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The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios is a wonderful book. He's a physicist who likes comics, and in the book he discusses how superhero powers would work. He's been a condensed matter experimentalist (in his own words) for 20 years, and is a physics professor. He's written books, and even shown up on a card in Trivial Pursuit.
Here's how the physics of superheroes works:
Each hero gets a "gimme." For example, the gimme for Magneto would be that he somehow has the ability to manipulate magnetic fields. That's ok, this is a comic book. However, the comic takes place in a familiar environment (our Universe, effectively), so the laws of physics involving magnetism should still be in effect. If he can change a magnetic field, he shouldn't be able to affect something with his ability that is not normally affected by that. That sort of realism sucks us in, and lets us enjoy the story more.
That being said, quantum physics is a pretty strange area of science. It turns out that a lot of the crazy powers that comic book writers give superheroes actually could make scientific sense. Some writers are more interested in making sure that they do than others. One group of people that fits firmly in that former category are the people making the Watchmen movie.
They hired him to do consulting on the movie. This isn't the normal kind of consulting, though. They seemed genuinely interested in making the movie as accurate as possible, even for things that people wouldn't know the difference about. Mr. Kakalios mentioned that the production designer (Alex McDowell, I believe) said to him "I want to know what is around the corner at the end of the hall, even if we never go down the corridor."
They asked him all sorts of questions. What did a physics lab look like in the 1980s? What did it look like in the 1950s? What do physicists write on their blackboards? Why is Dr. Manhattan blue?
Ok, they might not have asked him that one, but he answered it for us. According to him, it's likely one of two reasons.
- He's depressed.
- Cherenkov radiation. This causes things to glow blue. I don't want to make my article too science-y, so check out the Wikipedia article on it if you're interested. You'll notice that the blue almost exactly matches with the blue of Dr. Manhattan from the trailer.
He went over a few other interesting things.
The Owl Ship
The Owl Ship's gimme would be its power supply. Assuming that it had an ample supply of power, it doesn't really break any laws of physics. Based on the weight that he estimated (he later found out that he was a little light), he determined that it would take over 4500 gallons of gas for it to fly from New York to Antarctica.
Dr. Manhattan
He was able to describe just about all of Dr. Manhattan's antics in the terms of quantum physics. If you're not familiar with Dr. Manhattan, then the rest of this article probably won't make much sense, but he gained his abilities when he lost his "intrinsic field." This would apparently make a person (or whatever else that happened to) effectively dissipate, much like he did in the comic.
There were some great questions and answers at the end of the panel. During the question/answer period, we learned:
Telepathy in comics is not too far-fetched. One would simply need to be able to filter out radio waves in order to read the brain. This isn't much different than ECGs, for instance. The trick is being able to understand what you're reading. Likewise, one could project into someone else's brain by changing the electromagnetic field there.
If you're traveling just under the speed of light, it's impossible to throw a baseball in front of you. Don't try it. Don't throw it behind you either, it'll probably hurt someone.
If people had large enough wings and hollow bones, they might be able to fly. They'd be pretty large though and probably best for gliding.
Superman is the unlikeliest superhero from a physics perspective. There isn't that much difference between red and yellow suns. His ability to fly doesn't make much sense. X-Ray vision wouldn't work that way. Sorry.
Iron Man is one of the most likely superheroes. His power source is his "gimme." Exoskeletons and cybernetic helmets are already in the works. This is good news for any playboy billionaires out there.
He was asked if there were any new tricks that he'd like to see with existing superheroes involving real physics. He mentioned the Flash. All humans have an electromagnetic field. It's normally pretty weak. However, the fields become more powerful the more quickly you move. At Flash's speeds, he'd have most people's mailboxes following him.
He then mentioned that we were almost out of time and that he could take two more really quick questions. An intrepid querier asked him "Can you explain the physics behind wormholes?"
He responded, "Yes. Next question."
Keep an eye out for the Watchmen movie, even if you hadn't read the comic. It should be good.
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