Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I wasn't satisfied by Wolverton's flight explanation though I thought he was going in the right direction.

Check out these links:

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw81.html

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw86.html

http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw99.html

I like Alcubierre's basic idea of manipulating the continuum around onself for propulsion.  It's like a space-time version of a jet engine moving the air for propulsion forwards or a propeller in the water except the continuum itself is the medium being manipulated.

Additionally, Wolverton failed to logically explain why Superman would develop flight power from his adaptations to our environment.  He simply declared the explanation of how it supposedly worked without justifying why a Kryptonian would have this power in the first place.

I like Alcubierre's idea too, it's pretty cool, even if it isn't quite airtight yet.

As for the explanation of Kryptonian gravity powers; I think the reader was just left to extrapolate that kryptonians would evolve that system in order to help their bodies combat the increased gravity of their planet.

Excellent explanation, RedSun.  I just wish Wolverton had actually stated something like that in the book.  His version basically was 'he's Superman so he just flies'.

Yeah, no kidding. It seems like the book might need a rewrite in some areas.

But isn't that enough? :P

Nice one, ManSinha!  Esp. given that we participants on this thread love to come up with real world speculations on how the powers work and why, Wolverton dropped the ball here in a book supposedly written to address this very topic.

Another related thing he didn't do well was the link between super-strength and his flight power.  He was OK at first for linking them but then he adds that EM aura must be extended to cover the object.  Huh?  That's a non-sequitur since there's really no good reason for the grav and EM aspects to be linked at all.  He should just as easily be able to extend his grav control over an object regardless of the EM aspect.

I don't know why you guys are still going on about this, every little boy knows it's the cape :)

I think Wolverton was thinking of a unified field aspect to this, which I think is why he was quoting all the experiments where superconducting EM fields were supposedly associated with gravity negations.


 :lol:

Then Batman should fly as well ...right?

Costume=Powers (http://superman.nu/tales2/whotook/1/?page=15) Look at the 2nd and 3rd panels

Batman doesn't need to fly, he has the Batwing. 8)

Batman's cape isn't red.

exactly!

I always thought it was because he could yell  UP  UP and AWAY better then anyone else  :lol:

Ok guys, the Captain will punch me out for reducing his scientific thread to clever quips

I did post a thing about possible organic antigravity, but it got deleted somehow or something so here it is again:  Here (http://www.keelynet.com/greb/greb.htm) Antigravity insects or unadulterated quackery, you decide.

Pure, unadultarated quackery.  There's no reason to even consider taking this guy seriously until you can see his results published in a peer reviewed journal.

Well, it does say that he is persecuted by the scientific establishment. That said, it would be near impossible to get his work in a peer reviewed journal, even if said work merited it.

Why do you think he's "persecuted" by the establishment?  Because they looked at what he was saying and found it absolutely ridiculous - and it is - physically speaking, what he claims is impossible.

If his work was deserving of any merit, it would be published in a peer reviewed journal - although even that wouldn't mean he was actually correct.  In fact, the sheer usefullness of "anti-gravity" are so numerous, I'm sure somebody would jump at the chance to make use of his research if he were legitimate.

In Russia there was a trend, especially during the cold war, for everyone to call himself a "scientist", because the government wanted to encourage science and offered a lot of benefits to anyone claiming to be a scientist, which significantly improved the quality of life.  While this is no longer true, there is still a huge mass of "scientists" in Russia with no scientific training or ability whatsoever left over from this era.  There is a lot of incredibly bad "research" done in Russia because of this - although it usually isn't that difficult to sort out the obvious frauds, like this guy.

And finally, every crank claims he's being "persecuted".  The number of legitimate scientists whose work is brushed off as fanciful is incredibly small, and they *always* find a way, eventually to make their work viewed as legitimate.

You are largely correct, except for some, their ideas have received merit only after their times

I'm curious, to who are you referring?  The only example I can think of off of the top of my head would be Gallileo, but for the most part, his ideas *were* accepted at the time, although there was the matter of the persecution of the church - I think we can safely say that was a completely different situation, though.  If the scientist from the article posted here is being persecuted in *that* manner, he should probably notify the authorities.

Galileo for one certainly; Leonardo da Vinci's inventions were also largely credited after his time.

Anyone more recent?  I don't think either of those situations are similar to this man's.

And I'm kind of hesitant to call Leo a scientist - and even if his ideas weren't credited until after his time, I don't think they caused him to be persecuted during his time.

I figured I'd revive this thread and post this (http://www.geocities.com/knightshifter100/Superman.html). It has some pretty cool scientific stuff about Superman's powers. Be sure to scroll right to the bottom for the "next" button...some people miss it.

EDIT: Heh, I just noticed the authors section at the end, and one of them is our very own Captain Kal. Good work Cap. :)