Similarly, do you find yourself wondering how fast could Superman actually fly?

I do, and I love it. It drives my wife crazy [from my editor: "...because she lives in reality while I, on the other hand, do not."], because she doesn’t make it past those base assumptions that people like me are willing to swallow uncritically.

It’s a fascinating intellectual exercise. There are some physicists that also enjoy applying science to fantasy. Some of the things I’ve often wondered about:

• When Superman lifts things that are many, many times his size and mass, wouldn’t the effects of his strength be counterproductive? For example, in Superman III, he freezes a lake with his breath (how did his breath get cold?) and then he picks it up and melts it over a chemical plant that was burning. In the movie, it shows him flying along with the lake while grasping the ice at one of the edges. Wouldn’t the ice simply break off, thus dropping the ice-lake? This is actually a more general observation because so many of Superman’s feats involve tremendous strength applied to gargantuan objects. Wouldn’t applying that much force in such a small area actually tend to destroy whatever object the force is being applied to except for those rare objects that have the structural strength to take it? For example, I suppose I could buy that the crystal island in Superman Returns might be able to stick together as Superman lifts it. But the way he stops that airliner? Seems to me that would like a bullet flying dead-centered onto a needle. It seems more likely to me that if the bullet didn’t crush the needle, it would actually penetrate a hole through the bullet than that the bullet would stop on the needle. Similarly, in some of the stories in the comics, Superman actually moves planetary bodies, like moons. What part of a moon can you grab to move that wouldn’t just break?
• How does Superman fly? In either the WB cartoon or in an issue of a comic series, Lex Luthor claims to have discovered through genetics research on a few of Supermans hairs that his physiology allows him to control his own gravitational field. I can accept that readily enough, especially since what is currently known about manipulating gravity is still slim. Sometimes, to me, it’s easier to accept fantasy that is more completely outside the bounds of our current knowledge of the universe than fantasy that is less fantastic, but contradictory with our understanding of reality.
• Does Superman grow old? Can he die a natural death? I’m definitely not someone who is familiar with the entire Superman canon, but nothing I’ve read or seen has explored that avenue very thoroughly.
• How does he filter his super-hearing? I suppose the difference between a normal person and Superman is similar to the difference between certain autistic people and normal people – certain types of autism prevent a person from being able to filter information coming from his senses.
• In the comics, particularly those involving Brianiac, it’s made clear that on the scale of intelligence across the universe, Superman rates much higher on the scale than normal humans. That being the case, why is he sometimes so stupid? He spends all his time putting out fires instead of catching criminal plots before they happen and nipping them in the bud. He also seems to get himself into traps too easily, particularly when luthor is involved. Shouldn’t Superman have figured sometimes back in the 40′s that it would be a good idea to have his suit contain a large proportion of lead? it’s not like it would slow him down. In the comics especially, Batman is portrayed as much smarter or more educated than Superman. This is nonsense. If his intelligence level is greater than that of humans, he should be the smartest and most educated person on the planet.
• Dude. The “disguise”. In one comic issue, it was explained that Superman was subconsciously hypnotizing everyone into not recognizing him through his Clark Kent disguise. Someone should explore this more.

More to come on this later, probably…