If superpowers were real: Super speed - Joy Lin

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What if super speed wasn't just the stuff of epic comic book stories? Is it scientifically possible to be super speedy? In this series, Joy Lin tackles six superpowers and reveals just how scientifically realistic they can be to us mere mortals.

Lesson by Joy Lin, animation by Cognitive Media.

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.