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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."
I thought it was Jorel who sent his son to Earth. Wasn't Kalel the son's (i.e. Superman's) name?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
The "el" ending means "god" (essentially), so it's not surprising that these names end up sounding slightly Jewish.
In a Lois and Clark episode, Superman said that he had a small field of invincibility around him that protected his clothing or anything else within its range. I believe that was in response to Lois asking why his suit could be damaged in the closet, but it was never damaged when he was wearing it.
And the muscular cyborg German dudes dance with sexy French Canadians
For a different point of view, go to Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. In particular, check out their write-up on Spider Man.
Here's an article (pdf) that Kakalios wrote for the Star Tribune. It discusses the simple physics behind a 1973 Spider-Man issue.
The Original article appeared in Physics Today, in November 2002.
what sig?
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"
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.
actually no. nice try though.
#1 - any deflection in the bullet path ("ricochet") would have to at some point, engage the material as its path curved..
#2 - the material itself would be mashed (and probably torn) just by the sheer collision of a fast bullet and the wall.
At least that was the way they told it back around 1960.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
and, to paraphrase Calvin, "apparently her superpower is being able to fit into that skin-tight suit".
That was Hobbes. To which Calvin replied, "Nah, they can all do 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.
Not really, the name was SPELLED YHWH, since they didn't need to write the vowels (they were understood). That is definitely not how it was PRONOUNCED.
Some have said the vowels came from the Greek "Adonai" to give you, roughly, Yahowah. That is convenient but not 100% accurate. Other names like Joshua (Yehoshua) and many others contain the divine name have and preserved the proper vowels through common use. The pronunciation was almost certainly Yehowah in Hebrew -- and in English it *is* "Jehovah" (no need to mix languages in a sentence).
How's THAT for offtopic? I never expected to discuss Hebrew phonetics in an article about comic book physics!
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