Watching Spiderman, I had this thought–which I had again, watching promos for the sequel: Swinging at the end of that long web, at that speed, across that arc, what g-forces would Spiderman be subject to? I mean, it seemed highly unrealistic to me: it seemed, watching him, that if could actually hold on against such extreme centrifugal force, his intestines would come squirting out his ass. So do we assume that his spidey powers include super grip AND super sphincter control? But if so, what about when he’s holding his chick with one arm, and swinging like that? What kind of sphincter control are we supposed to believe she has? Seems to me that swinging a normal human across that arc would be pretty likely to kill them.
God knows I’m no where near qualified to give any sort of a factual answer to this question, but it seems unlikely to me that the g-forces Spiderman experiences by swinging from a high building at the end of a line would be anywhere near the g-forces experienced by a jet fighter pilot, or an astronaut, or one of those giant centrifuges they use for training the two above professions. And, so far as I know, those don’t usually cause people to poop their guts out.
Well, they’re strapped into a padded seat, with the direction of force perpendicular to the orientation of their colon. Spidey’s orientation is parallel to the force. Like swinging a bottle, neck out.
Good point. I just don’t think that the g-forces at the end of his webline would be nearly that extreme. Again, I have next to no solid knowledge about physics or physiology, just my <ahem> gut instinct. It seems that g-forces powerful enough to do what you’re talking about would do all sorts of other damage to the human body before it got to the extruded intestines part.
The internet being what it is, I’m 99% certain someone somewhere has worked out all the numbers to this, but I’m not about to Google “spiderman + sphincter.” God only knows what that search would turn up.
You’ve got your priorities all wrong. The sphincter is actually a very strong muscle.
I’d be more worried about his aorta. Lots of crash victims die because their heart keeps moving when the rest of them stop, and it rips itself out of its arteries.
Fortunately, he’s not going 147 fps on the end of a 250 foot rope. As a matter of fact, it turns out that the length of his web doesn’t matter. If we assume that he starts and ends with the web horizontal, that the web doesn’t stretch, and that the weight of the web is negligible compared to his own weight (that is, he’s a simple pendulum with an amplitude of 90 degrees) then he’ll feel exactly three gees at the bottom of his swing. Which takes some strength, yes, but it’s far from unbearable. You’ve probably felt that many gees into your seat on a roller coaster, and you didn’t lose control of your bowels (at least, I hope you didn’t).
I knew this thread would bring back some bad memories.
As long as we’re asking about superhero physics, I have a few I’d like to know. The Flash can run at (approaching) the speed of light, and he’s also able to think and talk at the speed of light. How can the speed force make his brain think faster? Also, when he talks at near the speed of light, what speed his the sound moving? Another thing, if he’s able to do all this, how can anything be a surprise to him? Shouldn’t he be able to see everything in slow motion due to relativity? I don’t get how he can accidently run into a wall that shoots up from the ground if he’s able to see everything happen in slow-mo.
I didn’t assume that. He rarely seems to just jump off holding the web.
I assumed he jumped off, fell for a bit until he accelerated to a little under 100mph, and then spun the web and swung through the bottom. Does my math work out better that way?
I knew this thread would bring back some bad memories.