Superhero Physics: How Strong Is Bucky’s Arm in Thunderbolts*
Of course I haven’t seen Thunderbolts* yet — no one has since it’s not out. But there IS a trailer. You can see it here.
I don’t know why there is an asterisk in the title, but I kept it there in case it’s super important. OK, before we get to the physics there is something we need to talk about.
This is a superhero movie. It’s not a physics movie. That means that the goal of the show is to tell a story (probably about superheros). It’s entirely possible (and likely) that the physics displayed in the movie will not agree with real physics. THAT IS TOTALLY FINE. If it only had realistic physics, it probably wouldn’t be so much fun. However, this does movie rule does not prevent me from doing a physics analysis of different scenes. It’s fun.
Bucky Deflects a Car
Let me set up the scene from the trailer. Again, I have no idea what’s going. All we can see is a car flipped and rolling on its side towards some people. It’s totally going to crush them. But wait! Bucky steps in and uses his bionic…
