The Physics of Superheroes: Spectacular Second Edition (56 page)

Excellent overviews for the nonspecialist on how energy is created and transformed, particularly at the molecular level, can be found in
The Stuff of Life
by Eric P. Widmaier (W. H. Freeman & Company, 2002);
The Machinery of Life
by David S. Goodsell (Springer-Verlag, 1992); and
Stories of the Invisible
by Philip Ball (Oxford University Press, 2001). Background information on this mysterious quantity is available in
Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization
by Vaclav Smil (MIT Press, 1998) and
Energy: Its Use and the Environment
by Roger A. Hinrichs and Merlin Kleinbach (Brooks Cole, 2001), Third Edition. This last is a textbook written at a practically math- free level, with abundant information concerning the environmental issues involved in energy transformation.

Excellent popular accounts of the fascinating history of thermodynamics are:
A Matter of Degrees
by Gino Segre (Viking, 2002);
Understanding Thermodynamics
by H. C. Van Ness (Dover Publications, 1969); and
Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat
by Hans Christian von Baeyer (Modern Library, 1998). Issues related to the measurement of temperature are considered in an accessible manner in
Temperatures Very Low and Very High
by Mark W. Zemansky (Dover Books, 1964), while phase transitions are discussed in
The Periodic Kingdom
by P. W. Atkins (Basic Books, 1995) and
Gases, Liquids and Solids
by D. Tabor (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

Popular accounts of the history of electricity and magnetism are found in:
Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity
by David Bodanis (Crown, 2005);
The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell
by Basil Mahon (John Wiley & Sons, 2003); and
A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution
by James Hamilton (Random House, 2002).

There are many excellent overviews of quantum physics written for the nonspecialist. Highly recommended are:
Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory
by George Gamow (Dover Press, 1985) and
The New World of Mr. Tompkins
by G. Gamow and R. Stannard (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Excellent, clear discussions of cutting-edge research in string theory can be found in:
The Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene (W. W. Norton, 1999);
The Fabric of the Cosmos
by Brian Greene (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003);
The Future of Spacetime
by Stephen W. Hawking, Kip S. Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, and Alan Lightman (W. W. Norton and Company, 2002);
Quintessence: The Mystery of Missing Mass in the Universe
by Lawrence Krauss (Basic Books, 2000); and
Warped Passages
by Lisa Randall (Ecco, 2005).

The solid-state physics revolution that has transformed all of our lives is documented in the highly readable
Crystal Fire: Birth of the Information Age
by Michael Riordan (Norton, 1997) and
The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
by T. R. Reid (Simon & Schuster, 1985).

The strength of materials, as it relates to the cube-square law in biological organisms, is discussed in the short and highly readable
Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales
by John Tyler Bonner (Princeton University Press, 2006).

In the spirit of continuing a review of the topics addressed here, the reader should consider these fun books employing the question-and-answer approach to cover a wide range of physics for the nonexpert:
The Flying Circus of Physics with Answers
by Jearl Walker (Wiley, 1977) and
Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities
by Christopher P. Jargodzski and Franklin Potter (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). In a similar vein, for those no longer intimidated by mathematics, is
Back-of-the-E nvelope Physics
by Clifford Swartz (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Those readers eager to put their physics knowledge to use are directed to
How Does It Work?
by Richard M. Koff (Signet, 1961) and Cy Tymony’s
Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things
(Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2003), which contains instructions for making your own Power Ring!

Finally, some comic-book recommendations. Both DC and Marvel have comprehensive reprint lines, where comics from the Golden Age through the present are collected, frequently on better-quality paper than the originals and at a fraction of their cost if you were to buy the back issues separately today.
The Archives
series from DC and the
Marvel Masterworks
volumes reprint Golden and Silver Age comics focusing on a given character or team in a hardcover format. In addition, Marvel has a line of paperback reprints termed
Essentials
, while DC comics has their
Showcase Presents
line, where twenty or so issues of Silver Age or later comics featuring a given character or title are reprinted on cheaper paper, in black and white, at a cost of less than a dollar per issue. Those readers whose memories of former favorites have been jogged or those who have developed a new interest will almost certainly find a reprint volume at either your favorite bookstore or your friendly neighborhood comic-book shop. To find the nearest comic-book store, dial 1-888-COMICBOOK or visit
http://csls. diamondcomics.com
.

There are some collections, however, that should be considered required reading as part of any well-rounded liberal education in costumed superheroes. At the top of the list would be
Watchmen
(DC Comics, 1986, 1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which is justifiably characterized as the
War and Peace
of comic books by the film director Terry Gilliam. For legal reasons, the characters in this story are disguised versions of Silver Age heroes originally published by Charlton Comics (such as the Question, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, etc.) and a familiarity with them is not necessary to enjoy the story. These characters’ adventures are now published by DC Comics, where they are undisturbed by the fate that their doubles met in Moore’s and Gibbons’ epic. Another must-read is Frank Miller’s
The Dark Knight Returns
(DC Comics, 1997), which imagines a possible future fate for Batman. This miniseries is considered by most to be responsible for saving Batman from cancellation or worse—irrelevance—by returning the character to his darker, grim and gritty roots, and has set the tone for various motion-picture versions of the Caped Crusader. Continuing the concept of possible futures of superheroes, Mark Waid’s and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come miniseries (DC Comics, 1998) investigates the interactions between DC Comics’ superpowered heroes and villains and normal civilians. The influence of Marvel Comics superheroes on society, seen from the point of view of a non-superpowered photographer for the
Daily Bugle
, is explored in
Marvels
(Marvel Comics, 2004) by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. One of the best time-travel adventures can be found in the collection
Days of Future Past
(Marvel Comics, 2004), starring many of the characters from the popular X-Men films, where Kitty Pryde goes back in time to prevent a political assassination that will lead humanity to a dark, dystopian future. Finally, to cleanse the palate of all these deconstructions of the superhero myth, read Darwyn Cooke’s
DC: The New Frontier Vols. 1 and 2
(DC Comics, 2004, 2005)—a brilliant reconstruction of the dawn of the Silver Age set in the Cold-War America of the late 1950s when these heroes first appeared.

NEWTON’S THREE LAWS OF MOTION

 

 

The basic principles of dynamics, as elucidated by Sir Isaac Newton, state that (1) an object at rest will remain at rest, or if in uniform straight-line motion, will remain in motion, unless acted upon by an external force; (2) if an external force does act on the object, then its change in motion (either speed or direction) is proportional to the outside force, that is
F
=
ma
; and (3) forces always come in pairs, commonly expressed as for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

 

DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION

 

 

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity—either its magnitude (speed) or its direction, and has units of (distance/time)/ time or distance/(time)
²
.

 

 

WEIGHT = M
g

 

A consequence of Newton’s second law (F = ma) when the external force is the gravitational attraction of a planet. The force is then referred to as Weight, and the acceleration due to gravity is relabeled by the letter “g.”

V
²
= 2
g h

 

A description of the velocity v of an object moving under the influence of gravity, whether slowing down as it rises or speeding up as it falls, through a distance h.

 

The simple expression, also elucidated by Sir Isaac Newton, for the attractive force between any two point masses. The force is proportional to the product of each mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance that separates them.

 

 

g
= GM/R
²

 

A consequence of Newton’s law of gravitational attraction is that the acceleration due to gravity for any large object such as a planet or moon can be expressed as a universal constant G (G = 66.7 trillionth of m
³
/kg-sec
²
) multiplied by the object’s mass M, divided by the square of the object’s radius. This expression is correct only for spherically symmetric masses.

 

 

g
_K
/
g
_E
= ρ
_K
R
_K
/ρ
_E
R
_E

 

By making use of the fact that the mass M of a planet can be written as the product of its density ρ and its volume (4πR
³
/3 for a sphere), the acceleration due to gravity g = GM/R
²
simplifies to 4π
GρR, and when taking the ratio of the accelerations due to gravity for two planets, the constants G (4π)/3 cancel out.

 

 

FORCE × TIME = (MASS) × (CHANGE IN SPEED)

 

A restatement of Newton’s second law (F = ma) where the acceleration is the change in velocity divided by the time over which the external force acts. The momentum is defined as the product of the mass and velocity of an object.

 

 

PRESSURE = ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE + (DENSITY ×x
ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY × DEPTH)

 

The pressure under water increases linearly with depth beneath the surface. At the water’s surface, the pressure is just that of the atmosphere, and the deeper one submerges, the pressure increases as the weight of the fluid above you.

 

 

CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION
a
= V
²
/R

 

An object moving with velocity v in a circular arc with radius R is characterized by an acceleration for its continually changing direction. The magnitude of this acceleration is v
²
/R and an external force pointing in toward the center of the circular trajectory of magnitude F = mv
²
/R must act on the object to account for this changing motion.

 

 

WORK = FORCE × DISTANCE