The Physics of The Hulk’s Jump

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/the-physics-of-the-hulks-jump/

by ghosh • 14 years ago

33 10 14 years ago

machrider• 14 years ago

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.

mattdeboard• 14 years ago

"beanplating" was a new one for me:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beanplating

drostie3• 14 years ago

TL;DR: The Hulk is maybe around 250 kg and jumps atop a 120 m building in the movie, which using E = m g h means that he jumped with a kinetic energy of ~300 kJ. He pushes through a distance of around one meter, so using W = F Δx we can estimate his force as ~300 kN. Normal male feet have a surface area of 500 to 800 cm² [1], so if we use 1000 cm² for convenience, we get 3 MPa. The compressive strength of concrete is ~10 MPa, so we shouldn't expect the jump to crack concrete, but it might, if his peak force is higher and is exerted through the balls of his feet.

[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.)

Peroni2• 14 years ago

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

drostie3• 14 years ago

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.

chris_wot• 14 years ago

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!

estacado• 14 years ago

The jump in Ang Lee's Hulk (played by Eric Bana) is even more ridiculous.

moreati• 14 years ago

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 Physics of The Hulk’s Jump

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