Super Hero Science - 03 - HD

Speaking of non-Newtonian fluids: ooblek (can also be known as goo) is the classic example. Which is probably why the science teacher was having them make it in the first storyline.

Matthew Schnapp

Where would be the fun in that?

Foradain

I should hope that Tedd can exceed that level of Science! skill.

Matthew Schnapp

You know, Ted does know a literal superhero. Granted, Cheerledra hasn't deflected bullets yet, but maybe it's time for some Shazam-esque scientific research.

Jere

wow, Grace's eyes, big little big .. button :D

Some Ed

I only finished that book because I didn't realize where it was going until something like 80%+ of the way through. But the general course of the rest of the series seemed pretty well set, and everyone I know who's read the series has agreed with where the story was going... as if the mere names of the rest of the books wasn't enough of a spoiler. I don't need to read that stuff.

Daryl Sawyer

Like in Dune, where their shields stop bullets, but not the slow blade.

Copper Hamster

Otoh, stabbing them once with a thrown knife wasn't enough to do more than really annoy them so, yeah. (healing factor type thing)

Copper Hamster

In Stargate it was a bit of a trope for a couple of seasons that the big bads had personal shields that could ignore bullets but Jack would throw a knife and it'd thwack right into them...

AstroChaos

Could be worse Jared, every person I know that got through the book and into the series never could make it past book 5 where it time skips like 10,000 years but Duncan Idaho is still alive... Somehow

Brooks Moses

Possibly. (That then becomes something different from a non-Newtonian fluid, though.) The tricky bit is that the amount of force isn't usually defined by the cutting object, but by the object that's resisting the cut. For example, when cutting warm butter, the amount of force (and even the amount of force per unit of area) is very very low even if you cut it quite deeply. So a trigger based on force per unit of area isn't all that well-defined. You could simply say that superhero skin can't be cut, though. Cutting requires separating pieces from each other, which is entirely different from moving things rapidly and causing blunt-force trauma, and there are a number of things that are quite floppy but hard to cut. For example, consider a water balloon with a layer of chainmail over it.... So I think a "also, you can't cut them" addendum is entirely reasonable. One problem is that, even if the knife doesn't cut, it could potentially cause localized bruising by being pointy, and we don't want that either. So I think what you want is to say that slow deformation of the superhero's flesh by small amounts takes only a normal amount of force -- you can poke them in the belly with your finger and make a dent like a normal human -- but to cause a fast or large deformation requires a vastly larger amount of force than for a normal human. (Or you could go with the more interesting case of "can't be deformed quickly and can't be cut", which means you can't shoot them usefully and knives aren't especially useful either, but you may be able to give them small bruises by poking them with a knife, and you could slowly crush them.)

PSadlon

Or watched the excellent 1984 movie or the so-so 2000 syfy channel mini series.

Erin Halfelven at BigCloset

If the trigger is based on unit of force per unit of area, then a sharp object would be stopped just as surely as a fast-moving blunt object.

Daniel

The problem with that explanation is that sharp objects do not have to be traveling with great force to cut.

Thisguy

Yeah, good call with Tedd’s non Newtonian fluids interpretation. That’s what jumped to my mind as soon as Rich said it in the 2nd panel.

Kyman201

Yeah, the shields in Mass Effect mention that they activate when they detect objects of a certain velocity approaching, which is why a bullet will get stopped but you don't knock over a chair

Jared Fattmann

I think that still puts you above me, in that I got bored and didn't finish it (almost the only novel I've ever done that with), which makes it active heresy instead of laziness or whatever.

Dan Shive

Oops I've accidentally revealed I haven't read Dune again o_o

Jared Fattmann

Dune is the earliest/best example I'm aware of