The Physics of The Hulk’s Jump(wired.com)
wired.com
The Physics of The Hulk’s Jump
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/the-physics-of-the-hulks-jump/
10 comments
The Hulk is maybe around 250kg
There are many derivatives of 'Hulk'. The one depicted in this movie, and the most common hulk is Savage Hulk.
Savage Hulk's weight is estimated to be approximately 1,150lbs or roughly 520kg.[1]
[1] http://marvel.wikia.com/Hulk_(Robert_Bruce_Banner)
damn you for making me publicly reveal my obsession with a fictional character
There are many derivatives of 'Hulk'. The one depicted in this movie, and the most common hulk is Savage Hulk.
Savage Hulk's weight is estimated to be approximately 1,150lbs or roughly 520kg.[1]
[1] http://marvel.wikia.com/Hulk_(Robert_Bruce_Banner)
damn you for making me publicly reveal my obsession with a fictional character
Sorry if I offended. The article said 300kg and I "toned it down" to 250kg to better match with the idea that the Hulk in the picture basically looks like two heavyweight boxers in one. I see that the official number is closer to four heavyweight boxers, and I apologize.
Apology accepted. ;-)
It would be interesting to see it re-calculated with the accurate weight. His average height is also estimated at around 8 feet if that helps. No records exist to indicate his foot size however the do appear to be disproportionately large for his size.
It would be interesting to see it re-calculated with the accurate weight. His average height is also estimated at around 8 feet if that helps. No records exist to indicate his foot size however the do appear to be disproportionately large for his size.
According to the Marvel Wikia he can easily lift 90-100 tons. Tons in all their forms are about 1000 kg and on Earth weights go like ~10 Newtons = 1 kg, so he can easily muster 1000 kN of force when lifting. This suggests that he's plenty capable of enduring the now-600 kN of force from his legs that he needs to jump to the top of a 120m building. It still takes him about a meter to do it, and he now produces 6 MPa of pressure on the ground -- less if his feet are much larger, but again he might jump from the balls of his feet, decreasing their surface area.
The only surprising thing is that he goes from 0 to 120 mph in at most two meters of pushing (assuming he somehow ducks down to the point where his center of mass is only 2ft above the ground -- that makes this an upper limit). That means that he completes the jump in only about 75 milliseconds, or half of a human reaction time. You have to imagine that he ducks down, and then before you can blink, he is already off with full automobile speed flying into the air. The effect on the ground is basically the same as a car at 70 mph crashing into a concrete barrier; you can see a couple cars crashing into walls done by the Mythbusters at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E5dUnLmh4
The wall escapes pretty much unharmed, though I don't know what it's made out of.
The question posed is whether the concrete cracks, and it really depends on what's beneath the concrete. The problem is that concrete is basically made up of packed rocks held together with glue. This gives it an odd structural property: it is much easier to pull it apart, structurally speaking, than it is to compress it. Concrete does very well under compression, very poorly under tension. Bending a slab of concrete means putting compression on the near side, where the rocks have to come together, but putting tension on the far side, where stuff bends outward and apart. Whether the Hulk breaks the concrete depends very strongly on what's happening on the outward side -- does it generate cracks which propagate all the way up through the concrete? That's much harder to answer.
The only surprising thing is that he goes from 0 to 120 mph in at most two meters of pushing (assuming he somehow ducks down to the point where his center of mass is only 2ft above the ground -- that makes this an upper limit). That means that he completes the jump in only about 75 milliseconds, or half of a human reaction time. You have to imagine that he ducks down, and then before you can blink, he is already off with full automobile speed flying into the air. The effect on the ground is basically the same as a car at 70 mph crashing into a concrete barrier; you can see a couple cars crashing into walls done by the Mythbusters at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E5dUnLmh4
The wall escapes pretty much unharmed, though I don't know what it's made out of.
The question posed is whether the concrete cracks, and it really depends on what's beneath the concrete. The problem is that concrete is basically made up of packed rocks held together with glue. This gives it an odd structural property: it is much easier to pull it apart, structurally speaking, than it is to compress it. Concrete does very well under compression, very poorly under tension. Bending a slab of concrete means putting compression on the near side, where the rocks have to come together, but putting tension on the far side, where stuff bends outward and apart. Whether the Hulk breaks the concrete depends very strongly on what's happening on the outward side -- does it generate cracks which propagate all the way up through the concrete? That's much harder to answer.
Some of the comments on this article are hilarious! I especially love the one where someone says that they work near the building he jumped at - and they can confirm that he didn't break the concrete.
I do think that the most convincing explanation came from the comments section as well. The explanation is that:
"The Hulk's Mass and Power have no limit as he drives his power from Anger. Nobody can quantify Anger as their is no way to measure how angry one can get and there is no upper limit to Anger."
Makes sense to me!
I do think that the most convincing explanation came from the comments section as well. The explanation is that:
"The Hulk's Mass and Power have no limit as he drives his power from Anger. Nobody can quantify Anger as their is no way to measure how angry one can get and there is no upper limit to Anger."
Makes sense to me!
Hah, this is the one thing I remember from that trailer (aside from Scarlett Johansson) - the Hulk's ridiculous jump. Great beanplating in this article.
"beanplating" was a new one for me:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beanplating
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beanplating
I tried the same a few years back for Batou/Ghost in the Shell https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At5kubLl6ri7dEp.... This article does a much better job though.
The jump in Ang Lee's Hulk (played by Eric Bana) is even more ridiculous.
[1] (In my case, this is stolen from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2008.08.004 -- the blogger above tries to estimate his own feet but I have access through such paywalls. This surface area is given for one foot, but includes the top, so it's basically the same as two feet.)