• Entertainment & Gaming

    The Physics of Spiderman 3

    By Posted on 1.22.2008 1 Comments

    Spiderman is arguably the most popular cinematic superhero since Superman, and with the imminent release of the DVD of Spiderman 3 on October 30th, what better moment to do a little Spiderman 3 physics? In most successful movie franchises its hard for the sequels to match the original, and in the case of superhero action movies the cohesiveness of plot and dialogue tend to diminish in favor of ever more spectacular (and improbable) action sequences and special effects. Spiderman 3 is no exception to this phenomenon, however, that said, its still really fun to watch and the CG sequences are truly amazing. (check out the Birth of Sandman scene). Now when analyzing the physics in a superhero fantasy obviously you have to suspend disbelief and accept the basic (impossible) premise of the movie if you want to have any fun. No matter how cool it would be, being bitten by a genetically enhanced super spider cannot change your own genetic structure and give you amazing super powers as it does Peter Parker. But at least hes still humanoid—unlike the Sandman who seems to offer proof that the human soul exists; not just because hes actually a nice guy deep down, but because you can blast him into a million little pieces (of quartz) thus destroying his body altogether, and yet he can reconstitute himself at will. Allowing for such fantastic elements, it may be instructive to apply some basic Newtonian mechanics to a few of the action sequences in order to analyze Spidermans astonishingly resilient physiology. We see in the climactic battle scene (scene 43 on the DVD), that Spiderman can survive a fall of 80 stories without a single broken bone, concussion, or presumably any internal bleeding. Using Newtons Second Law (Fnet = ma) lets calculate how much force the ground exerts on Spiderman upon impact. First of all, for an 80 story plummet, Spidey will be close to his terminal velocity before he crashes. In the case of a skydiver, or a falling Spiderman, 60 m/s (about 130 mi/hr) is a reasonable and conservative estimate. What forces are acting on our superhero during contact with the ground? There are only two: his weight force acting in a downward direction, and the upward force of the ground. It is the value of the force that the ground exerts on Spidey that we are concerned about. Applying the second law we get: Fnet = Fground mg = ma where mg is Spidermans weight (m is his mass which we estimate to be about 70 kg and g is the acceleration due to gravity), and a is the upward acceleration that Spiderman undergoes as the ground brings him to an abrupt halt. Since most collisions with hard objects (like concrete) occur on time scales of approximately one one-hundredth of a second we can calculate Fground as follows: Fground = mg + ma = mg + mΔv/Δt = (70 kg)(9.8 m/s2) + (70 kg)(60 m/s)/0.01 sec  ≈ 420,000 Newtons (thats 47 tons!). Spideys acceleration upon impact is 6000 m/s2 or 600 gs. Since most bones will break if the body experiences forces exceeding 90,000 N, and concussions are pretty much inevitable for normal humans experiencing accelerations greater than 100 gs we can already see that Spiderman has no ordinary skeletal system! In particular consider Spidermans skull. It must be constructed of some truly phenomenal material. In Spiderman 3 our hero experiences at least a half dozen collisions of his head with various solid objects. In the most violent of these (scene 47), Spidey gets flung into a steel beam with a speed that we estimate to be at least 15 m/s. Since he is brought to a stop by the beam and almost all of the force is exerted directly on his head (in about 0.01 second), the force on his head will be about: Fnet = ma = mΔv/Δt = (70 kg)(15m/s)/0.01 second = 105,000 N. According to some experiments, a direct impact to the skull exceeding 873 N will always result in a fracture (in fact the skull may fracture when exposed to forces much less than that), but Spideys skull is capable of withstanding forces at least 120 times as big. I guess when M.J. says Peter is hard-headed she really means it!  —Adam Weiner

    9.24.2008 at 01:46pm - Comment by Sparkysx

    Well Spiderman is not an ordinary human, there are other lifeforms on this plant that can absorb higher impacts than humans can. What would happen to a spider if you threw it hard as hard as you could against a wall? Probably not much...........

  • Science

    Raisin' Hair

    By Posted on 1.16.2008 1 Comments

    When I was a boy, my dad told me that three things are inevitable in our family: death, taxes, and male pattern baldness. Like most sons, I'm forever trying to prove him wrong. That's why, 30 years later, I decided to get a hair transplant.

    But not any old hair transplant. Certainly not one like my buddy Brad's -- he wound up with unsightly clumps sprouting from his scalp. Nor one like friend John's, which led to days of suffering: "The anesthesia made my face swell up like Quasimodo," he says.

    9.24.2008 at 01:38pm - Comment by Sparkysx

    That was done a while ago, you filled the crown in by now?

  • Technology

    Rebuilding the Troops

    By Posted on 6.24.2008 14 Comments

    Skin guns. Organ printers. Pig dust. Biochemist Alan Russell believes tools like these could one day be standard-issue for the battlefield medic. The skin gun would heal burns. The organ printer would replace badly wounded livers, kidneys, even hearts. And the pig dust?

    9.24.2008 at 01:34pm - Comment by Sparkysx

    Just because this will be able to heal scars it gets my vote. If I had billions of dollars I'd donate it to this cause just so I could get rid of this 13cm scar that resides on my head! (I know other people have a much greater need than me)



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!
tags_sprite.png
POP_embeddedForm_cover_May09.jpg