Agreed. Now if he’d said chimps…
- NAITA (Pan Narrans)
Temperature is easy enough, there’s a dependable source of heat 93 million miles away which would do nicely. Applying steady, even pressure to the coal/graphite is a little trickier, but I don’t see that being beyond Supes abilities. The problem, of course, is that this ruins the whole scenario where Superman picks up a lump of coal and squeezes it into a diamond while Lois is watching. Therefore, I envision something like this happens instead.
SUPERMAN picks up a lump of coal while Lois watches in dewy-eyed admiration.
SUPERMAN: (surprised, looking over Lois’ shoulder) Lex Luthor!
LOIS LANE: (alarmed, turning quickly) Luthor? Where!?
(SUPERMAN takes advantage of the misdirection to quickly swap out the lump of coal for a diamond he had previously hidden in his tights) Nevermind, it’s just a bald guy. Here, this diamond is for you!
Penn and Teller could do this easily. I don’t see why Superman can’t as well.
FTR, in the process of helping Cecil with this column, I found the following instances where Superman or someone closely related to him did squeeze coal into diamond. It’s not a comprehensive list, of course.
Comics:
Action Comics #138, November, 1949
Superboy #65, May/June 1958
Superman #127, February, 1959
Superman #196, May, 1967
Note that in Superman 218 (July, 1969) a super child named Carl squeezes coal into diamonds.
Action Comics, #491, January, 1979
Superman – Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, 1986
Superman – True Brit, December, 2004 (note he crashes the economy by turning coal into diamonds).
JLA: The Secret Society of Super-Heroes (Book 1), November, 2006
Films:
Superman III
Television:
1953: The Jungle Devil
Smallville – Season 5, Episode 12 (2005-2006)
Was that the one where Superman figured out that it was all a trick staged by Mister Mxyzptlk when Superman’s “son” squeezes coal into faceted cut-gem diamonds?
I honestly do not recall, and I no longer have the comic in front of me. That doesn’t sound familiar, however - it could be another instance.
Seems like Cecil let Una get him distracted! The answer to the original question is “no” twice over, and Cecil and Una agreed on it…“someone [who] had unlimited strength” can’t squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond because coal can’t be squeezed into diamonds, period, and pressure alone isn’t enough.
now if a person with unlimited strength had graphite and the ability to withstand the high enough temperatures… I gotta think they should be able to get a least a teeny diamond somewhere within the remains of a hand-sized chunk of graphite.
Yeah, but a handful of teeny industrial diamonds ain’t gonna pay the bills, or impress the ladies. You need to be able to create gem quality diamonds or nobody cares.
Why stop at diamonds? Just keep squeezing and make a mini-black hole. Guaranteed to break the ice at parties.
At a minimum, you would also need some way to protect your hands. Superman uses his power of invulnerability as well as strength.
Couldn’t Superman simply take that piece of coal, fly around the sun in a counter clockwise motion until he goes back in time when the Earth was being created, bury that lump of coal near a volcanic tube, fly back around the sun in a clockwise direction, unbury the lump of coal, and have a diamond?
That’s a lot simpler than trying to squeeze the lump of coal into a diamond.
According to the Superman movie (the first one), he goes back in time by spinning the Earth in reverse. :dubious::rolleyes:
I always figured that was just the graphical representation of Superman going back in time by moving faster than light. I mean, if he reversed the spin of the Earth, it would cause lots of destruction, as things moving up to 1000mpg (at the equator) came to a screeching halt. Plus, what is the mechanism for his flying to slow the Earth – the interaction between his body and the upper atmosphere? That would seem to generate more heat than anything else.
Wow, the Earth gets great gas mileage.
Heh. 1000 mph. Sorry.
Thanks Una. Hey, look, I found the picture in question on imgur.com. Superman could totally do that.
Could Superman swallow a lump of coal, and then pass a diamond?
Yes - if he’s prepared.
How do you prepare for something like that?
Lots of fiber!
Preparation D