Superhero movies almost always provoke in the general public some questions about several concepts of Physics. We did some analysis and listed curiosities related to the super-skills of the heroes that make up the Avengers. Be sure to check it out!
Iron Man Energy
After an accident involving shrapnel, Tony Stark wake up with a potent electromagnet (learn how to do one by clicking on here) on your chest, whose main function is slow up the advance of the metallic fragments of the explosive that are directed to your heart through the magnetic force.
That electromagnet was installed by his cellmate and scientist Ho Yinsen, who later helped him create a miniature of the reactorArc, a reactor of cold nuclear fusion used as sourceinenergy for you electromagnet and also to feed your famous metallic exoskeleton.
Tony Stark, one of the Avengers heroes, in his armor
(Credit: Creative_Stockphoto / Shutterstock.com)
The Arc reactor was created by Howard Stark, scientist and father of Tony, who was motivated to obtain a new and powerful source of energy. The first design of this reactor is very similar to a type of nuclear reactor
experimental: O Tokamak. It is a powerful electromagnet in a toroidal shape (similar to a donut) that confines, in a small region of vacuum, a bundle of plasma in very hightemperatures, promoting reactions highlyenergetic in nuclear fission.There are currently three reactors Tokamak in Brazil, all used for the research at major universities. The figure below shows an artistic design of the interior of a reactor Tokamak.
Thor's hammer
Thor, the god of Norse mythology, is one of the members of the Avengers. He is the user of the mighty hammer Mjolnir. The weapon is used by Thor as a conduit of his powers, capable of generating large electric currents, return to its holder's hand freely, regardless of distances, in addition to transporting its user when shaken, possibly due to its large inertia.
According to the comics, the hammer was forged from the core of a star in its final stages of life, due to a big collapsegravitational, probably a dwarf star or even a neutron star. THE density of these celestial bodies is among the largest in the entire Universe, reaching up to 1017 kg/m3. Thus, Thor's hammer should have a mass of somemillions in kilograms.
Furthermore, there is an "enchantment" about this object, which becomes infinitely heavy in the hands of those who are not worthy of handling it. The following figure shows an artistic conception of a neutron star:
Incredible Hulk
Bruce Banner Transformed Into The Hulk Superhero
(Credit: Ewa Studio / Shutterstock.com)
After an accident involving a large exposure to gamma radiation, during the detonation of an experimental bomb, the scientist Brucebanner developed the power to transform into a creature of colossal strength and greenish skin, with 2.30 m tall and about 630 kg, quite impressive numbers when compared to Bruce, an ordinary human being, 1.60 m and 58 kg. As impressive as her transformation is, something is even more intriguing: the origin of your great mass additional.
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Possibly a lotsinenergy was absorbed during the eventradioactive that transformed him, since, according to the equation of Einstein, there is a relationship between rest mass and energy, given by E = mc2, in which ç is the speed of light (3.108 m/s). Therefore, the additional mass acquired in its transformation, about 570 kg, is equivalent to:
In this way, with each new transformation, the green giant uses an amount of energy similar that consumed throughout the territory of the United States of America in 2008, according to data published on the website of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Also, this amount of energy is about 100 times bigger that the energy released by the explosion of atomic bomb most powerful ever produced, the Tsar Bomb.
The gamma radiation released in nuclear fission, the same one that transformed Bruce Banner, is highly ionizing, that is, it has the power to boot electrons in atoms and molecules and even to change the DNA of living beings. However, the high intensity present in these gamma rays is very harmful to living beings and would probably kill an ordinary human being.
Spider-Man's Web
Real spiders would produce webs as strong as the hero's if they had the same dimension
(Credit: Anton_Ivanov / Shutterstock.com)
Peter parker uses its webs to immobilize enemies and to move around. In a specific scene in the second film, the hero uses his webs to slow down a large train that would fall into a river to rest. Loading almost thousand passengers, New York trains move up to 85 km/h, with a mass of 200,000 kg. Therefore, according to the dynamics and kinematics calculations arising from the Newton's 2nd Law, the webs must have exercised a strength about 300,000 N about the train.
These values indicate that the webs are even more resistant than cables ofsteel, but most impressive is the fact that some real spiders would produce the same feat if their webs had the same dimensions as those produced by the hero2. Some synthetic materials such as nanotubes of çarbon they may have similar and even greater resistances. Who knows in the future we will have these materials in place of steel cables?
Captain America shield
The shield used by the original avenger, Captain Steve Rogers, is able to absorb vibration and impact, stocking all your kinetic energy and returning it in the sensethe opposite. Furthermore, through it, Captain America can jump from great heights without suffering any damage, as all the impact is absorbed by the shield material: an extremely resistant fictitious metal called in Vibranium.
According to the origins of this material presented in the comics, all of Earth's Vibranium came in one meteor, about 10 thousand years ago. We leave the following question here: if the Vibranium is capable of redirecting the kinetic energy of any type of impact, the drop of meteorite it should have had catastrophic effects, causing massive destruction.
*Credit: Anton_Ivanov / Shutterstock.com
By Rafael Hellerbrock
Graduated in Physics
