How Fast Would Wonder Woman’s Lasso Need to Spin to Block Bullets?

Photo: Warner Bros.

Look. I know Wonder Woman is not real. I’m cool with that. It doesn’t matter that she does stuff that breaks the normal rules of physics. In fact, that’s what makes super hero movies like Wonder Woman 1984 so enjoyable.

However, this doesn’t mean that I can’t do both — appreciate the movie for what it is AND analyze the physics. You can’t stop me.

So, here we go. We have this scene in the trailer that shows Wonder Woman spinning her lasso to block a bunch of bullets. Here is the full trailer, but this is the part I’m interested in.

Image: Warner Bros. From Wonder Woman 1984 trailer.

So, how fast would she have to rotate the lasso to block bullets? Let’s do this.

Direct Blocking Bullets

OK, here is my first approximation. Suppose the lasso is a cylinder with a length L and a diameter d. It is rotating around with some angular velocity, ω. Here is a rough diagram.