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 superheroes 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.

Ever 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?

Okay, so you'll wear a mask

to avoid destroying your face.

But what about the 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 x velocity = distance

= 1/5 of a second x 25,000 mph

= 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
at 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.

What about short bursts

to a location we can see

with no obstacles in between?

Okay, let's say a bullet

is about to hit a beautiful damsel in distress.

So, our hero swoops in at super speed,

grabs her,

and carries her to safety.

That sounds very romantic,

but, in reality,
that girl will probably suffer

more damage
from the hero than the bullet

if he moved her at super speed.

Newton's First Law of Motion
deals with inertia,

which is the resistance to a change

in its state of motion.

So, an object will continue moving

or staying at the same place

unless something changes it.

Acceleration is the rate
the velocity changes over time.

When the girl at rest,

velocity = 0 mph,

begins accelerating to reach
the speed within seconds,

velocity increases rapidly

to 25,000 mph,

her brain would crash
into the side of her skull.

And, when she stops suddenly,

velocity decreases
rapidly back to 0 mph,

her brain would crash into
the other side of her skull,

turning her brain into mush.

The brain is too fragile
to handle the sudden movement.

So is every part of her body,
for that matter.

Remember, it's not the speed
that causes the damage

because the astronauts
survived Apollo 10,

it's the acceleration

or sudden stop

that causes our internal organs

to crash into the front of our bodies

the way we move forward in a bus

when the driver slams on the brakes.

What the hero did to the girl

is mathematically the same
as running her over

with a space shuttle at maximum speed.

She probably died instantly
at the point of impact.

He's going to owe
this poor girl's family an apology

and a big fat compensation check.

Oh, and possibly face jail time.

Doctors have to carry
liability insurance

just in case they make
a mistake and hurt their patients.

I wonder how much
superhero insurance policy would cost.

Now, which superpower physics lesson

will you explore next?

Shifting body size and content,

super speed,

flight,

super strength,

immortality,

and

invisibility.