He’s faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings in a single bound – but do Superman’s super-powers make sense outside of the comic strip when studied in a lab? Premiering Sun., June 25 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel, The Science of Superman interviews the experts and uses highlights from comic books, television and film – including a sneak peek at scenes from the 2006 summer blockbuster, Superman Returns – to examine the science behind the Man of Steel’s extraordinary powers.
Since Superman’s comic book debut in 1938, he has astounded generations of fans with his crime-fighting, damsel-saving powers, but, if broken down and analyzed according to the physical laws of the universe, can his amazing feats be explained, or are they simply great fictional devices? The Science of Superman examines Superman’s most famous powers, including flight, super-strength, speed and near-invulnerability and reveals that in some cases, the Man of Steel’s creators developed these traits in line with complicated scientific laws. But – to make Superman the superhero he is – often times these rules needed to be bent or broken to achieve dramatic effect and this one-hour special separates the physics facts from science fiction.
During his early years in the comics, the key to Superman’s strength could be captured in one word: gravity. According to the calculations of physics professor James Kakalios, Superman’s home planet Krypton – 1,000 times larger than Earth – had a gravitational pull 15 times greater than on our own planet. What does this mean? Consider the Moon – smaller than Earth, its gravity is only one sixth of what we experience everyday. A visitor to the Moon weighs considerably less there than home on Earth, as evidenced by astronauts visiting the Moon leaping over lunar rocks in, well, a single effortless bound.
In 1939, as the Superman comics were beginning to catch on with the public, the publishers at DC Comics revealed some of the first real data on the science of Superman. In these early incarnations, Superman couldn’t fly, but he could leap tall buildings in a single bound. DC Comics explained that Superman could leap 200 metres – about the height of a 30- to 40-story building. The Science of Superman breaks this down and explains that to jump 200 metres, Superman has to achieve an initial velocity of more than 60 metres per second – that’s 225km per hour! – and to do this, the leg muscles of this man in tights must provide a force of 2,554kg.
This extraordinary leaping ability evolved into Superman’s fictional ability to fly. Physicist Michael Dennin explains that if Superman were indeed to fly, he would need proper aerodynamics and the assistance of some kind of propulsion system for any kind of flight. Opting for a cape instead of a jet-pack, science comes down on the side of fiction with regards to a flying Superman.
In 1938 Superman introduced himself to comic book readers by lifting a car over his head – a mere warm-up act before fixing the San Andreas Fault during a major earthquake in 1978’s Superman: The Movie and grabbing an airplane in mid-air and carrying it safely to Earth in the upcoming feature Superman Returns. But how did Superman become super-strong? The difference between Earth and Krypton gravity covers some of the job, but how do experts explain his invulnerability to falling debris, bullets and other deadly projectiles? In the original comics, “nothing less than a bursting shell”
could break Superman’s skin, and by the 1950s, he could withstand an atomic blast – which raises the question: If the Man of Steel is truly invulnerable, is his skin structured like steel to withstand such powerful forces? Would his skin feel hard or soft? And if his body were strong enough to survive a nuclear explosion, what kind of super-device would Superman need to cut his hair or shave that chiseled chin? The Science of Superman experts look to nature and suggest that Superman’s super-skin might be something like the exoskeletons of insects and other armoured animals.
Further, they compare his X-ray and heat vision abilities with animals with sight that far surpasses the human 20/20 ideal.
The Science of Superman also addresses why Superman sometimes seems to strains to lift a car while at other times lifts even heavier items effortlessly and queries how many heroic tasks Superman can perform before he gets tired; does he require more oxygen than mere mortals; and how many calories would he need to consume daily to execute his super powers? And the ultimate super-trick – is it possible to turn back time and rescue the lovely Lois Lane by reversing the rotation of the planet? To do so, Superman would have to fly in the face of physics hero Albert Einstein, travelling faster than the speed of light at a whopping 300,000km per second!