Superman’s extraordinary strength is somewhat of a mystery, since it seems at times to not satisfy Newton’s laws. Imagine Kal El lifting an office building over His head, one handed, while walking down the street. The feat of strength itself is not just unbelievable, but also unphysical. Consider figure 1. If we were to position a multi-storied office building upon on a post on a street, to be held from the same position as we imagine Superman holding it: the building above the post would crack from the enormous pressure; as would the pavement beneath the post. Since the post would not lie beneath the building’s center of mass, we would expect to see the building either tumble forward, or we would see the building crack from the shear stresses which come from being held by the corner.

In contrast, we see none of these effects when Kal El lifts an ob ject. We can only conjecture that Superman has the ability to move the center of mass (by controlling the moment of inertia) of the office building. In addition, the lack of deformation of the pavement (though the pressure beneath His feet as He walks must be intense), and the lack of damage at the point of contact of the building tell us that He must have also somehow reduced the effective mass of the building.

{ A United theory of Superman’s Powers by Ben Tippett | PDF }

science, showbiz | December 10th, 2009