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Gotham
October 2005
On Sale: September 29, 2005
384 pages
ISBN: 1592401465
EAN: 9781592401468
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
If superheroes stepped off the comic book page or silver
screen and into reality, could they actually work their
wonders in a world constrained by the laws of physics? How
strong would Superman have to be to “leap tall buildings in
a single bound”? Could Storm of the X-Men possibly control
the weather? And how many cheeseburgers would the Flash need
to eat to be able to run at supersonic speeds? Face front, True Believer, and wonder no more! Because in
The Physics of Superheroes acclaimed university professor
James Kakalios shows that comic book heroes and villains get
their physics right more often than you think. In this scintillating scientific survey of super powers
you’ll learn what the physics of forces and motion can
reveal about Superman’s strength and the true cause of the
destruction of his home planet Krypton, what villains
Magneto and Electro can teach us about the nature of
electricity—and finally get the definitive answer about
whether it was the Green Goblin or Spider-Man’s webbing that
killed the Wall Crawler’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy in that
fateful plunge from the George Washington Bridge! Along the way, The Physics of Superheroes explores
everything from energy, to thermodynamics, to quantum
mechanics, to solid state physics, and Kakalios relates the
physics in comic books to such real-world applications as
automobile airbags, microwave ovens, and transistors. You’ll
also see how comic books have often been ahead of science in
explaining recent topics in quantum mechanics (with Kitty
Pryde of the X-Men) and string theory (with the Crisis on
Infinite Earths). This is the book you need to read if you ever wondered how
the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four can see when she
turns transparent, if the Atom could travel on an electron
through a phone line, or if electromagnetic theory can
explain how Professor X reads minds. Fun, provocative, and
packed with more superheroes and superpowers than an
Avengers-Justice League crossover, The Physics of
Superheroes will make both comic-book fans and physicists
exclaim, “Excelsior!”
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