James Kakalios

School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Minnesota

While it is not quite true that one can learn physics from superhero comic books, it is the motivation for a Freshman Seminar class I teach at the University of Minnesota entitled: “Everything I Know About Science I Learned from Reading Comic Books”. This class covers everything in physics from Isaac Newton to the transistor, but there's not an inclined plane or pulley in sight. Rather, all of the examples come from superhero comic books, and as much as possible, those times that the superheroes get their physics right! This class inspired me to write a general audience popular science book: The Physics of Superheroes.

In this talk I will describe some of the examples from the four-color pages of comic books, along with recent Hollywood movies, used in this class and my book to illustrate basic physical principles such as forces and motion, conservation of energy, electricity and magnetism and elementary quantum mechanics. For example, have you ever wondered how strong you would have to be to “leap a tall building in a single bound?” If you could run as fast as the Flash, could you run up the side of a building or across the ocean, and more importantly, how frequently would you need to eat? If Spider-Man's webbing is as strong as real spider's silk, could it support his weight as he swings between buildings? And who is faster: Superman or the Flash? These and other pressing, real-life questions will be answered in this talk.