Comments | skulan: Getting the Run-Around

skulan

Getting the Run-Around

Jun 19, 2009 21:47

Here's a bit of fun. The Flash is one of my favorite DC superheroes, mainly because I like the whole speedster thing, and nobody does that better than the Flash. I'm also a big fan of the Justice League animated series. If you've seen most of that show, you may remember this scene, from Justice League Unlimited (YouTube clip; spoiler warning). ( Read more... )

Comments 7

setekhuo June 20 2009, 05:23:57 UTC

Assuming your calculations are correct (I'm tired; fire bad, tree pretty), he suffers the following effects when viewed by an outside observer:

Mass increases by 15.42% (100 rest kg = 115.42 kg at this speed)
Length contracts by 13.36% (100 rest cm = 86.64 cm at this speed)
Time dilates by 15.42% (60 seconds at this speed = 69.25 rest seconds)

(The comment has been removed)

skulan June 20 2009, 19:16:48 UTC

The speed of light doesn't divide evenly into miles per hour, so this made the math easier. And the Flash did get out. Repeatedly. Where now is your vaunted border security, if super-speedsters can come and go as they please?

Oh, and I think you meant to say "metres".

-Sam

setekhuo June 20 2009, 22:30:47 UTC

Well, we were talking SCIENCE! As we all know, SCIENCE! doesn't pay heed to the conventions of Imperial measurements. Besides, as Sam says, 3x10^8 m/s is a much nicer number than 186,282 miles/sec.

yardogrules June 27 2009, 06:19:52 UTC

"Flash doesn't break too many laws of physics"

I suppose now wouldn't be a good time to mention the top speed he could pull off while keeping his feet on the ground and only using the Earth's gravity for centripetal acceleration to deal with the curvature of the Earth.
(max v = sqrt(rg) or about 8000 m/s).
Were he to reach this speed he would, of course, have no normal force to the ground, and thus give him no friction against the ground to accelerate.

skulan June 27 2009, 19:18:45 UTC

Not if he hauls himself down with the occasional tree root!

Or Superman could give him a light tap every once in a while.

-Sam

yardogrules June 27 2009, 19:44:35 UTC

Uh huh ( ... )

skulan June 28 2009, 20:40:59 UTC

Heh. I once played a tabletop superhero RPG, and my character was a speedster. I tried to stop a rampaging slime monster by running by it really fast to create a sonic boom. The monster lived, and I broke every window in the city. Lost all my karma. Oops.

-Sam