Ghostbusters

So Thursday, Beau and I decided to rest in the late afternoon before we headed to Bricktown (fantastic place by the way) to watch the Omaha Stormchasers (Royals) vs Oklahoma City Dodgers play a Triple AAA baseball game, by watching Ghostbusters 1.  So I'm about half asleep and there on the screen are the 3 (there it is again) Ghostbusters discussing nuclear molecular energy and out of Dr. Venkman's mouth comes the word 'PROTON'.  This is a movie that came to the theatre in about the year 1984.

All I can say is if Dr. Venkman knows about Protons then it must be true.  I trust this face.  No kidding, they talk about protons in this movie and the others as well.  Could not believe my ears.

In the Ghostbusters universe[edit]

The proton pack, designed by Dr. Egon Spengler, 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"^{[citation needed]}). Described in the first movie as a "positron collider", it functions by colliding high-energy positrons to generate its proton beam. The beam allows a Ghostbuster to contain and hold "negatively charged ectoplasmic entities". This containment ability allows the wielder to position a ghost above a trap for capture.^[3] The name proton pack is not used in the original movie at all,^[4] and is not used until the subway tunnel scene in Ghostbusters II, when Egon says that they should get their proton packs. The doorman to the Mayor's mansion also uses the term proton pack, asking the Ghostbusters if he can buy one from them for his little brother. Egon replies that "A proton pack is not a toy".

While the Ghostbusters' dialogue indicates that the accelerator system operates similarly to a cyclotron (and indeed Dr. Peter Venkman refers to the proton packs in one scene as "unlicensed nuclear accelerators"),^[3] modern particle accelerators produce well collimated particle beams.^[5] This is far different from the beam from a proton pack, which tends to undulate wildly (though it still stays within the general area at which the user is aiming). The proton stream is quite destructive to physical objects, and can cause extensive property damage.^[3]