Neil deGrasse Tyson triangulated a real-world location for Barbie World using the position of the sun and the plants there
- Neil deGrasse Tyson weighed in on the position of Barbie World after watching "Barbie."
- He used the sun, the moon, and local plants to triangulate the location of Barbie's pad.
Neil deGrasse Tyson has become a reliable source of scientific debunks for movie trivia, from "Top Gun" to "Game of Thrones".
The astrophysicist turned his wealth of expertise to "Barbie" movie after seeing it on Wednesday.
By looking at the sun, the moon, and the palm trees, deGrasse Tyson was able to pinpoint the location of Margo Robbie's fuschia dream land, and figured out it must be in Florida.
"If it's in the US, Barbie World lands somewhere in the Florida Keys," he said Thursday on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.
Here's how he figured it out.
The moon puts Barbie's pad in the 20-30 degrees latitude
"In @BarbieTheMovie, the Moon's orientation places Barbie World between 20 & 40 deg North Latitude on Earth," deGrasse Tyson said.
That would put Barbie World somewhere in between these lines — leaving most of the US in the frame. He assumed that Barbie World would be in the US rather than Mexico.
The local flora and seaside sunrise further narrow down the position
According to deGrasse Tyson, the presence of palm trees narrowed the latitude to between 20 and 30 degrees north, leaving only a few states in play.
Then, because the sun and moon "rose & set over the ocean," there's only one logical conclusion: Barbie World would be in the Florida Keys.
That's a long way from Greta Gerwig's fantasy dream house, which was modelled on a city on the other side of the US.
Although its exact theoretical location has not been released, the director told Architectural Digest she was inspired by Palm Springs, California for the design of the set, which was filmed against a painted backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains.