2002 Comic Book News Archives

Jor-El on Krypton

May 10, 2002: The Physics Behind Comic Books

In an article titled "Comic Books Used to Teach Physics", Associated Press writer Andres Ybarra looks at the scientific truth behind comic book superheroes and asks questions like: "Is Spiderman's web really strong enough to support him as he swings from building to building?" and "Why did Superman's home planet of Krypton explode?"

Here's an excerpt from the article in reference to Superman and Krypton...

The explosion of Krypton, part of Superman lore, is one of those cases where the comic book writers got the physics right, Kakalios says.

In the early Superman comics, the explanation for his superpowers was that he came from a planet whose gravity was much greater than Earth's, Kakalios says. Thus a hero so strong that on Earth, he could leap a tall building in a single bound.

Kakalios calculated Krypton's gravity by working backward from the force required to leap a building on Earth. From there, Kakalios concluded that Superman's planet must have had a core of superdense - and dangerously unstable - material. "Then you realize why Krypton exploded," he says.

Visit the Yahoo News website to read the complete article.



2002 Comic News

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