The Physics of Superheroes: Spectacular Second Edition Read Online Free PDF Page B

for science-fiction and fantasy writers, including Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, and H. P. Lovecraft. Certain comic-book writers had previously made their living as pulp-science-fiction writers. As such, they were walking storehouses of obscure historical and natural knowledge. The Hugo Award winner Alfred Bester, author of science fiction classics The Demolished Man and The Stars, My Destination , also wrote comics during the 1940s and penned the original Green Lantern oath. In an autobiographical essay, Bester tells of spending hours browsing through reference books in the New York Public Library searching for odd historical tidbits around which he could construct a story. Knowing a lot of trivia could also help these pulp fiction writers’ financial bottom line, as these authors were paid by the word. Consequently they would frequently pad their work with all sorts of barely relevant tangents, as reflected in this joke:
    Q: How many pulp fiction writers does it take to change a lightbulb?
     
    A: The history of the lightbulb is a long and interesting tale, beginning in 1879 in the quiet town of Menlo Park, New Jersey, and continuing on to the present day.
    While the Silver Age comic-book writers may have had an economic incentive to be verbose, it is also likely that they were motivated by considerations of self-preservation to inject educational elements into their stories. As mentioned above, the introduction of science facts and principles into these stories may have arisen from a genuine desire on the part of the writers and editors to educate, or perhaps simply to avoid any further congressional attention.
A PHYSICIST READS A COMIC BOOK
    Reading classic and contemporary superhero comic books now, with the benefit of a Ph.D. in physics, I have found many examples of the correct description and application of physics concepts. Of course, nearly without exception, the use of superpowers themselves involves direct violations of the known laws of physics, requiring a deliberate and willful suspension of disbelief. However, many comics needed only a single “miracle exception”—one extraordinary thing you have to buy into—and the rest that follows as the hero and villain square off would be consistent with the principles of science. While the intent of these stories has always primarily been to entertain, if at the same time the reader was also educated, either deliberately or accidentally, this was a happy bonus.
    It is these happy bonuses, such as the one illustrated in fig. 2, that I wish to consider here. In this book, I’ll present an overview of certain scientific principles, using examples of their correct application as found in comic books. I will describe characters and situations that illuminate various physics concepts, rather than systematically considering the physics underlying an array of superheroes. (Consequently, it is conceivable that your favorite superhero may not be discussed. I know that several of my own favorites didn’t make the cut.) By the end of this book you will have been exposed to the key concepts in an introductory physics class, with a little bit of upper-level quantum mechanics and solid-state physics thrown in for fun. By examining the physical principles underlying certain comic-book adventures, we will at the same time gain an understanding of the mechanisms behind many real-world applications, from television to telephones to stellar nucleosynthesis of the elements.
    I will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the Silver Age period in comic-book history (from the reintroduction of the Flash in Showcase # 4 in 1956 to the death of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man # 121 in 1973) because the writers of this period made more of an effort than those in the Golden Age to incorporate scientific principles into their stories. In addition, the Silver Age characters have demonstrated lasting popularity, and their iconic status will make it easier to refer to their exploits