-encumbered, and they'd have to drop everything they were already carrying. To make this all sillier, no vendor in the game ever has more than 8,000 caps. It's impossible to sell even a single bar for its total value. Some have speculated that this is meant to tie into a theme of letting greed go, as the inability to even find enough caps in the whole wasteland to make gathering all those bars worth it kind of makes the bars...[[TitleDrop Dead Money]] (the natural progression is to take out some in trade, but even then it is difficult to find a vendor with that much to spare).

** ''New Vegas'' also features a [[DownplayedTrope whitewash]] with [[HarderThanHard "Hardcore Mode"]] - where (among other things) ammo has weight. At first, it doesn't make much of a difference when individual bullets weigh 1/15 to 1/10 of a pound - but when players start acquiring automatic weapons that eat bullets like candy, or come across rocket launchers whose individual rockets weigh two pounds apiece, it really starts to cut down on what you can carry compared to normal mode. (Though even in hardcore, there are many completely weightless items - including gunpowder and shell casings.) This is made more annoying by many junk items used for crafting being exactly 1 pound, an apparent default value, even if it makes no sense. Somehow a scalpel, forceps, and a ''single tin can'' all weigh a whole pound each.

* Many games featuring weight limits for what a character can carry measure everything in the same unit. This can become a problem when the unit was designed with some common adventuring item (such as an arrow or dagger) weighing "1 unit," in which case items that should be much lighter (jewels, scrolls?) end up weighing the exact same amount as "base" items. A common workaround is to give such items a weight of zero, which can [[HyperspaceArsenal lead to massive hoarding]] if any of them are common and useful.
** In lieu of such possible hoarding, certain games may opt for body slots for items of negligible weight, meaning only a certain number of these items may be worn at a time.
** And since it keeps coming up, many of these games give you a strict limit to how much equipment you can carry, say, 100 lbs. And then lets you carry around, on your person, hundreds of thousands of units (typically coins) of gold which [[WalletOfHolding don't factor into encumbrance]] ''at all''.
* Most fantasy C[=RPGs=] (such as ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', etc.) track encumbrance on items, but money is weightless, so it's permissible to walk around with five million gold coins without a sweat.

* Many games with a storage system will often overlook that the amount of items and weight of some of them will either not fit in the specified container used, or would end up being so weighty and bulky the character couldn't move around as effectively as they are shown to. Of note, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' comes to mind with its backpack inventory system, fitting an RPG, two rifles, and an assortment of pistol sized weapons, along with medical supplies, rations, and any critter you caught, while not weighing Big Boss down. They only become weighty when equipped on his person.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', the player can carry nearly 45,000 metric tons, and a 12-meter cube can be broken down and placed into a <1 m chest.
** Also is ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', with the Attache case. Never mind an RPG weighs a lot, or that a fully loaded case would probably be too heavy to lift. And how does the Merchant hide that in his coat?
** Don't forget Link in...well, every ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' game ever. But especially ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', where he can swing his giant hammer almost as well as his sword, and the Iron Boots only make him sink if he's wearing them -- not while he has them stored inside his other boots (or wherever it is that they go).
*** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' Link carries around with him, on top of the usual armor of shield, sword, bombs, arrows, etc, an entire raft and a ladder big enough to bridge small streams and gaps with.
** ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' assigned weight to coins, as well as having money come in different denominations (copper, silver, gold and platinum). Along with the way fall damage was calculated, it meant it was entirely possible to commit unintentional suicide by grabbing a couple thousand platinum from the bank - and abruptly taking 20k damage from the "drop" when you stepped off the threshold of the bank's front door.
** ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery Adom]]'' also assigns weight to gold pieces. It's quite possible to get crushed under the weight the gold you are carrying if your magic fails you. With normal in-game methods you can accumulate hundreds of kilos of gold. Abusing a bug you can get hundred thousand kilos.

* The first expansion for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', ''Dead Money'', subverts this at the end when the player finds a vault with 37 gold bars. Each bar is worth 10,439 caps, a ridiculously large amount, but each bar also weighs 35 pounds. You're under a strict time limit to escape with whatever you can carry, and if you carry more than your encumbrance limit, you move far too slowly to make it out. If a player wanted to take all the bars—a total of 382,913 caps, enough that you'd basically never need money again—s/he would be carrying 1,295 pounds. The highest possible carry weight a player could have (i.e. max Strength and various Perks) is 375 pounds, so a player could only carry 10 of the bars at most without being over-encumbered, and they'd have to drop everything they were already carrying. To make this all sillier, no vendor in the game ever has more than 8,000 caps. It's impossible to sell even a single bar for its total value. Some have speculated that this is meant to tie into a theme of letting greed go, as the inability to even find enough caps in the whole wasteland to make gathering all those bars worth it kind of makes the bars...[[TitleDrop Dead Money]] (the natural progression is to take out some in trade, but even then it is difficult to find a vendor with that much to spare).

Sometimes an AcceptableBreakFromReality, sometimes not. It helps to be in a fantasy setting, and [[MagicAIsMagicA consistency is key]]. Keep in mind that sometimes reality can make something incredibly boring. (One of the most common house rules for most tabletop games is that gold is weightless, because having a weight penalty for your character's money [[RuleOfFun would detract from the fun of the game]].) {{Balloonacy}} is a subtrope dealing with wild over- and under-estimations of the lifting capacity of Helium, Hydrogen or hot air. SoftWater follows this trope, and BriefcaseFullOfMoney is closely related. In video games, WalletOfHolding (in which a player character is carrying more money than he should be able to lift and/or fit in a reasonably sized purse) is a common invocation.

* In a case where density is exaggerated rather than underestimated, the Geico gecko accidentally steps in the cement for a starlette's new Hollywood Walk-of-Fame paving square. He leaves deep tracks in the wet cement, even though such a tiny reptile shouldn't even weigh enough to dimple the surface.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' had it slightly realistic as the one made from average metal weighed up to 134 tons and [[MightyGlacier a walking brick]] to boot, these that are far lighter (around 60-70 tons) are stated to be made from E-carbon, a super strong material that used in the construction of Space Elevator (theoretically, TruthInTelevision) and yet, they're [[NoodlePeople slender]], [[FragileSpeedster far from invincible and prefer to dodge instead]].

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Piotr Rasputin has an official weight of 114 kg, and a height of 198 cm. When transforming into his [[ChromeChampion metal form]], his height becomes 226 cm, while his weight doubles to 228 kg. Assuming these numbers are correct, refers to him turning into metal instead of just gaining a metal coating, his human density is roughly equal to 1 kg/l, his metal form would have a density of 1.35 kg/l, or about half the density of aluminium. The kicker? The metal he transforms into is explicitly compared to osmium, the element with the highest density (22.6 kg/l, or exactly twice as dense as lead). If his metal form actually was osmium, Colossus would weigh 3826 kg. At other times it has been referred to as "omnium", a fictional metal that has no specified properties other than being really strong. (A few comics have suggested that Colossus is all or partly ''hollow'' in metal form, but that just raises new questions.)

* Doll Man, in DC's relaunched Doll Man and Phantom Lady miniseries, became tiny, because his density was increased, while keeping his mass the same - thus making the fact that he can throw punches that full sized people can actually feel plausible. Awesome, makes perfect sense. They also have scenes of Phantom Lady holding him in her hand, or on her shoulder. So the issue of his mass is ignored during those instances.

* ''Film/TheItalianJob1969'' features several Mini Coopers that are packed full with gold bars, but it doesn't affect their manoeuvrability or speed as they zip around Italy. Charlie [[LampshadeHanging does question]] whether the Minis will be able to take the weight of the gold, suggesting that the writers were aware of the problem.

* In ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', James Bond releases himself from a handcuff by using two gold bars as makeshift hammers. He later throws a bar through a respectable distance, hitting [[TheDragon Oddjob]] with it, but not doing any damage since the henchman is MadeOfIron. However, the film has a ActionFilmQuietDramaScene where Bond explains to Goldfinger how robbing Fort Knox, even if he killed all the troops stationed there, is impossible. Since gold is so heavy, the $15 billion worth at the fort, when added up, would weigh over 10,500 tons. Goldfinger would need at least sixty men, 200 trucks and twelve days to effectively load and take it all, while the US military will likely discover and move to stop the robbery within 2 hours of the first attack. From that, he concludes that Goldfinger's real plan is to use a "dirty" nuclear bomb to irradiate the gold, making it unusable for decades and thus making his own gold much more valuable.

* The plot of ''Film/TheHiddenFortress'' revolves around smuggling surviving princess of the Akizuki clan and her family's treasure across the territory of the enemy Yamana clan. This treasure is said to be made up of 200 Kan of gold. A Kan is Japanese unit of measure equal to 3.75 kg (approx. 8.27 lbs.), meaning the whole treasure weights 750 kg (approx. 1,653.47 lbs.) or ''¾ of a metric ton''. After the wood concealing the gold and the cart are burned, the party has to carry the gold on backpacks, with general Rokurota carrying 40 Kan, peasants Tahei and Matashichi carrying 30 Kan each, the the princess and the servant girl 20 Kan between them and two captured Yamana soldiers carrying the rest. This means Rokurota was supposed to be carrying 150 kg (330lbs) of gold on his back, Tahei and Matashichi 112.5 kg (248 lbs.) each and the women 37.5 kg (82.6 lbs.) each. None of them should've been able to walk with that kind of load, let alone climb a mountain, but only Tahei, Matashichi and the soldiers are shown to be staggering under the weight at all.
* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' Gollum falls into a river of lava and sinks in it as if it's barely thicker than water. It may be molten, but it's still ''rock.'' The director has said that they know that shot is all wrong in terms of science, but decided to just let the RuleOfCool reign. Not to mention that letting the audience see Gollum being incinerated and cooked on top of the lava would probably be too gruesome for the film. RealityIsUnrealistic probably also applies since many viewers probably think [[LavaIsBoilingKoolAid liquid is liquid]].

* Almost at the end of ''Film/TheFog'', when Father Malone picks up the gold cross, an object this size made of solid gold should have weighted at least 100 kilograms, 220 pounds, probably more. To the credit of the actor, you can see him struggling to carry all this weight, but he shouldn't have been able to carry it alone. Specially problematic is when he lifts the cross with only his arms to hand it to the ghost, and keeps it in this position for a non-trivial amount of time.

* Plutonium in ''Film/TheExpendables2'' is contained in sealed containers that are easily carried by hand. Said containers are generally made of lead-lined steel and would weight in at twenty kilos, and would be a challenge to carry at best.

* In ''Film/OceansEleven'', eleven men steal $160 million in cash from a casino. Assuming it's all in C-notes to minimize the number of bills, that much money would weigh roughly a ton and a half. Unless the team was all into heavy-duty bodybuilding, there's no way they could have moved that much weight in one trip as was shown in the finale. Despite all the careful planning involved in the heist, the question of how to lift 300 pound duffel bags and carry them out of the casino without giving away that the bags are a lot heavier coming out than going in isn't mentioned.
* ''Film/OceansEight'' revolves around the plan to steal a necklace called "The Toussaint", which is explicitly said to contain so many diamonds it weights 6 lbs (around 2.7 kilograms). But you wouldn't know it from the way most characters handle it on screen. Particularly egregious is the fact that [[spoiler:a busboy doesn't notice when 6 lbs of diamonds are casually dropped on his tray as part of the heist.]]

* The [=MacGuffin=] of ''Film/RedNotice'' is a trio of jewel encrusted 18K gold eggs, each of which is larger than a football. If the eggs are solid gold rather than hollow (it's never specified), they'd probably weigh at least 40-50 pounds each. Given how casually the things are tossed around for most of the film (the opening act features Booth doing an extended parkour sequence while carrying one of them), they probably way a tenth of that at best.

* At the other end of the scale, one episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has the team investigating a casino heist, supposedly of ten million dollars in cash. Grissom realizes the money would weigh around two hundred pounds -- far too much for one man (seen in security footage) to practically carry. (It isn't stated, but it would also be unfeasibly bulky). The 200 pounds (actually closer to 220) presumes it's all in $100 banknotes. A more normal mix of currency would about double this. A million US dollars in mixed currency fills a large suitcase, and one would probably have to pay over-weight charges to fly with it. $250,000 (in $100 bills) fits carefully into an DiabolicalMastermind-style aluminum attache case. Note, however, that having it all in $100s is not actually an unreasonable assumption for a casino heist, as the casino presumably sorts the cash, and a smart thief with limited resources would probably want to take his/her whole heist in the form of $100s if possible.

* In the [[MemeticMutation infamous]] "What's heavier?" sketch from ''Series/LimmysShow'', Limmy is [[EntertaininglyWrong humorously incapable]] of comprehending that a kilogramme of steel would weigh the same as a kilogramme of feathers-- even when other characters bring out a kilogramme of both and put them on a scale-- because "Steel is heavier than feathers."

* The trope appears at the end of a ''Series/SesameStreet'' Muppet and Kid Moment, in which Ernie and Bert teach Shola Lynch about the relative sizes of balls. After showing her a basketball and two smaller balls, Ernie shows Shola a ball bearing (she calls it a "baby ball"). Ernie then throws the ball bearing to Bert, but it flies off screen, followed by the sound of breaking glass.

* One episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' had the villain acquiring $108,000 in one dollar bills, treating them with a contact poison, and then distributing them (Some dropped, some left in charity donation containers, some spent...) all over town as an act of terrorism. The money is shown to be coming out of a duffel bag, which would be accurate for the volume needed, but at no point does it look like the bag weighs about as much as the person carrying it (108,000 bills would weigh roughly 200 pounds).

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow:'' The Shirley Bassey episode plays with this one as dictated by what's funniest. Beaker tries lifting one solid gold bar, and has a lot of difficulty carrying it, while Scooter manages to carry a small amount of gold (which had moments prior been cottage cheese) with no difficulty, until it falls on his foot. Meanwhile, Link Hogthrob and a gang of pigs manage to quietly abscond with several million dollars worth in gold bars, and no problems whatsoever.

* Classic ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' rated HumongousMecha by their total mass. Which is fine as far as it goes, but the fluff assigned height and width values to several of the more iconic chassis that would leave them with a low enough density to float on water, such as the 100 tons, 18 metre Atlas.

** It gets worse with [=DropShips=]. A large Dropship weighs ten thousand tons, and is protected by 30 tons of armor. Considering it's a hundred meter sphere, it comes to the ship being about fifteen times as dense as air, and the armor being ''paper thin''.

* First Edition ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Advanced Dungeons and Dragons]]'' went too far in the ''opposite'' direction than usual: all coins were assumed to weigh a whopping 1/10 of a pound each. This would make one gold piece bigger and heavier than almost any gold coin known to exist in real world history. Back then, the logistics of getting your treasure ''out'' of the dungeon were very much intended -- [[GuideDangIt if not always spelled out as such]] -- to be part of the challenge. Later editions ignored or downplayed this aspect.

* The info in the Pokédex in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' frequently applies this to living things, giving weights that are often ridiculously heavy or light: Wailord is 14.5 m long, yet only weights about 400 kg.

** The whale family are at least called "float whale Pokémon," as Wailord is likely based on a blimp and its original form, Wailmer, seems to be based on a beach ball. However, how they manage to dive is the real question.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' provides an exception to the above gold coin example. Gold coins do have weight (400 gold = 1kg), however, this is still in line with the trope, being far less than 400 similarly sized gold coins would weigh in real life. You can also deposit gold in various regional banks, who will give you a nondescript "letter of credit" which only weigh 0.25kg. Banks do have an "administrative charge" equal to 1% of the amount you are requesting. It may feel harsh to lose 1000 gold, but it is well worth it to gave a 0.25kg piece of paper worth 100,000 gold (which would weigh 250kg in actual gold).
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', everything has a rather realistic weight to it, however, your character can still lift an insane amount without being slowed down. Humorously, this means often times it's more practical to steal/loot cheaper stuff (like clothes) than heavy weapons and armor because its value:weight ratio is higher and thus you can walk away with more of it.

*** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' Link carries around with him, on top of the usual armour of shield, sword, bombs, arrows, etc, an entire raft and a ladder big enough to bridge small streams and gaps with.

* In ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'', Nate realizes the golden statue they're looking for was brought to the island when he looks at some old freight logs and notices something weighing "about 500 pounds". A cube of gold that weighed 500 pounds would have about 8.94 inches (22.7 cm) to a side. The statue they find looks like it should weight several ''tons'' at least. But then, [[spoiler:the statue isn't solid]].

** Both ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas'' have an ItemCrafting component called a fission battery. They're the size and shape of 9-volt batteries, yet weigh ''10 pounds'' in ''Fallout 3'' and 6 pounds in ''New Vegas''. A portable fission battery would be denser than a regular battery, since nuclear fuel and shielding are both heavy, but a 10 pound object that size would be ten times the density of ''pure uranium.''

* The ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' series, based on ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', likewise rates its HumongousMecha by metric tonnage. The issue of silly tonnages and densities is exacerbated by the mechs being largely to-scale with each other and the environment unlike the often out-of-scale sourcebook art from ''Battletech''. The Atlas in ''[=MechWarrior=] 4'' is taller than a 6 story building and its feet are as large as a small tank, but it's only 100 tons, twice the weight of a M1 Abrams. Later games are slightly better in this regard. Amusingly, in ''[=MechWarrior=]: Living Legends'', mechs will spontaneously ''become buoyant'' if they are ragdolled from leg damage while underwater; just about every mech would naturally be about as dense as Styrofoam or plywood.
* In the same universe as above, in ''VideoGame/MechCommander'', there is a mech called a Cougar, which is a 35 ton mech. The Weapon variant can fit 34 tons of weapons, which means the empty chassis is only 1 ton.

** The strips however fall into the trap of assuming plate armour and swords are too heavy for an average person to use easily. In reality, medieval knights' plate armour was light enough to cartwheel and swim in, and a large sword weighed about 2 pounds.

-->'''Elf:''' They weigh about a half ton each. I'm not leaning them against '''anything.'''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', the Joker once stole Bane's muscle inflation device, and used it to become super-strong and grow at least fifteen feet tall. He later uses this SuperStrength to lift a solid gold globe, but the thing's shape isn't changed by doing this. Weight aside, gold is fairly soft; trying to lift a huge globe of solid gold (or worse a hollow sphere of gold) would result in a Joker-shaped dent on the under side.

** [[LampshadeHanging A lampshade]] gets hung on this when Fry and Leela are going to have a fiddle contest with the Robot Devil where the prizes are Bender's soul and a solid gold fiddle. When Fry ([[SmartBall of all people]]) asks "Wouldn't a solid gold fiddle weigh hundreds of pounds and sound crummy?", the Robot Devil admits that it's mostly for show. Nevertheless, Leela picks the fiddle up and attempts to play it moments later, and it seems to be an ordinary fiddle. The fiddle later proves to be so heavy that that they have to drop it before flying out of Robot Hell.

** Similarly, in ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'', Scrooge has to physically restrain Louie once from doing a swan dive into the Bin, remarking that Louie would be seriously hurt, if [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome not outright killed]] in the attempt. When Louie asks Scrooge how ''he'' does it, Scrooge remarks that he was able to master the skill only after years of practice. Further on in the episode, when Louie has to go hunting in the bin for Scrooge's NumberOneDime, he is shown pushing, waist deep, through the coins with great difficulty.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': In "Bullies", Valmont uses the dragon talisman, which has the power of combustion, to rob Fort Knox. Jackie follows him there, and along with Uncle, each easily hold individual gold bricks. Uncles uses one to block a Dark Hand mook's punch ([[BondOneLiner "Respect your elders!"]]), and Jackie tosses gold bricks overboard [[IShallTauntYou in a mocking attempt to push]] Valmont's BerserkButton.

* There is a story about an 18th century nobleman trying to pick up a platinum ingot about 10 cm across. He then complained gluing the metal to the table wasn't funny.

->"''54. Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?''"

* ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla''. At the beginning of the movie, a submarine traveling underwater passes by the iceberg Godzilla was trapped in at the end of ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'' and chunks of ice begin breaking off as Godzilla starts to stir. Said ice chunks drop like stones around the submarine on a beeline to the seabed. Ice floats because it is less dense than liquid water; that, after all, is why icebergs are a thing in the first place!

* In ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', [[spoiler:the trucks loaded with looted gold bullion would not have been able to drive at all. In 1995, 150 billion dollars worth of gold should have weighed over 9,000 tons. 13 trucks? 130 would have had trouble carrying that load.]]. The producers admitted to just ignoring the issue. One thief ''tosses'' a gold bar to another thief. The way it hits him when he catches it, it should've ruptured a few organs. On the other hand, Zeus is ''very'' surprised at how heavy a single gold brick is.

* In ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', [[spoiler:the trucks loaded with looted gold bullion would not have been able to drive uphill]]. The producers admitted to just ignoring the issue. [[spoiler: The trucks wouldn't have been able to drive at all. In 1995, 150 billion dollars worth of gold should have weighed around over 9,000 tons. 13 trucks? 130 would have had trouble carrying that load.]] One thief ''tosses'' a gold bar to another thief. The way it hits him when he catches it, it should've ruptured a few organs. On the other hand, Zeus is ''very'' surprised at how heavy a single gold brick is.

Sometimes an AcceptableBreakFromReality, sometimes not. It helps to be in a fantasy setting, and [[MagicAIsMagicA consistency is key]]. Keep in mind that sometimes reality can make something incredibly boring. (One of the most common house rules for most tabletop games is that gold is weightless, because having a weight penalty for your character's money [[RuleOfFun would detract from the fun of the game]].) {{Balloonacy}} is a subtrope dealing with wild over- and under-estimations of the lifting capacity of Helium, Hydrogen or hot air. SoftWater follows this trope, and BriefcaseFullOfMoney is closely related. In video games, WalletOfHolding (in which a player is carrying more money than he should be able to lift and/or fit in a reasonably sized purse) is a common invocation.

Sometimes an AcceptableBreakFromReality, sometimes not. It helps to be in a fantasy setting, and [[MagicAIsMagicA consistency is key]]. Keep in mind that sometimes reality can make something incredibly boring. (One of the most common house rules for most tabletop games is that gold is weightless, because having a weight penalty for your character's money [[RuleOfFun would detract from the fun of the game]].) {{Balloonacy}} is a subtrope dealing with wild over- and under-estimations of the lifting capacity of Helium, Hydrogen or hot air. SoftWater follows this trope, and BriefcaseFullOfMoney is closely related.

* [[SoftWater Water is soft,]] and according to many, many disaster movies, very light. [[MostWritersAreHuman Most of us use water every day,]] and we expect it to flow around anything it encounters that is denser than air. However, one liter (1 cubic decimeter) of water weighs one kilogram. This means that every cubic meter of water weighs 1,000 kg, or 2,204.6 lbs. ''This'' means that a 7-foot wall of water hits a building with 3.1 pounds per square inch, which is comparable to an explosion at close range. Now, scale this up to the 300-foot wave in ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' or the 3500-foot wave in ''Film/DeepImpact''. Bomb shelters built to withstand megaton nuclear blasts ''might'' survive, but they would be very hard-pressed.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill The Moon]]" Clara protests that if the Moon were to shatter the fragments wouldn't do any harm because it's made of eggshell, not rock. The density of eggshell isn't that different from limestone, so a sufficiently big chunk of it would be just as devastating.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate "Warriors' Gate"]], the hull of Rorvik's shidt is made of dwarf star alloy, analogous to neutronium, so it should fall under the teaspoon-weighs-a-ton category. Romana and Adric heft it about [[StyrofoamRocks exactly as if it were made of Styrofoam]].