Some superheros can move faster than the wind.
The men in Apollo 10 reached
a record-breaking speed of around 25,000 miles per hour
when the shuttle re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1969.
Wouldn't we save a lot of time
to be able to move that fast?
But, what's the catch?
Air is not empty.
Elements like oxygen and nitrogen,
even countless dust particles,
make up the air around us.
When we move past these things in the air,
we're rubbing against them
and creating a lot of friction,
which results in heat.
Just like rubbing your hands together warms them up
or rubbing two sticks together makes fire,
the faster objects rub together,
the more heat is generated.
So, if we're running at 25,000 miles per hour,
the heat from friction would burn our faces off.
Even if we somehow withstood the heat,
the sand and dirt in the air
would still scrape us up
with millions of tiny cuts
all happening at the same time.
Even seen the front bumper or grill of a truck?
What do you think all the birds and bugs would do
to your open eyes or exposed skin?
OK, so you'll wear a mask
to avoid destroying your face.
What about people in buildings
between you and your destination?
It takes us approximately one-fifth of a second
to react to what we see.
By the time we see what is ahead of us
and react to it -
time times velocity equals distance
equals one-fifth of a second times 25,000
equals 1.4 miles
- we would have gone past it
or through it by over a mile.
We're either going to kill ourselves
by crashing into the nearest wall in super speed,
or worse, if we're indestructible,
we've essentially turned our bodies into missiles
that destroy everything in our path.
So, long distance travel at 25,000 miles per hour
would leave us burning up,
covered in bugs,
and leaves no time to react.