I think I've actually found a mistake in Ghostbuster Pseudoscience... In "Look Homeward, Ray", the spell cast upon the two ghosts in the house and the giant cat/dragon surrounded them in negative energy, as stated by Ray.
From my understanding, ghosts are already the personifications of negative energy. The Proton Packs work by sending out a stream of positively charged particles (i.e. Protons) that attract the negatively charged ectoplasm of ghosts, allowing them to be captured by the streams.
Now, that being said, I can see how surrounding the ghosts in negative energy would make them stronger, but...
- 1.) If one was to assume that the addition of "negative energy" would just mean an increase in power of the negative particles in the ghost, wouldn't this increase the attraction between the negative ghost's ectoplasm and the positive streams, thus making them easier to capture than normal ghosts?
2.) If the aforementioned stipulations weren't true and the increase in "negative energy" meant an increase in negative particles (resulting in a larger size ghost with more power) and there weren't enough positive particles in the proton stream to create enough attraction to capture the ghosts, then it works. The reason it doesn't is the way Ray solves the problem. Instead of finding a way to increase the output of positive particles to offset the increase in negative particles, Ray "reverse(s) the polarity" of the stream. This brings about two contradictions:
- a.) This suggest that the Proton Packs were throwing negative particles, which contradicts the name "Proton Packs", as protons are positively charged particles, and goes against the pseudoscience of the packs:
The Proton Pack is a man-portable particle accelerator system that is used to create a charged particle beam - composed of protons - that is fired by the proton gun (also referred to as the "neutrona wand"). It is described in the first movie as a "positron collider", and presumably functions by colliding high-energy positrons to generate its proton beam. The positive electric charge of the proton beams allows a ghostbuster to contain and hold "negatively charged ectoplasmic entities".
b.) This would also cause the ghosts to be repelled (and possibly strengthened) by the streams instead of attracted to them!
This proves two things: Someone wasn't paying attention when they wrote that episode, and I am a massive nerd.