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Comic Book Physics

Posted by michael on from the shazam! dept.

hij writes "NANDO net has an article about a physics professor at the University of Minnesota is offering a class in Comic Book Physics. He looks into such things as the amount of calories that the Flash burns and the tension in spider-mans web."

2 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Batman and the vat of acid by jone_stone · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I once had a chemistry test in high school based on a Batman comic. Batman and Robin were falling into a vat of acid. It looked like the end for the dynamic duo. But after they fell in Robin was astonished to find that they didn't get burned.


    "Of course," said Batman. "The acid-neutralizing pills in my utility belt rendered the acid harmless before it was able to burn us."


    I don't remember the specific numbers of the question, but it was basically: if there were n gallons of 5 molar HCl in the vat and the pills were NaOH, how much must the pills have weighed? How much energy was released in the reaction, and are Batman and Robin likely to have survived?


    Batman would have needed something like two tons of NaOH in his belt, and the resulting explosion would have evaporated all the water and fried the dynamic duo to a crisp.

  2. Re:Anything to get the students excited by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting
    We also did some real physics, like designing a balsa wood bridge (everone got the same materials with no rules on how you could use the materials) to take the greatest load.

    When I was in engineering school, the final exam in statics for mechanical engineers consisted of designing a flat link, out of a specified grade of aluminum plate, to connect two pins and go around some obstacles. Several hours at a drafting table were allowed. No computer access. No talking to anybody. A scaled drawing had to be turned in.

    Each student's link was then machined, by a machinist following the drawing, out of aluminum plate as specified. The link was then placed in a hydraulic testing machine and the specified load was applied.

    If the link broke, the student failed the course.

    If the link didn't break, the link was weighed, and the grade depended on the weight, lighter weights yielding higher grades.

    That's what engineering is about.