Slashdot Mirror
Comic Book Physics
An anonymous reader writes "Seems many of the feats of SpiderMan, Superman and other superheroes obey the basic requirements of physics. So says a University of Minnesota physicist who uses nothing but comics to teach the subject. 'Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect ... I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics.' Especially cool: Why Krypton *had* to explode."
How do the breasts of all those super-heroines manage to defy gravity so well?
http://jpaudio.com/bullshitgas/comic_book_guy.jpg
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
Krypton had to explode. If it did not, there would have been no incentive for Kal'el to send his son to Earth. Without Clark landing on Earth, the whole Superman series wouldn't have made much sense.
That said, has anyone noticed that the names of the Krypton citizens were all slightly Jewish? Jor'el, Kal'el, and the others all sound like townships in Israel.
Maybe it's just me.
I have been pwned because my
This really doesn't suprise me. With the time and dedication comic book artists and manga creators put into their books (at least the better ones) is something to be proud of.
A man shoots a bullet toward superman's chest, the bullet bounces off. No problem... I can buy that.
What I can't accept is, why is there no bullet holes in the shirt? Do superheroes wear some special brand? Study that...
I found it very engaging. It was somewhat lightweight, but very entertaining! The U of MN is doing good with this guy.
/. can help me out? Lefsa-Man, The IceFisher, SnowmoBelly . . . maybe these are DC characters?
However, he mentioned a few superheroes that I've never heard of before -- maybe
I remember last year for the mid-year intercession at my high school> , there was a whole week long class devoted to showing the FLAKEYNESS and INCORRECTNESS of comic book physics. Hell - even my Calc-Based Physics Book by Halliday and Resnick from last year had an exercise on p=mv, proving that superman wouldn't be able to just stand there and deflect bullets.
Gotta be careful, though.
Sure seems there are a *LOT* more times when the science isn't too accurate than when it is.
I've always found the physics to be amazing, and something to aspire to. I'm sure everyone has.
Naturally, it's not possible.
It's rather disappointing to be among the people on earth that don't have super powers, but I suppose we'll live. The fact is, us comic readers (as well as anime-watchers and game-players) constantly see heroes that seem to know when to do the right thing at the right time. No matter how stupid an anime hero can be, he (she?) always seems to be able to take on 20 enemies at once and see a punch coming a mile away. It's the same sort of thing with this comic book physics stuff. These heroes have super powers and they don't appreciate them the way we would. You know what I mean. If you were Superman, you would totally pick a fight with some big dude, and then punch him in the face. You know you would.
What is physics defying is how fast that server went down when slashdotted. After 5 minutes at 11:30 it was DDoSed to death. Yay slashdot readers! -Chris
If the physics are so right...
Where's superman? spiderman? batman? the xmen? omg. YOU'RE ALL HIDING THEM FROM ME
scuse while my childhood dreams go down the toilet.
Faster than a speeding packet! More powerful than a Beowulf cluster! Able to leap tall datacenters in a single click!
Apparently, the Slashdot Effect is the kryptonite of the net.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Alas, they couldn't widthstand the all powerfull Slashdot ray.
Mirrors anyone?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
This principle is also surprisingly evident in "The Simpsons":
Martin: I would've thought that being hit by an atomic bomb would've killed him.
Bart: Now you know better.
Slashdot goes up
Website goes down
http://www.beyourowneviloverlord.tk
http://www.frozenchickenthrowing.tk
http://www.killercamel.tk
It's the biomechanics. I love to see superheroes bend the rules of biomechanics and the architecture of the human body. One of the reasons we suck at climbing and bounding around in trees is that our shoulders and wrists are not developed to do so. The freakiest thing you will ever see up close is a gibbon skeleton. I know ole Spidey was using his spider stuff, but you know he needs a sauna and a shiatsu to get the ache out of his shoulders.
finally i can talk about comics and not be off-topic!
1 5_ 2_c.html
t ml
In issue 15 of walt disneys donald duck adventures, story "the mad chemist", from 1944 by carl barks.
a letter arrived from joseph b lambert of the cali institute of tech, pointing out a curious refernece in, "the spin of states of carbenes", a tech article soon to be published by P.P. Gaspar and G.s. hammond in Carbene Chemistry.
It seems donald's reference to CH2 was years ahead of its time: the existance of this elusive chemical intermediate had not been proven in 1944.
http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/html/dd_
shows him in action on page 2!
ah and i found the text i was trying to type out from the actual comic...
http://www.seriesam.com/barks/detc_wdc0044-x1.h
god i love comic books.
flaming carrot is top notch. go bob burden!
--The Hulk movie basically sucked because it tried to go WAY beyond typical suspension of disbelief. I mean come on people, that movie was just WRONG. There's no frelling WAY the Hulk can throw a tank, or any of the other stupid crap they had him doing. The TV series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno was more believable, for Godsake.
--Xmen2: I did like it on the whole for the most part, except when Jean Grey *pushes* a Cyclops eye-beam away with "mental force." For one thing, Cyclops should never have been able to do that; for another, you CAN'T deflect a beam of light with just "Mind Power!"
--Bah. I hated the Spider Man movie, too. But the first X-Men movie was awesome, and I've liked all the Spawn movies (even the animated ones.) Some people just know how to give the genre the Right Treatment(TM).
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
An interesting thing along the same vein for readers of Battle Angel Alita (aka Gunnm) "The Physics of Tiphares" http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Fuji/7539/phys.html
Turns out the comic book writers put more thought into it that you would have first thought!
Although I dont know if I could still believe that superman could fly around the world and turn time backwards...
Nerdy kid:I'm looking for a Batman for my Batmobile.
Lee:Who about a nice "Thing" action figure?
Nerdy kid:Uhh no,I need a Batman!
(Lee smashes a thing figure into the Batmobile so it's legs are sticking out the floor)
Nerdy kid:You broke my Batmobile!
Lee:Broke,or made better!
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
Seems the server isn't dead; just slowed down a bunch:
'Uncanny physics of comic book superheroes'
Posted on Sunday, February 15 @ 16:20:59 EST by bjs
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995, when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man's web when it snagged the superhero's girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height. "Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect," said the gregarious Kakalios. "I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics."
From the University of Minnesota:
Professor to describe 'uncanny physics of comic book superheroes'
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995, when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man's web when it snagged the superhero's girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height.
Kakalios will describe a freshman seminar class he teaches, "Physics of Comic Books," at 11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, during the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. His talk is part of the symposium "Pop Physics: The Interface Between Hard Science and Popular Culture," one of two symposia in the Science, Entertainment and the Media category.
"Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect," said the gregarious Kakalios. "I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics."
Take, for example, the strength of Superman. To leap a 30-story building in a single bound, Superman's leg muscles must produce nearly 6,000 pounds of force while jumping, Kakalios calculates. The Man of Steel was that strong because he was designed to resist Krypton's powerful gravity. But for a planet with an Earth-like surface to have so much stronger gravity, it would need neutron star material in its core--a highly unstable situation. No wonder the planet exploded. Other topics considered in Kakalios' class include:
# Is it possible to read minds as Prof. X of the X-Men does?
# If Spider-Man's webbing is as strong as real spider silk, could it support his weight as he swings between buildings?
# Can the mutant master of magnetism Magneto levitate people using the iron in their blood?
# If you could run as fast as the Flash, could you run up the side of a building or across the ocean, and how often would you need to eat?
"Once the physical concepts such as forces and motion, conservation of energy, electricity and magnetisms, and elementary quantum mechanics are introduced to answer these and other questions, their real-world applications to automobile airbags, cell phones, nanotechnology and black hole formation are explained," said Kakalios. "The students in this class ranged from engineering to history majors, and while not all were comic book fans, they all found it an engaging and entertaining way to learn critical thinking and basic physics concepts."
Paul Lenhart writes words!
"Meanwhile... Microsoft Reports Crazy Three Month Uptimes on Windows 2003!"
Batman: Robin, take out your BatPDA and boot up PocketPC 2003.
Robin: Golly gee, Batman, why is everthing BatThis and BatThat? I feel left out.
Batman: Ok, boywonder, we'll call it the RobinPDA.
Robin: Holy Bitrate, Batman. That sounds stupid.
Batman: Ok, then we'll call it the BatPDA.
Robin: Golly gee, Batman, why is everthing BatThis and BatThat? I feel left out.Batman: I've always wanted to do that.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
So all of a sudden we are not expecting things from the "Nassholes" aren't we? we should expect everything. oh wait, that was Lockheed Martin who gave us the "invisible jet"!
Keep the faith, share the code
Can the mutant master of magnetism Magneto levitate people using the iron in their blood?
The iron in our blood is mostly in the hemoglobin, specifically the heme half. Heme is an iron-based complex, in which the iron is IIRC diamagnetic.
Therefore, I do not see how---oh, wait. I guess I'm wrong. Oops. Looks like I need to review my sigma/pi bondage.
This must be a fun course for arts students or something....
-- This message was made with 100% recycled electrons.
Yeah, but does any comic explain the Slashdot Effect?
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
proving that superman wouldn't be able to just stand there and deflect bullets.
you cannot prove what is claimed, you can only set up specification boundaries for exactly what Supermans makeup must be in oder to do it.
Throw in an infinite amount of strange physics and you have a pointless excersice, and unsuprising. Much better to find the examples where physics was well understood, and promote that.
-pyrrho
"The Science of Superheroes," (Wiley Books 2002) by Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg (introduction by Dean Koontz). Same duo who brought you "The Computers of Star Trek." Weinberg also wrote "Cable" for Marvel.
For a different point of view, go to Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. In particular, check out their write-up on Spider Man.
'Uncanny physics of comic book superheroes' Posted on Sunday, February 15 @ 16:20:59 EST by bjs
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995, when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man's web when it snagged the superhero's girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height. "Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect," said the gregarious Kakalios. "I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics."
From the University of Minnesota:
Professor to describe 'uncanny physics of comic book superheroes'
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995, when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man's web when it snagged the superhero's girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height.
Kakalios will describe a freshman seminar class he teaches, "Physics of Comic Books," at 11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, during the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. His talk is part of the symposium "Pop Physics: The Interface Between Hard Science and Popular Culture," one of two symposia in the Science, Entertainment and the Media category.
"Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect," said the gregarious Kakalios. "I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics."
Take, for example, the strength of Superman. To leap a 30-story building in a single bound, Superman's leg muscles must produce nearly 6,000 pounds of force while jumping, Kakalios calculates. The Man of Steel was that strong because he was designed to resist Krypton's powerful gravity. But for a planet with an Earth-like surface to have so much stronger gravity, it would need neutron star material in its core--a highly unstable situation. No wonder the planet exploded. Other topics considered in Kakalios' class include:
# Is it possible to read minds as Prof. X of the X-Men does?
# If Spider-Man's webbing is as strong as real spider silk, could it support his weight as he swings between buildings?
# Can the mutant master of magnetism Magneto levitate people using the iron in their blood?
# If you could run as fast as the Flash, could you run up the side of a building or across the ocean, and how often would you need to eat?
"Once the physical concepts such as forces and motion, conservation of energy, electricity and magnetisms, and elementary quantum mechanics are introduced to answer these and other questions, their real-world applications to automobile airbags, cell phones, nanotechnology and black hole formation are explained," said Kakalios. "The students in this class ranged from engineering to history majors, and while not all were comic book fans, they all found it an engaging and entertaining way to learn critical thinking and basic physics concepts."
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
All my physics text book had(and I'm being completely serious here) was a bunch of drawings of men looking at little girls in short skirts(the worst was when they were describing tension and had a man staring directly at the behind of a 7 year old girl when she was bent over in an elevator), shirtless boys, and monkeys. What wonderful human beings these physists must have been.
I grew up on comics - I still have over 1000 of them from the '70s and '80s, stuck back in a closet, wrapped in plastic.
What the good Professor says is not that all comic book situations are based in physical reality -- that's absurd. You don't get to teach at a Big Ten university by being a knucklehead.
He's saying that there are instructive cases, and furthermore that those cases are often the essential ones needed to understand the underlying physics. He's saying that look, this situation that seems like over-the-top unreality is in fact pretty close to the way the universe actually works.
I give him credit for having the guts to teach that way.
sigs, as if you care.
If I remember correctly it was Krypton's sun that exploded and destroyed the planet, or at least in one version it did. A red sun that went super nova.
;) Also if Krypton had neutron star matter in its core, how come Kryptonite which came from Krypton's core is not super heavy?
;)
:) Clark Kent is also an illegal alien having not been born on Earth, and obviously any papers saying so must have been forged or are false. So Clark Kent aka Superman is breaking Civil Law by claiming to be a US Citizen. So much for his good image. :)
Does Physics provide an answer why pieces of Krypton can harm Superman yet pieces of Earth do not harm Earthlings?
Also if Superman is unable to be harmed and bullets bounce off of his chest, how come there are no holes in his clothes? Current storyline on Superman had him arrive in a pod with no blankets, so they did not use them to create his costume. Kal-El was a test tube baby and sent to Earth in the ship inside of a pod.
Also how does Superman lose his strength when exposed to Kryptonite or Red Solar Radiation, if he was exposed to high gravity he still should have his muscles unless they wore out over the years of growing up in a lower gravity environment. Another theory is that his body absorbs yellow sun radiation like a solar cell and he gets his powers from that. Kryptonite or Red Solar radiation apparently discharges that energy.
Also his relationship with Lois, man of steel and woman of kleenex, need I avoid the details of that intiment relationship should they decide to have children?
Also how can Clark Kent pass physicals when they cannot even draw blood for blood tests from his arm as it is super hard? Also what about prostate tests, I'd hate to be the doctor who does those.
Other things I seem to have a problem with:
Time travel by spinning the Earth backwards, I do not think that this will work and should only cause major earthquakes and other problems.
Just how many powers does Superman have anyway? They seem to keep on inventing them. Super Ventriliquism, Super Hypnosis, Super Telepathy, Super Accounting, are they just making these up as they go along? Maybe they should rename him as Unclear Man as his powers seem to be Unclear.
Also they had Superman in space without the need for air. How is this possible? Just how long can he hold his breath and avoid the effects of decompression?
With muscles that powerful, he should weigh a ton or more. People would be able to notice this as he walks on weak surfaces like wood floors.
Also how is it possible to disguise yourself by combing out that s-curl, putting on glasses, and changing clothes? Someone with the intellect that Lex Luthor claims to have should be able to see through that transparent disguise, but apparently not.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Here's an article (pdf) that Kakalios wrote for the Star Tribune. It discusses the simple physics behind a 1973 Spider-Man issue.
I'm invisible to attractive women.
As spys/superheros/supervillains always seem to have attractive women as their offsiders I'd be the perfect person to infiltrate their lair.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I Am Not A Super Hero, but I think the reason is *Just 'cos*
The Original article appeared in Physics Today, in November 2002.
what sig?
this kind of physics?
I doubt Xmen follows any physics Blades of steel no matter how strong, still require immense pressure to cut through metal yes Wolverine cuts through it like butter Flying? oh please. Transferance of abilities through touch? Controlling the weather? Where do these follow any known laws of physics?
You don't need to avoid it, but there's little reason to post it here - a link should be enough.
-- this is not a
The U of M's IT magazine Inventing Tomorrow interviewed Kakalios for its Spring 2002 issue. My favorite quote from the lengthy article:
that I can shoot webs out of my wrists and swing around cities and jump over buildings and all that other neat stuff?
I was thinking of converting to paganism, but where the hell can you find sacrificial virgins these days?
Also seen on Slashdot here in May 2002, so it's a repeat, but from a while ago.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Flaming'el?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
http://frogstar.com/wav/displaywav.asp?fil=duckjob .wav
heheh
By Larry Niven
CBG: Worst. Episode. Ever.
/. pretty well...)
CBG: Needless to say, I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust around the globe.
(Sums up
...is that this is one of the top links on both Slashdot AND Fark right now... AND... I can still get to it.
As Darth Vader would say: "Impressive. Most impressive."
When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
Larry Niven dealt with a lot of this an essay about why Superman is always free on Saturday night.
It deals more with biology and psychology, but there's a lot of physics involved, too.
Heisenberg might have been here.
I would think that this comic explains the Slashdot Effect pretty well. :)
Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
My favorite part of comic book super heroins were their !!!BLAM!!! in your face perky boobs
lick the cancle button (at least thats what our Chinese QA says)
Sure you could create a program or a chart carefully detailing what the mass and content of the planet is, and then you could find out how much gravity is created, followed by the thickness/thinness of the atmosphere, followed by the way evolution has grown on the planet (such as a world where the majority of land mass is earth rather than water), etc etc.
Or you could just reach for a high school physics book and base your comics on simple, easy to understand and apply physics. Its common to see this in everything from novels to video games. (We're playing video games that are supposed to take place in hundreds of years in the future where portable handheld rocket launchers can reload in less than 2 seconds and interstellar travel is possible, but we're still using a bread-and-butter assault rifle and grenade launcher attachment as our main weapon. Wheres the laser beam weapons? The jetpacks? The microwave guns? The robot armies? The pistol sized one shot super gun? A version of Windows which doesn't crash... ok maybe thats a little too imaginative.)
The dogcow says "Moof!"
How about when Lois Lane falls from a building (accelerating at 9.2 m/s^2), and Superman zooms up (accelerating at, oh, let's say, -30 m/s^2 relative to Lois) and catches her, soaring off into the wild blue yonder. This leaves Lois instantaneously changing directions from +9.2 m/s^2 to -30 m/s^2, with a delta of -20.8 m/s^2.
Wouldn't she be better off just hitting the pavement?
Our term papers in Physics from Grades 10 to 12 required us to present information on a physics topic using a creative method. You weren't allowed to simply write your findings down on paper; you actually had to do it in the form of a skit, song, art, or whatever other creative form. The purpose of it was to see if we really understood what we were talking about and to be able to convey information in non-standard ways.
Between physics and high school calculus, that woman saved my ass when I went to university because I was so well prepared to deal with the realities of applied physics. A lot of other folks didn't make it through first year of engineering, and I figure that was part of the reason.
From the pratical point of view, not every physics student will have enough knowledge of comics. So imagine someone not learning physics because of a, hmmm, calculus issue, but because he/she doesn't read enough comics!
I shot the sheriff
Martin: I would've thought that being hit by an atomic bomb would've killed him.
Bart: Now you know better.
I think my difficulties at understanding my electromagnetism classes were partially because of my preconceptions caused by my understanding of light from Green Lantern comics.
Light can be both a particle and a wave... and a big boxing glove or baseball bat depending on the controlling thoughts.
Quantum mechanics dictates that the observer can effect the observed... but only if you have a ring on your finger, otherwise you'll just get your head beaten in by a big green boxing glove or baseball bat.
Color can be emissive (from the light wavelength itself) or reflective (from interacting with something it hits)... but nothing will change, interact, or stop green light unless it happens to be yellow.
The perception of color itself is really just an evolved way humans measure different wavelengths of light but there's nothing particularly special about the range of light we see... except that we can see the two most useful wavelengths: green and yellow.
It's been a while. I don't read Green Lantern nor perform emag calculations so perhaps I've misstated something from continuity or text. C'est La Vie.
Kryptonite affected all people on Krypton so they were, in a sense, just like earthlings. They did not have super powers because the kryptonite kept them normal.
Ma Kent claimed him as her child, and since they lived in the country, were never questioned about it. So all records would be based on good faith
He didn't have an instruction manual in the pod. No one on Krypton had any super powers because of the kryptonite, so he doesn't know what he can do and sometimes discovers latent powers.
He can fly, remember? He just cancels out all but about 190-200lbs.
The answer to all the other questions are this: He's Superman
it wasn't to prove he couldn't do it. It was to show how much force he was deflecting. It never claimed he couldn't do it. In order to claim that you'd have to know his tolerance.
And that physics book still sucks. Note to teachers: STOP USING IT.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
Spiderman was trying to save his girlfriend Gwen Stacy who was falling off a building and he catches her foot at the last second with his web, the whiplash effect breaking her neck and killing her instantly.
wow. Even a thread link has been slashdotted. '403.9 too many users..'
;)
Your last link was without doubt the worst slashdot post ever. Rest assured that within minutes I was on slashdot registering my disgust throughout the thread
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you
Since when does Superman obey the laws of the conservation of angular momentum??
"Most interesting how often you humans seem to obtain that which you do not want" -Spock
For example
What turns on a kryptonian? What arouses Kal-El's mating urge? Did kryptonian women carry some subtle mating cue at appropriate times of the year? Whatever it is, Lois Lane probably didn't have it. We may speculate that she smells wrong, less like a kryptonian woman than like a terrestrial monkey.
Can human breed with kryptonian? Do we even use the same genetic code? On the face of it, LL could more easily breed with an ear of corn than with Kal-El. But coincidence does happen. If the genes match...
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
His class covers other topics such as these, that I'd really like to know the answers to:
# Is it possible to read minds as Prof. X of the X-Men does?
# How much does Flash have to eat?
The second one I'd like to know because I figured out, when I was a kid, how much a regenerating troll would have to eat. (Yeah, I'm a computer geek *and* a dungeons and dragons geek.) Basically it works out that even if they're eating pure sugar, there's not enough hours in the day for them to do that.
The Professor X one is interesting because I took a psychology class in which the professor told us in no uncertain terms why telepathy was impossible. He went into the mechanics of information processing in the brain and the differences between patterns in two different brains, and concluded based on this set of facts that even if you could detect the signal generated by someone else's brain, you wouldn't be able to parse it.
To me this was preposterous, and I defended my position (unconvincingly, at the time) during his office hours. Signal processing is signal processing, and it doesn't matter whether the signal generated by the receiving station has any relationship with the signal generated by the sending station, as long as the receiver can process it. The human brain's ability to process the signal generated by the human mouth is probably not significantly more complex a task than the hypothetical ability to process the brain signal. You're not, after all, trying to glean the meaning of every nerve firing, just see what the person is thinking about. In a very real sense this is only a step away from what the person is saying, so why would the signal be more difficult to parse than human speech?
In my mind the only question remaining is whether there is any signal to be processed at all. I say that because you can detect the brain signal without drilling a hole in a person's head, that it is there to be detected, it's just a matter of having sufficiently sensitive equipment to detect it. Does the brain have this? Hard to say.
I want to know what conclusion the prof reaches.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Does Physics provide an answer why pieces of Krypton can harm Superman yet pieces of Earth do not harm Earthlings? ;)
There ARE pieces of Earth that harm Earthlings, like plutonium, uranium, etc, etc. You could say we got it worse than Superman. He only has to worry about kryptonite. We have to watch out for several elements that could kill/harm us!
Time travel by spinning the Earth backwards, I do not think that this will work and should only cause major earthquakes and other problems.
I'm assuming you're talking about the movie. The thing is, this isn't what is happening, although it is still wrong.
He's not spinning the earth backwards, he's flying really fast (theory of relativity). Technically this should have sent him into the future, not the past.
Not that kind of heroin, this "real life" kind of xray vision from an ex-superpower [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_855907.html]
Xray vision would be cool if we good all do it...imagine airport security with everyone having X-ray vision?!
-- Sig meltdown immine...
Clark Kent is also an illegal alien having not been born on Earth, and obviously any papers saying so must have been forged or are false. So Clark Kent aka Superman is breaking Civil Law by claiming to be a US Citizen.
To deal with this, use your own statement above from above:
Kal-El was a test tube baby and sent to Earth in the ship inside of a pod.
I believe that the official DC Comics line (from an issue of Wizard magazine long ago) is that Superman was still GESTATING while inside the pod (it would take quite a while for the pod to get to earth right?), and that he was officially "birthed" when the pod opened on American soil. So they can still say he's an all-american superhero (blah, blah, blah).
On a couple of your other points, Superman's strength and all his other powers are supposed to be due to his cells absorbing our sun's yellow solar radiation, and not I believe due to any sort of gravity effect.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
(Although Cleveland, Ohio definitely catches a lot of that too.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
In one of the most hilarious short science essays ever written, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, Larry Niven tackles the problem of how Superman is going to reproduce.
For example, during orgasm, one loses control of one's muscles. Superman has been known to leave fingerprints in steel and concrete accidentally. What happens to Lois while she's in his arms?
Another example, which I'll quote directly:
Followup scenarios (for artificial insemination) assume that he's on an airless moon, to prevent the semen from exploding into vapor due to air friction at supersonic speeds. It eventually turns out artificial insemination doesn't work either.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
"In a Lois and Clark episode...."
Worst. Series. Ever.
I had visions of algorithms used to model the cyclic tidal ripples of fat, a sweat/clothing border distribution theorem, statistical analysis of taco/time samples, and linear regression of "Worst ever" comments with respect to Bart displacement.
Q.
Insert Signature Here
that was great
Superman, while on earth, can hear someone scream on a spacestation beyond jupiter. He can blow out stars while caughing. He can travel several tousand time the speed of light. He can fool people he is a completely different person with just a pair of glasses. What kind of physics can explain that?
This is what is called a "Freshman Seminar" which is a 2-3 credit class (this one was 2) just to get you comfortable with talking to professors and crap. It's not supposed to be all that serious. I also took "Science of Space Travel", and got an easy A but learned quite a bit. Both were fine classes, U of M is a good school.
is so Bohr-ing.
hyuk-hyuk
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
>> Actually, the problem is that given the Hulk's size, its impossible for him to rotate something of the mass of the tank around him.
Even assuming the Incredible Hulk is incredibly strong, it doesn't work because of balance and friction.
This reminds me of an argument I had with a friend while watching "The Wrath of Khan." If you watch Khan pick up Chekov, he just reaches out and lifts him straight up. He doesn't shift his own weight at all. As I pointed out to my friend, no matter how strong you are, if you shift the center of gravity from over your feet, you're going to tip over.
having suffered through Physics for Engineers 1 and 2 at the U of Minnesota three years ago, I only wish I had been able to take this class; that would've made the whole experience just a wee bit more enjoyable. oh well. At least I showed up often enough to my classes to still get my computer science degree...
iRooster, the Mac OS X a
"Quite interesting to find out how maleable the human body can be during its development."
So what does that say about the geek body?
Except for that little bit where her body(the size of a ten year old kid) generates enough power to turn her arm into a super-duper-ionized-plasma cutter, that seems able to instantly cut through/smash anything...
Please help metamoderate.
Apparently Louie Anderson has the same power.
NERD ALERT!
Disclaimer: I'm a physics undergrad
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
Taco B'el
First off we need the distance. Let's assume Krypton circled the nearest star to our own (we are looking for the minimum size of Krypton). Proxima Centauri (or Alpha Centauri C) is only 4.22 light-years away. (393 927 289 812km)
Imagine a sphere whose radius extends from where the planet Krypton used to be, to the earth. The surface area of this sphere represents the 3-d area across which the shards of kryptonite were distributed. This sphere has a surface area of 4.87508x10^23km(standard calculation).
The earths radius represents a fraction of this total surface area. The earths radius is 6.3781 x 10^3km. multiply by pi to get the area (the area is 2-d -ie not squared- because the surface of a sphere is 2-d). The next step is comparing this 2-d surface area to the surface area of the imaginary sphere we got above. The result: the earth represents a TINY 4.110086 x 10^-18% of the surface area of our Krypton-explosion sphere. If we multiply the amount of kryptonite on earth by the inverse of this number, we get the amount of Krypton that is scattered around the entire surface area of the sphere.
And how much kryptonite is on the Earth? damned if I know, so let's just estimate based on what we know of the series. It's been made into various weapons and devices, been sold over the blackmarket, been hidden in secret storage areas, been acquired by every evil organization or villian ever, so presumably the amount on Earth is quite high. BUT, we are calculating for a minimum size of Krypton, so we'll estimate low. 10kg seems more than fair. Now, 2/3 the Earths surface is water, and i haven't heard of any kryptonite being recovered from undersea explorations, so that 10kg found on earth was the 1/3rd that hit the land. So, 30kg hit the Earth. Also consider burning up on reentry. I don't know of kryptonite being indestructible, and it has been made into a liquid at least once in Superman history. Its Probable that at least 90% was burned up in reentry. (If someone with more precise figures and re-do calcs t'would be appreciated). so, the 30kg that hit the earth represents only 10% of the 300kg that hit the atmosphere.
multiply this by the inverse of this by the inverse of the fraction that represents the surface of our Krypton-explosion sphere over our earths surface area sphere. The result: The planet Krypton weighed an absolute minimum of 7.299x10^19kg. By comparison, our sun weighs 2x10^30kg.
More Than Human eps. 3, on Oct. 17 2003.
Does that mean Superman was circumsized?
Would they have to use a Kryptonite Mogem clamp?
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Actually, this may be the reason why Superman does NOT boink Lois in the original comics. Also, if you try to calculate exit velocity you run into all sorts of trouble, since the density and viscosity of said liquid is, well, unknown.
I would suggest that a material similar to the one used for the cape is what mr. Kent's condom is made of , too.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
Ha ha ha. Thanks a lot; now I have something for the .sig in my Donald Duck account. BTW, there is alo a Darth Vader Orgasm floating around the internet.
Listen in on Donald Duck!
Not comic book related but in the same vein.
5 15 8/026-5266350-7084459
The Science of Discworld
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/009186
Worst
But if you put someone else's impulses on your brain, wouldn't you become them?
Telepathy is basically an emulation problem. Even if there was some way of extracting the neural state of someone else's brain, what would you do with that information?
What you're suggesting is that you would have enough brain-power (fuzzy concept) to emulate someone else's mind, AND be able to interpret that emulation in some fashion. Assuming you're both human, how would that work?
And what would a telepathy actually perceive? Someone's sub-vocalized self-commentary? An echo of how they're feeling. Drill deep, and you'll realize you really don't have much of an idea of what telepathy would actually be like.
Heck, it's not like our own self-awareness is much beyond post-hoc justification.
My video compression blog
Does anybody search for dupes beyond the past week? This was posted to Slashdot in May of last year. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/1 0/1827244&mode=thread&tid=133
I don't remember who said it, but there's a saying, "Given enough steps, anything can be proven."
I think this applies. Consider the physics of someone like the Hulk - as he grows, his strength -must- grow exponentially, simply to be able to deal with his larger body mass. Not proportionately.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
So let me get this straight then. Superboy was the product of Superman and his cousin Supergirl getting it on? - shades of the Ozarks...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
This is comic book physics, not movie physics. In comic books, all the physics and plot holes get explained away in the white space between the drawings.
but for the QWERTY keyboard typo. And it is a very good article.
"Time travel by spinning the Earth backwards, I do not think that this will work and should only cause major earthquakes and other problems"
:)
+5, Insightful surely?
Robin: \psi_1=A{\rm e}^{ikx}+B{\rm e}^{-ikx}, \psi_2=C{\rm e}^{ik'x}+D{\rm e}^{-ik'x},\psi_3=A'{\rm e}^{ikx}
In comic books, being still frames with no sound, any action, motion, sound, can be implied, but it's really up to our imaginations to create the vivid scene that is real to life; and we do that with the feel for real world physics that we experience in real life. I would guess that this has something to do with comic books tending to be a bit more realistic; so they can leverage our own experience with the physics of the world, for a more realistic and vivid experience.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Did anyone else see evil popups that initiates trojan downloads when they visited the site? :(
I have no popupblocker at work
English is not my first language, so cut me some slack -: Om du kan lasa det har sa kan du Svenska
Likewise, there's the paradox of heros who have super-strength but not invulnerability (e.g. spider-man).
Yep, this brings up one of my all-time favorite roll-your-eyes scenes, from a Superman in the 70's.
Some doofus found a magic flute which stole Superman's powers, one at a time, and transferred them to himself. So he takes away Supe's flight and invulnerability. When Superman catches up to the doofus, he still has his super-strength, so he bursts through a brick wall.
Now, I'm no physicist, but I know if I could somehow move my arms with enough force to smash through a brick wall, I'd end up with a pair of stumps and something resembling bloody jelly.
Garg
Garg
Alumnus, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
penetrates the shield.
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this 120 chars is too small to contain.
My collegue has this book "CPU no tsukurikata", or "How to create a CPU". The lovely Japanese gothic lolita manga character guides you through breadboarding a CPU with descrete components.0 9.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
o oks/4839909865/249-8715141-2165156)
http://cdn-images.amazon.com/images/P/4839909865.
(japanese amazon page for the book http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/b
The rest of the Wyle E. Coyote ones are just as good. 'Though I don't think he handles momentum in a physically accurate way, he does have an engineers' appreciation for Murphy and His Laws...
Human genome = 3 billion base pairs = 6 GBit. Windows + Office = 20 Gbit. Which is more impressive?
While I don't recall what they do for DC comics, I know in Marvel most costumes are made of a special material invented by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. They say it's made out of unstable molecules. While I won't defend the science of THAT statement, it is intended to stretch very well, including to the point where it disappears, but un-stretches and is visable again. The example of THAT is for Colossus of the X-Men - when he goes from human to metal, he gets quite a bit bigger and some portions of his costume disappear, but return when he goes back to human.
Anyway, I imagine for a material like that, it wouldn't be too tough for it to heal small holes like from bullets, though I have seen it torn.
I'd like to see the syllabus for this class. I tried to look on their website but it's password protected.
One more explanation:
Superman would duck the thrown gun because just standing there like a doofus while a pistol bounces off your forehead looks stupid.
Even superheros who pretend to be mild mannered reporters have their pride, ya know?
Here, we have a hero made of Concrete. I don't read it, so I can't really say what other powers he has.
Anyway, apparently Concrete was standing near a building where someone fell. "Catch her, Concrete, save her!"
SPLAT.
*Concrete looks down at his arms covered in goo.* I'm made of CONCRETE!
See also Cartoons, and Sci-Fi.
My favorite is Law IX: "Everything falls faster than an anvil."
Enjoy...
In Japan, you'll find Manga for everything from world history to automobile repair. It's just one of those things.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
This is wrong. Superman is as strong as he is because of the yellow sun of the Earth (as opposed to the red sun of Krypton). The comics say nothing about how massive the planet is, just that the Earth's sun gave him super powers. Plus, he is not really jumping, he's flying. This description does not lend itself to description by the laws of physics, but that's okay.
Most phenomena in comic books is completely wrong according to the laws of physics (the law of conservation of energy is the most often flauted--with energy fields being created spontaneously, and the law of conservation of momentum is violated every time somebody flies without any means of propulsion).
We like comics because they are fantasy. Even if you can find some accurate depictions of physical phenomena in comics, it is a dangerous enterprise to use comics to teach physics. If students are taught that some "comic book physics" is accurate, then they may come to believe that all such physics is accurate.
For a dose of semi-reality in comics, I turn to Batman, the most bad-ass human ever to be dreamed up. But even Batman is not that physically accurate. The first time he shot up a grappling hook to save him from falling off a building, his arms would be ripped clean off. But I don't care. Batman is cool.
In my opinion, physics should stay away from comics, because thinking about the physics involved in comics makes them not fun, since nearly every cool thing that happens in comic books defies the laws of physics.
\/\/
BTW, the Greeks mucked the Phonecian sibilants up and shin's shape and position became sigma.
It ain't manga, it's looks somewhere between a hobbyist book and serious text, not that i could read it beyond the diagrams. All i know is that cute gothiloli chick is the sensei, and she's the first thing that came to mind with the article title "Comic book characters teach physics" :)
This also explain why so many characters have two L's in their names.
...is the failure to understand weight, gravity, and balance. Very often, one sees a "superstrong" character lifting, say a truck, by grabbing it at one end and picking it up. But no matter how strong you are, if you are going to lift something, the combined center of gravity of the object plus you has to be be between your legs, or you will fall over. So you might be strong enough to carry a truck if you were underneath it, but no matter how strong you were, you couldn't pick it up from one end unless you were considerably heavier than the truck itself. Superman, by the way, is presumably an exception to this, since he is apparently immune to gravity--so he could probably lift a big weight from one end by "flying downward". A classic older cover drawing of Superman, back when he couldn't fly, but only "leap tall buildings," showed him lifting a car "realistically"--over his head like a weight lifter.
A related error is an unrealistic notion of the strength of materials. You can't pick a car up by the bumper; it will just break off.
Readers of the web-comic G.P.F. will remember a "Mr. Intertia" who was featured in one chapter.
(Warning! Homepage not completely office-safe in a large browser window as of 2004/02/16, due to surreal dream of one of the characters.)
So why a cape? Was he trying to impress Elton John or Liberachi?
I drank what? -- Socrates
The premise of the Wild Cards series of novels is superpowers in the real world. They use exactly this explanation for superpowers. The series postulates that the psychological limits on powers are very deeply rooted and almost impossible to overcome.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
Adonai is a more literal word for "Lord", so just as we use "The LORD" when the original says YHWH, the Jews, at least from some point onward, said "Adonai" instead of "Yahweh" or whatever it originally was. Names like Yehoshua do not contain the entirety of the divine name, only an abbreviation thereof, and there are also numerous variants on the vowels which are used in them, so I don't think we can be very conclusive at all about what the pronunciation was like using your line of reasoning.
But it is manga. It's a textbook in manga form, and it's common. For example, "Introduction to the Japanese Economy."
From http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/man ga/manga2-1.html
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Apparent telepathy would be quite easy: telepaths could simply communicate in some way that most people cannot detect; radio would be fine, if you can figure out how to biologically generate radio waves.
Mind-reading is more difficult. You must:
Detect which neurons are firing. The signals are rather weak to detect using known physics. Any information stored by quantum tricks can probably be ignored. Memory-reading can be done by remotely stimulating some neurons and seeing which others fire (Neuron stimulation would allow some mind-control, or even the ability to cause heart-attacks or paralysis.) Process the information. Probably rough calculations will do mostly. Tricks such as concentrating on simple stuff such as motor output, eye direction, dominant sense, etc will also help. Emotions will appear as large-scale patterns. Despite this, a large processing lobe will be needed.I have a government issued assault weapon, sold to me by a government sponsored agency. It's an M1 Garand. It has a *shudder* bayonet lug! It also only holds 8 rounds of .30-06 and fires semi-auto (each time you pull the trigger, it fires one round, ejects the spent casing a loads a new round from the fixed magazine). This weapon was one of the reasons we were able to win WWII. Most of the axis troops were armed with bolt action rifles, which took longer to fire.
I drank what? -- Socrates
. . . how else do you explain my post getting modded "Interesting"?!?
(CBG voice)
Bah! For someone touting hyphens, you should know that it is spelled Spider-Man, with the hyphen. Now please return your obessive nerd badge. You are no longer worthy to wear it.
(/CBG voice)
If I remember correctly it was Krypton's sun that exploded and destroyed the planet, or at least in one version it did. A red sun that went super nova.
;)
It was certainly the planet exploding in some versions. Don't know if there was ever a supernova explanation advanced.
Does Physics provide an answer why pieces of Krypton can harm Superman yet pieces of Earth do not harm Earthlings?
Actually, in more recent storylines, it is harmful to earthlings, but not so rapidly. But Superman isn't human, so differential sensitivity to radiation hardly seems surprising. Still, the fact that he is sensitive to fragments of his own planet seems more like sympathetic magic than science. I've heard it suggested that the laws of physics were actually different in the part of the universe where Krypton is, in which case it might make more sense, but I don't know if this was ever an "official" explanation.
lso if Krypton had neutron star matter in its core, how come Kryptonite which came from Krypton's core is not super heavy?
Maybe it's from the shell, not the core.
Also if Superman is unable to be harmed and bullets bounce off of his chest, how come there are no holes in his clothes? Current storyline on Superman had him arrive in a pod with no blankets, so they did not use them to create his costume. Kal-El was a test tube baby and sent to Earth in the ship inside of a pod.
In the current explanation, Superman has a force field that protects his skin-tight suit (but not his cape). Originally, he did have blankets, and Ma Kent unravelled the indestructible threat and rewove them into his suit.
Also how does Superman lose his strength when exposed to Kryptonite or Red Solar Radiation, if he was exposed to high gravity he still should have his muscles unless they wore out over the years of growing up in a lower gravity environment.
I get weak when I'm sick, even though I still have all my muscles.
lso how can Clark Kent pass physicals when they cannot even draw blood for blood tests from his arm as it is super hard?
This sort of thing was commonly dealt with in the old stories. Short answer: trickery.
Clark Kent is also an illegal alien having not been born on Earth, and obviously any papers saying so must have been forged or are false.
Obviously. But Ma Kent claimed him as hers, and in rural Kansas who's to know she was lying?
Time travel by spinning the Earth backwards, I do not think that this will work and should only cause major earthquakes and other problems.
I don't recall the earth spinning backwards, I recall Superman flying around the earth. The "faster than light" part makes a certain amount of sense under relativity (once you get past the impossibility of going faster than light in the first place).
Also they had Superman in space without the need for air. How is this possible? Just how long can he hold his breath and avoid the effects of decompression?
Whether Superman really needs to breathe seems to have varied over the years. With superstrong integument, explosive decompression is hardly a problem
With muscles that powerful, he should weigh a ton or more.
Strength is not necessarily related to weight
People would be able to notice this as he walks on weak surfaces like wood floors.
We don't actually know what he weighs, but since he is immune to gravity, this will hardly be a problem.
Also how is it possible to disguise yourself by combing out that s-curl, putting on glasses, and changing clothes? Someone with the intellect that Lex Luthor claims to have should be able to see through that transparent disguise, but apparently not.
The original notion was that Clark is such a good actor, that nobody even thinks to make the connection. Although I seem to recall a revisionist explanation in which Superman vibrates his face really fast so that nobody ever sees him clearly. Although it seems like a guy whose face was always a blur would spook people out...
Actually, one theory that would fit better with Cyclops' pyrotechnics is that the eye-beam is really a particle beam - lasers wouldn't have nearly as much airglow in their beam path, and it would be far more orderly.
Perhaps the material - and his hair - are similar to the personal shields from Dune, or the nightsheep wool in LE Modesitt's Legacies series... They can stop a high velocity attack, whether it's a bullet or a knife, but if you cut very very slowly, they give.
--sloppy
- Is Captain America's undentable, energy-absorbing shield possible (I think it's made of vibranium, unless that's the one the Black Panther gives him when he's just The Captain and is only kinda unbreakable)?
- How far can Reed Richards, Plastic Man, et al strech before they would run out of material?
- What's the average tumor size of a Marvel Hero from the '60s?
- Isn't it more likely Max Cassidy (aka Electro) would have been killed than turned into a master of electricity (speaking of which, do you think the actor who played a similar role in Misfits of Science still calls Courtney Cox looking for jobs)?
As for stand-up comedians on the topic, I think Dave Chapelle's line about Wonder Woman's trusth lasso ("Damn you got some big titties!") is the best recent stuff.Turns out an average sized adult human male could run on water as long as they run about sixty miles per hour.
chuk
Stone 'im!!! ... Are there any women here?
Kahn also has to PULL Checkov DOWN to the ground again!
Two men are drinking in a bar at the top of the Empire State Building. One turns to the other and says: "You know, last week I discovered that if you jump from the top of this building, by the time you fall to the 10th floor, the winds around the building are so strong that they carry you around the building and back into the window."
The Bartender just shakes his head in disapproval while wiping the bar.
The 2nd Man says: "What, are you a nut? There is no way in hell that could happen."
1st Man: "No, it's true, let me prove it to you." So he gets up from the bar, jumps over the balcony, and careens toward the street below. When he passes the 10th floor, the high wind whips him around the building and back into the 10th floor window and he takes the elevator back up to the bar.
The 2nd Man tells him: "You know, I saw that with my own eyes, but that must have been a one time fluke."
1st Man: "No, I'll prove it again!" and again he jumps and hurtles toward the street where the 10th floor wind gently carries him around the building and into the window. Once upstairs he urges his fellow drinker to try it.
2nd Man: "Well, what the hell, it works for you, I'll try it." He jumps over the balcony, plunges downward, passes the 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th floors ... and hits the sidewalk with a splat.
Back upstairs the Bartender turns to the other drinker: "You know, Superman, you're a real asshole when you're drunk."
The topic is supposed to be comic books and physics. Comic books are a much-maligned, yet fascinating form of art. The conjunction of art and science should have made for a fascinating thread, but alas, it didn't.
Classic physics nonsense from the comic books includes:
- Superman flies faster than a speeding bullet but does not make a sonic boom.
- Iron Man flies thanks to his boot jets, but does not have incredibly strong stomach muscles.
- Lots of problems where the energy for Superman style mentally guided flight, force fields, and the like. It's not enough to say "manipulation of gravitons." What is the mechanism for manipulating gravitons? Where does the energy come from to power the mechanism? How exactly does the superhero control the mechanism?
- Many powers come from "another dimension." I'd like to visit one of those. Oh. I guess that's impossible. Because they don't exist.
- Extra-dimensional travel seems ridiculous. There are no "parallel Earths."
- Time travel, like the second Flash (Barry Gordon). Teleportation, like Nightcrawler. Bleargh. Nuff said.
- How does Batman stay young after all those decades of crimefighting?
- Shrinking or growing, like Hank Pym. Where does the mass go?
- The whole telepathic communication with other beings, whether with humans or aniamls, makes no sense. Aquaman is silly. Another problem is the "danger sense" of Spider-Man.
- Any really strong character needs to have body armor or tough skin, or he is going to get seriously hurt. Take Sub-Mariner. He can punch holes in steel, but he cuts easily. He should have bled to death by now.
- Biological processes are never really explained. Just how does Wolverine's "fast healing" work? They never explain.
The best superhero characters are those that are most plausible. These include Batman, Iron Man, and the relatively low powered characters. It shouldn't be surprising that these are the characters with the most developed and most interesting back stories.A highly powered character like Superman can be made into a great character by weaving in a tragic flaw or two. Superman not only has to watch out for Kryptonite, he never has a satisfying love life that can last. (Yeah, the physics of him having sex. Har har.) Kal-El (Superman) is a brokenhearted man. He is the last of his race. He wants to help mankind, and will do whatever he can with his superpowers to be of service. But in the end, he is lonely, isolated. In some ways Kal-El is like a religious figure.
The other route is to make a character based on principles that are far beyond what modern physics can suggest. The prototype is Silver Surfer. While Silver Surfer is a great character, the reader can never really relate to a totally alien being like him.
The best route is a superhero without superpowers, or very few superpowers. Gadgets, martial arts, and wits fill the gaps. That's how to make a great superhero character.
So what's the signal of thought? What symbols would tell me what you're thinking?
My video compression blog
On the 1950's t.v. show, a bad guy in a bad suit would empty a revolver at Superman, who would puff out his chest and let the bullets ricochet off his body. Then the bad guy would hurl his empty gun at Superman, who would then duck.
Why duck? (Why not a chicken?)
Who cares? get outside, get a life, and get laid!
Mrs Kent used Clarks X-ray vision to cut the thread after she unraveled the blankets the infant was wrapped in
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
A very Funny essay titled
"Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex"
Puberty was rough for him
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
And, as in the movie Warlock, to undo creation, pronounce it back to front! The sound that will unravel the universe is: "Hee Haw!"
Eat at Joe's.
is just how much of it exists in the Universe and how come there is such an abundant supply of it when pieces were spread all over the universe and it was just one planet? Also how come so much of it ended up going towards Earth? I recall one story had a lot of it in the solar system asteroid belt and Superman had to use a lead lined ship to get past it. Apparenlty he needed blue Krytonite to use on Bizzaro or as a cure for red Krytonite or some other storyline.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
What I saw was him flying around Earth until the Earth stopped spinning and then started to spin backwards. Then he flew the other way and stopped it again and started it spinning the right way. From this I assumed that he caused the Earth to spin backwards.
:)
I admit it could be an effect of time travel relative to Superman and he had to change directions to get back in synch with the time stream and match vibrations or whatever with the Earth.
He should have contacted Dr. Who and bummed a ride on his TARDIS, it would have been safer.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Clark Kent is also an illegal alien having not been born on Earth, and obviously any papers saying so must have been forged or are false. So Clark Kent aka Superman is breaking Civil Law by claiming to be a US Citizen. To deal with this, use your own statement above from above: Kal-El was a test tube baby and sent to Earth in the ship inside of a pod. I believe that the official DC Comics line (from an issue of Wizard magazine long ago) is that Superman was still GESTATING while inside the pod (it would take quite a while for the pod to get to earth right?), and that he was officially "birthed" when the pod opened on American soil. So they can still say he's an all-american superhero (blah, blah, blah). If I recall he was found as an infant, not a newborn, so he was born in space, not US soil. On a couple of your other points, Superman's strength and all his other powers are supposed to be due to his cells absorbing our sun's yellow solar radiation, and not I believe due to any sort of gravity effect. Did you read the article I quoted? The professor said that Superman's strength came from Krypton having heavy gravity and that Krypton must have had nuetron star matter in its core. This of course goes against the DC explination that yellow solar radiation gives Superman his powers. Of course I'd side with DC as Superman loses his powers when exposed to red solar radiation.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
If I recall he was found as an infant, not a newborn, so he was born in space, not US soil.
The idea is that he wasn't conscious before the pod opened. He had never been outside of the gestation pod. They simply stuck his gestation pod into the escape pod (or mini-ship or whatever) and so even though he was pretty big by the time he got out (it is quite a distance from Krypton to Earth after all), he wasn't officially "birthed" until the pod opened on US soil. As I said, that's the DC comics line. It was said in response to a letter in Wizard saying that Clark Kent couldn't run for President because he wasn't born in the US. DC said he was.
Did you read the article I quoted?
Yes I did (it was pretty short), I believe the professor is wrong. The DC comics line has been that it's Superman guzzling yellow solar radiation. Even muscles trained in high gravity wouldn't allow someone to have nearly as much strength (or any of his other powers) as Supes has. Plus there used to be other forms of Kryptonite, some of which would strip him only of his powers, which reduced him to normal human strength, which wouldn't be possible if any of his extra strength was due to high grav.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
Its just that "Mississippi" didnt fit, because of the sig character limit. ...And if I had put "Kosciusko USA" I would have gotten even more replies to my sig than I already have.
No sig for the moment.