# How superstrength would REALLY work. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503 "2004-09-07T17:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lord\_Bubbington-Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@Lord\_Bubbington-Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Bubbington-Smythe)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/21 "2004-09-08T11:47:50Z")
Couldn’t Superman (at least) be suggested to be using his powers of flight to prevent himself sinking into the ground when lifting heavy objects? He sort of hovers, providing a similar effect to attaching a large number of helium balloons to the object (just not enough to casue the object to rise). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/22 "2004-09-08T14:04:22Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Well, early on, Superman’s superstrength was supposed to come mainly from the fact that Krypton had much higher gravity than Earth, and so the life that evolved there had to become much “stronger” just to survive. (And Superman’s early powers weren’t supposed to be cartoonishly impossilbe. At first.) I thought his powers came from the yellow rays of the Earths sun? Look, there’s no rational way to explain how Superman flies or his strength. Even with the gravity thing, the best he could do would be to bounce around like Neil Armstrong on the moon, not lift office buildings. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/23 "2004-09-08T19:39:29Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I can spot several. Please elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/24 "2004-09-08T22:37:03Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Look, there’s no rational way to explain how Superman flies or his strength. Even with the gravity thing, the best he could do would be to bounce around like Neil Armstrong on the moon, not lift office buildings. I dunno, I once saw Neil Armstrong lift a Safeway. He threatened to hit me with it. All I did was ask for an autograph. Yeesh, some people. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/25 "2004-09-08T23:25:13Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > What about Byrne making Krypton a cold, sterile nightmare nobody would miss? This is bad. Particularly since the only suggestion Jor-El wasn’t exactly like every other Kryptonian was that he rescued Kal - which made the latter fairly inexplicable. > [@](#): > > What about changing from a Kal-El who spent the first two years of his life with loving parents on a world of wonders to a Kal-El who never knew Krypton and was ‘born’ on Earth from a gestation matrix? This part I like, actually (aside from the gestation matrix, of course, that being, as it is, a symptom of the ‘cold, sterile nightmare’.) ---
**Author:** ![Grundlepuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Grundlepuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grundlepuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/26 "2004-09-09T00:38:28Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > GET OUT. You’re the first person outisde of the magazine’s editorial staff who knew the heck what I was talking about. Tom Rainbow was a damned fine writer who died too young. A few more years, a few more essays, and he’d have a genuine cult following. I am totally with you guys on Tom Rainbow! He had a cult follower in me from his very first article, and I still remember the loss I felt (even after just a few articles) when I read in Asimov’s about his death. The sense of humor and inventiveness that he brought to science articles was unique in my experience – sort of a goofier, hipper Isaac Asimov. eBay is a great place to find old SF magazines – I have bought many there while rounding out my collection. The category that you want is : Home \> All Categories \> Books \> Magazine Back Issues \> Science Fiction Also check out [abebooks.com](http://abebooks.com) – it is the pooled inventory of nearly every independent used book store in the U.S. I have yet to turn up a blank on it when searching for a book, and they have tons of magazines also – I randomly tried one from **Askia’s** list (October '85) and found at least one copy there, for $2.50. Searching there for magazines there can be a bit of an art, since there doesn’t seem to be a standard for how to list them, but a little experimentation will usually pay off. ---
**Author:** ![Grundlepuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Grundlepuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grundlepuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/27 "2004-09-09T00:43:38Z")
And let’s not forget Larry Niven’s “Man of Steel, Women of Kleenex”, in which he speculates on the dangers of a sexually active Superman. ---
**Author:** ![Grundlepuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Grundlepuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grundlepuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/28 "2004-09-09T00:46:03Z")
Sorry, that should be “Man of Steel, Wom **a** n of Kleenex” – it was a singularly good article. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/29 "2004-09-09T01:03:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Please elaborate. The first problem is that the “neurouscular efficiency” of a chimpanzee is exactly the same as humans. Muscle and nerves both evolved once and both peaked pretty early in our evolutionary history. Human and chimp muscles and nerves are identical. The reason why chimps are stronger than people in the upper body is due to leverage differences. But lets assume that’s what the author meant by “neuromuscular efficiency resembles that of a chimpanzee”. Nothing to do with the neurons or muscles but simply the bone structure. Different relative bone lengths give chimps a leverage advantage, however it comes at the cost of reducing speed simply because a lever can magnify force or movement but never both. A chimp is stronger than a human but slower in equal proportion. So any human designed to achieve strength the same way as a chimp would find themselves unable to move their arms with anywhere near the speed of a normal human. They would be useless in a hand to hand fight and unable to even throw objects at any great speed. They would also look freakish since the ration of upper and lower arm bones would need to be the same as a chimp. Nobody gaining extra strength in this manner would pass for a normal human even in bad light. The next problem is that this person supposedly has “the muscle mass of an ordinary human” and yet the strength is due in part to “the points at which her muscles attach to her bones [being] flanged.” But muscle strength is proportional to cross sectional area. It doesn’t matter how huge the tendons are the muscle will only generate more force if it can take advantage of the thicker tendons by being thicker itself. Of course a thicker muscle is also necessarily more massive. This person would need to have more muscle mass than a normal human to produce more strength from the larger tendon attachments. Tendons themselves don’t produce any motive force. Basically the whole concept is psuedoscientific gobbledegook. That’s not a bad thing for a comic of course. ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/30 "2004-09-09T02:13:14Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > GET OUT. You’re the first person outisde of the magazine’s editorial staff who knew the heck what I was talking about. Tom Rainbow was a damned fine writer who died too young. A few more years, a few more essays, and he’d have a genuine cult following. Wow, I had no idea that he passed away… what a loss. His writing was great, funny and very thoroughly grounded. Too bad. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/31 "2004-09-09T02:35:05Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Basically the whole concept is psuedoscientific gobbledegook. That’s not a bad thing for a comic of course. Unfortunately, _Drakon_ is a novel. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/32 "2004-09-09T03:12:59Z")
> [@lokij](#): > > Wow, I had no idea that he passed away… what a loss. His writing was great, funny and very thoroughly grounded. Too bad. I totally agree. And I think it’s so cool I’ve talked about one of my favorite obscure science fiction writers with other prople who liked his work. Tom Rainbow’s (apparent) debut in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine appears in the June 1083 issue, entitled, “The Feasibility of Mind-Transfer.” The essay on Superpowers that **lokij** got that hilarious ‘monster’ quote from came from the September 1983 issue of IASFM, entitled ‘Superpowers!’ **Reyemile** , if you’re really interested I can send you a copy of the article. Hit me up on my yahoo e-mail. ---
**Author:** ![Beltane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@Beltane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beltane)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/33 "2004-09-09T14:07:42Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > That’s the perfectly-proportioned 14-foot-tall Joker imbecile who was screeching at the moon because he wasn’t tall enough to reach it, I assume. I wasn’t under the impression that he was actually super strong, just large. Actually, I think that refers to the Moslem General (whose name I cannot remember even though I just reread Aces Abroad where he appears) who Hiram damages so badly with his gravity powers when the aces from the stacked deck are ambushed. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/34 "2004-09-09T17:21:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Tom Rainbow’s (apparent) debut in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine appears in the June 1083 issue, entitled, “The Feasibility of Mind-Transfer.” The main feature of that issue was “The Feasibility of Time Travel – Proven!” , I believe. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/35 "2004-09-09T18:29:03Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I thought his powers came from the yellow rays of the Earths sun? PreCrisis, his strength was from Earth’s low gravity. His invulnerability was from the yellow sun. > [@](#): > > Look, there’s no rational way to explain how Superman flies or his strength. Even with the gravity thing, the best he could do would be to bounce around like Neil Armstrong on the moon, not lift office buildings. In the very early Superman stories, he didn’t actually fly. He simply jumped very high and very far, as the Hulk does. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503/36 "2004-09-10T03:03:44Z")
> [@](#): > > In the very early Superman stories, he didn’t actually fly. He simply jumped very high and very far, as the Hulk does. I remember a comic page that gave a rundown of Supesy’s powers. Along the lines of being able to leap an eighth of a mile, or that his skin could only be punctured by a “bursting shell” or something. Back then, they called him ReallyToughMan, but then Dr. Wily threatened to sue for patent infringement… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-superstrength-would-really-work/263503.md?page=1)