Superheroes: The Logic of Superman
In the first chapter of James Kakalios novel, The Physics of Superheroes, the reader gets to explore the connection between Superman and the ideas of force and motion. Superman is one of the most beloved superheroes in the DC Comic lineup, but his blatant disregard for the laws of Physics should get him thrown in a galactic jail cell. Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster started off their creation of Superman with a mildly believable, science fiction based powers. Our original high jumping hero gained his ability to leap over buildings from the fact that Earth's gravitational field is much weaker than what he was born to on Krypton, his sadly destroyed home planet. Supposedly Superman's DNA is encoded for developing strong muscles and bones suited to the stronger gravitational field of Krypton. Siegel and Shuster were unconcerned with the theories of heritage, genetics, and environmental adaptation, but who really needs logic when our superhero could be fighting villains.
The criminals facing off against our golden boy started off as run of the mill corrupt leaders and legislative personnel, but soon evolved into evil criminal masterminds with plans for world, and sometimes galactic, domination. In order to defeat the new batch of baddies Superman gained new powers. This is where the physics really gets shot down. Incredible new abilities like supervision, superstrength, and many other super gifts cropped up all over the place and disregarded the previous understanding that Superman got his power because the gravitational field of Earth was smaller than Krypton.
In a scramble to patch together the already threadbare logic of this comic, the color of the sun was blamed. Krypton now features a red sun, which is supposed to be wildly different than Earth's yellow sun. Thanks to this miniscule change in spectral features we are able to ignore the fact that such features are almost entirely independent of the chemical composition of the gases in Earth's atmosphere and would thus cause no effect on Superman himself. The great Metropolis Marvel breaks through physics once again, landing in the wild world of fantasy, a land far removed from science fiction yet not entirely unreachable.
As the Man of Steel becomes more powerful with every villainous encounter, it becomes almost impossible for the authors to find a suitable danger to challenge this godlike force. In steps Kryptonite! Thanks to these radioactive fragments of Superman's home planet the comics can go on longer than a single strip. The presence of kryptonite becomes so effective that a rainbow spectrum of types begins to appear, each with their own affect on Superman. How this Man of Tomorrow is able to function despite the daily presence of radioactive isotopes on Earth is a mystery to us all.
Now if we are to focus on the original, golden age Superman before the introduction of fantasy we are able to understand the importance of his ability to leap over buildings. It can be deduced through the application of Newton's three laws and a shaky grasp on logic that Superman's legs exert a force greater than his normal standing weight that will allow him to jump up. This also means that Superman must push with a great enough force to be able to reach the top of a building or surpass it. It is also important for the Metropolis Marvel to begin the leap with a very large initial velocity because his speed will slow down over the arc of his jump due to gravity. The larger the initial velocity the longer his rising time will be before gravity starts to bring him down again.
By applying the rules of velocity and acceleration, and then relating this to the force of gravity, we are able to discover that gravity on Krypton must have been fifteen times greater than on Earth for any of this convoluted logic to make sense. Thankfully, our red caped hero remains in the pages of our comic books and not in the real world. Disregarding the laws of physics seems to be a favorite pastime for the writers of comic books and I look forward to the discovery of more illogical, but nonetheless compelling theories for superhero abilities.
The criminals facing off against our golden boy started off as run of the mill corrupt leaders and legislative personnel, but soon evolved into evil criminal masterminds with plans for world, and sometimes galactic, domination. In order to defeat the new batch of baddies Superman gained new powers. This is where the physics really gets shot down. Incredible new abilities like supervision, superstrength, and many other super gifts cropped up all over the place and disregarded the previous understanding that Superman got his power because the gravitational field of Earth was smaller than Krypton.
In a scramble to patch together the already threadbare logic of this comic, the color of the sun was blamed. Krypton now features a red sun, which is supposed to be wildly different than Earth's yellow sun. Thanks to this miniscule change in spectral features we are able to ignore the fact that such features are almost entirely independent of the chemical composition of the gases in Earth's atmosphere and would thus cause no effect on Superman himself. The great Metropolis Marvel breaks through physics once again, landing in the wild world of fantasy, a land far removed from science fiction yet not entirely unreachable.
As the Man of Steel becomes more powerful with every villainous encounter, it becomes almost impossible for the authors to find a suitable danger to challenge this godlike force. In steps Kryptonite! Thanks to these radioactive fragments of Superman's home planet the comics can go on longer than a single strip. The presence of kryptonite becomes so effective that a rainbow spectrum of types begins to appear, each with their own affect on Superman. How this Man of Tomorrow is able to function despite the daily presence of radioactive isotopes on Earth is a mystery to us all.
Now if we are to focus on the original, golden age Superman before the introduction of fantasy we are able to understand the importance of his ability to leap over buildings. It can be deduced through the application of Newton's three laws and a shaky grasp on logic that Superman's legs exert a force greater than his normal standing weight that will allow him to jump up. This also means that Superman must push with a great enough force to be able to reach the top of a building or surpass it. It is also important for the Metropolis Marvel to begin the leap with a very large initial velocity because his speed will slow down over the arc of his jump due to gravity. The larger the initial velocity the longer his rising time will be before gravity starts to bring him down again.
By applying the rules of velocity and acceleration, and then relating this to the force of gravity, we are able to discover that gravity on Krypton must have been fifteen times greater than on Earth for any of this convoluted logic to make sense. Thankfully, our red caped hero remains in the pages of our comic books and not in the real world. Disregarding the laws of physics seems to be a favorite pastime for the writers of comic books and I look forward to the discovery of more illogical, but nonetheless compelling theories for superhero abilities.
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