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Super Hero Science - 03 - HD (Patreon)

Published:
2019-07-18 05:11:32
Edited:
2019-07-22 07:12:17
Imported:
2021-02

Content

EDIT - Darn it, this was supposed to become public last Friday. Part 4 is here, btw 

What no Rich you're not George or Tensaided what are you doing

Commentary

All that is required to take an interest in science is to discover something of personal relevance. 

I gave a good deal of thought as to which comic shop dweller should speak up, and I decided to go with the one clearest to early Tedd in priorities. So... Yay Rich...?

I SAID "YAY" O_O

Non-Newtonian

Confession: I likely would have failed to make Tedd sound knowledgeable in panel three if I had not been reminded of that term by readers. I have heard it before, and again, it was because of Mythbusters, but I had been planning to just refer to this general idea without the mention of anti-newt-conans or whatever.

The general concept is one I've heard many times applies to super defenses. Not specifically to explain why someone's skin appears normal, and potentially not even involving skin, but just the idea that *something* activates when hit, or about to be hit, by something with enough speed and/or force.

I believe I've most commonly heard this as explanation for how individual force shields work in science fiction, though I haven't been keeping track or anything. I'm pretty sure it's a thing in Mass Effect, though if I'm mistaken, about ten thousand people will let me know.

Files

Comments

Jared Fattmann

Dune is the earliest/best example I'm aware of

Jared Fattmann
>>24847678

I think that still puts you above me, in that I got bored and didn't finish it (almost the only novel I've ever done that with), which makes it active heresy instead of laziness or whatever.

Kyman201

Yeah, the shields in Mass Effect mention that they activate when they detect objects of a certain velocity approaching, which is why a bullet will get stopped but you don't knock over a chair

Thisguy

Yeah, good call with Tedd’s non Newtonian fluids interpretation. That’s what jumped to my mind as soon as Rich said it in the 2nd panel.

Daniel

The problem with that explanation is that sharp objects do not have to be traveling with great force to cut.

Erin Halfelven at BigCloset
>>24848840

If the trigger is based on unit of force per unit of area, then a sharp object would be stopped just as surely as a fast-moving blunt object.

PSadlon
>>24847678

Or watched the excellent 1984 movie or the so-so 2000 syfy channel mini series.

Anonymous
>>24848840

Possibly. (That then becomes something different from a non-Newtonian fluid, though.) The tricky bit is that the amount of force isn't usually defined by the cutting object, but by the object that's resisting the cut. For example, when cutting warm butter, the amount of force (and even the amount of force per unit of area) is very very low even if you cut it quite deeply. So a trigger based on force per unit of area isn't all that well-defined. You could simply say that superhero skin can't be cut, though. Cutting requires separating pieces from each other, which is entirely different from moving things rapidly and causing blunt-force trauma, and there are a number of things that are quite floppy but hard to cut. For example, consider a water balloon with a layer of chainmail over it.... So I think a "also, you can't cut them" addendum is entirely reasonable. One problem is that, even if the knife doesn't cut, it could potentially cause localized bruising by being pointy, and we don't want that either. So I think what you want is to say that slow deformation of the superhero's flesh by small amounts takes only a normal amount of force -- you can poke them in the belly with your finger and make a dent like a normal human -- but to cause a fast or large deformation requires a vastly larger amount of force than for a normal human. (Or you could go with the more interesting case of "can't be deformed quickly and can't be cut", which means you can't shoot them usefully and knives aren't especially useful either, but you may be able to give them small bruises by poking them with a knife, and you could slowly crush them.)

AstroChaos
>>24847678

Could be worse Jared, every person I know that got through the book and into the series never could make it past book 5 where it time skips like 10,000 years but Duncan Idaho is still alive... Somehow

Anonymous

In Stargate it was a bit of a trope for a couple of seasons that the big bads had personal shields that could ignore bullets but Jack would throw a knife and it'd thwack right into them...

Anonymous

Otoh, stabbing them once with a thrown knife wasn't enough to do more than really annoy them so, yeah. (healing factor type thing)

Daryl Sawyer
>>24848840

Like in Dune, where their shields stop bullets, but not the slow blade.

Some Ed
>>24847678

I only finished that book because I didn't realize where it was going until something like 80%+ of the way through. But the general course of the rest of the series seemed pretty well set, and everyone I know who's read the series has agreed with where the story was going... as if the mere names of the rest of the books wasn't enough of a spoiler. I don't need to read that stuff.

Jere

wow, Grace's eyes, big little big .. button :D

Anonymous

You know, Ted does know a literal superhero. Granted, Cheerledra hasn't deflected bullets yet, but maybe it's time for some Shazam-esque scientific research.

Foradain
>>24906827

I should hope that Tedd can exceed that level of Science! skill.

Anonymous

Speaking of non-Newtonian fluids: ooblek (can also be known as goo) is the classic example. Which is probably why the science teacher was having them make it in the first storyline.