Funny. I laughed. Good joke. Now facts. False.
This episode was about gravity. The bus became a planet so they could manipulate gravity, and for this sequence gravity was reduced. Phoebe weighs 65lbs on earth and weighed 15lbs under the gravity Mrs. Frizzle lifted the weighs at. In found numbers that is a 77% decrease. So if the weights Mrs. Frizzle lifts would have been 485lbs on earth, they would have been about 160lbs there- which still isn’t a terrible bench for many people but isn’t quite as insane as this seems. Buuuut….
I doubt it was 485lbs. That number seems to be based on the assumption the “red plates” are IWF aka Olympic standard and are 25kg each (about 55lbs..) and the bar is an Olympic bar weighing about 20kg (45lbs or so…) of course a womens olympic bar weighs 15kg- (about 33lbs) so we already have a snag in the math. We can also see there are no collars- which are 2.5kg each Olympic standard. Due to the gravity it could be assumed that collars weren’t strictly..
.. necessary for safety. In a previous scene, the child Tim lifts a bar with 2 red plates over his head one handed. When the kids are weighed they all weigh pretty close and it stands to reason at the age and with their builds most would. The world records for 11 year olds- kids about or slightly older than the ages the kids in MSB should be- is about 200lbs aka about 100kg in deadlifts and squats- compound lifts that are often 2-4x the weight an untrained person can lift using their arms. The record bench in the age range is around 80lbs. Even if we used competition numbers of the more developed kids whom have advantages of puberty in strength and applied them here- to easily pick a weigh up overhead as Tim does, and even if we say Tim is 90lbs- the weight would likely need to be at or less than 20-40lbs. That would place each of our red plates at around 5-10 lbs (to account for the bar weight). Which leads us to the next issue with the “485” figure.
If those are Olympic plates- Olympic weights have 2 red plates- the 25kg and a 2.5kg, the later being about 5.5lbs. 5.5lb plates get us closer to where a 9-11 year old could lift them over their head easily with the bar weight included, but those plates appear much larger than 2.5kg plates usually are. What’s more, they don’t appear to be the correct size or dimensions for 25kg Olympic plates either. Of course, training plates aren’t always to Olympic specs- the tolerances are often looser unless one is actually training to compete because precision weighted plates are very costly. They also are often made of cheaper materials and require more material and thus larger dimensions to achieve the same weight as Olympic plates. And of course- weights like those at commercial gyms may be larger because more bumper material is used to prolong weight life and reduce wear in floors etc. from dropped weights. So just because they aren’t exactly Olympic spec doesn’t mean they aren’t within…
.. a few kg of Olympic standard weight right? But… The use of magic means that cost isn’t an issue in theory and that if Mrs. Frizzle wanted Olympic weights she could have literally Olympic weights. The bars also do not appear to be Olympic bars either. In other words- the estimate that is being used for the amount of weight lifted seems to be based almost entirely on the idea that the plates are red and so are 55lb plates. To me they look about the size of 25lb plates, maybe 35’s on the outside. That is subjective- but there are many flaws with the theory that they are 55lb plates.
Amongst everything we’ve discussed- two 55lb plates would weigh about 37lbs in the gravity depicted in this sequence. If they are 55lbs Olympic plates and are using a 15kg female Olympic bar- that’s about 47lbs. It is extremely dubious that Tim could effortlessly lift 47lbs over his head one handed. The weight of two 55lb plates and a 33lb bar reduced for the gravity they are in.
Using the lighter female Olympic bar and giving Tim the weight of 90lbs and assigning him strength comparable to a world record competitor in his age and weight class would give every possible advantage to make the case for 25kg Olympic plates favorable and even then it is almost impossible for it to make sense when we work the numbers- and that’s with ALL those advantages assumed which- probably aren’t true. Tim is probably 60-75lbs max and nothing suggests he has world record power lifter strength.
If they were 25 POUND plates, Tim would be lifting about 27lbs over his head one handed without strain- which is much more believable. Mrs. Frizzle would have 200lbs on the bar so at this gravity and with the bar weight included would be lifting closer to 77lbs in her bench. For the average office worker/teacher/etc. in their 30’s and up that’s still not a terrible bench press but is very reasonable- especially when we consider that we aren’t talking about the MAXIMUM weight a person could possibly lift or what their limit is per rep of a workout- we are talking about how much they can EFFORTLESSLY lift. As we see the characters EFFORTLESSLY lift the weights.
We know for a fact that Mrs. Frizzles weights total more than 15lbs in the gravity of the bus planet and more than 65lbs on earth because she later uses the weights to anchor a hanging scale while she weighs the kids. If the weight weighed less than the kids and the scale combined then the kids would have fallen along with the scale. If the weights were too close, the weights would still have moved or instability would be seen or felt on the scale- which we get no evidence of. I do not believe the weight is stated in the cartoon or shown, so I can’t say what the canonical weight is. Mrs. Frizzle also has some sort of magic and is generally amazing- so I don’t doubt she could lift a good deal of weight. All said thought it is very unlikely based on the evidence provided that the earth weight she lifted was 485lbs, and in the gravity of the gym it still would have been a bit over 100lbs. It is also worth noting at this time “Liz” the lizard is seen lifting a tiny bar with tiny plates
and those plates are also red. It is VERY unlikely due to Liz’s size etc. that those plates weighted 2.5 or 25kg each. This further questions the idea of Olympic standard plates since why make Liz’s plates red too if red was a standard for weight? One would make them red to “match” which is aesthetics- and it is similarly likely red was just used because it suited an aesthetic vs. it represented a standard.
Tl:Dr- there are many signs the assumed weight is 99.99% wrong. In short the gravity in the gym when she lifts those weights was less than earth gravity and we are told how much less later in the story, so we can calculate that even if the weights would be 485 on earth they’d be more like 160lbs when she lifted them. Other context and evidence suggests the plates were at most 25lbs each which would make the earth weight a little over 200lbs and so she would have lifted closer to 77lbs. It is entirely possible each plate weighs less than 25lbs but most unlikely each plate weighs more than 25lbs. The figure 485 seems based on an assumption that those are Olympic IFW color coded 55lb plates and an Olympic mens bar. This is also unlikely for many reasons in addition to the weight stipulated earlier. The most likely scenario is that Mrs. Frizzle or the bus chose red for aesthetic reasons.
This episode was about gravity. The bus became a planet so they could manipulate gravity, and for this sequence gravity was reduced. Phoebe weighs 65lbs on earth and weighed 15lbs under the gravity Mrs. Frizzle lifted the weighs at. In found numbers that is a 77% decrease. So if the weights Mrs. Frizzle lifts would have been 485lbs on earth, they would have been about 160lbs there- which still isn’t a terrible bench for many people but isn’t quite as insane as this seems. Buuuut….
I doubt it was 485lbs. That number seems to be based on the assumption the “red plates” are IWF aka Olympic standard and are 25kg each (about 55lbs..) and the bar is an Olympic bar weighing about 20kg (45lbs or so…) of course a womens olympic bar weighs 15kg- (about 33lbs) so we already have a snag in the math. We can also see there are no collars- which are 2.5kg each Olympic standard. Due to the gravity it could be assumed that collars weren’t strictly..
Amongst everything we’ve discussed- two 55lb plates would weigh about 37lbs in the gravity depicted in this sequence. If they are 55lbs Olympic plates and are using a 15kg female Olympic bar- that’s about 47lbs. It is extremely dubious that Tim could effortlessly lift 47lbs over his head one handed. The weight of two 55lb plates and a 33lb bar reduced for the gravity they are in.