Thoughts on implied super-speed due to super-strength alone

[ManSinha]

Returning to our topic of heat vision; the idea of active sensaory powers seems, well a trifle strange. I know, I know I am on a message board talking about an invulnerable being that flies   ; but nonetheless. I suppose one can extend Superman's control of his stapedius muscle to vibrate his ossicles, if indeed he does have ossicles to produce sound accounting for super ventriloquism.


Similarly one suppose, he could agitate the molecules in his eyes to cause energy build up which would then be emitted as heat rays.

BTW what is the explanation of Darkseid's Omega Rays? any thoughts? canon or otherwise?

[Captain Kal]

Let me qualify what I meant re: peak side-effect super-speed from super-strength.

Given unlimited super-strength, he really doesn't have a peak speed given that he's been known to toss beings/objects across the time-barrier and space-warps.

But those energy resources can only accelerate his nervous system to a max of lightspeed so he can't react faster than that for his enhanced reflexes, barring true super-speed.

That's how I explain how Timber Wolf's strength and speed work.  Brin has true super-strength but his speed is a side-effect of that strength.  Similarly, Ultra Boy has been shown restraining and beating Brin with his strength alone implying that his own reflexes have also been amped by his strength as I indicated so he's not outmaneauvered by a speeding Londo.

[RedSunOfKrypton]

Try it again above. I just tested it.

It works now. Cool   .

The very chemical bonds in Kryptonian matter are likewise amped so what was a mere 0.025 EV van der Waals bond when normal becomes something strong enough to take nukes and supernovae.

What if yellow sunlight changes the quantum phase of a kryptonian body or kryptonian matter, to mimic the wave function phase of so called "neutronium" or other potentially indestructable materials, thereby making flesh and bone as tough as indestructible matter, but without the weight or other characteristics? This durablility would also allow for ultra strenght and speed potentials (I say potential because they'd be useless without the juice to run them) due to the correlation between muscle strength and speed being higher with durability.

Another thing about durability is that the protein structures that make up kryptonian bone and muscle could be based on carbon nano tubes, which are pound for pound 600 times stronger than steel.

BTW what is the explanation of Darkseid's Omega Rays? any thoughts? canon or otherwise?

I think I read somewhere that it was supposed to be psionic in nature.

Back to heatvision, would a higher triggering nerve impulse voltage mean for a more powerful photonic release and greater light or heat?

[ManSinha]

Back to heatvision, would a higher triggering nerve impulse voltage mean for a more powerful photonic release and greater light or heat?

IMHO a higher triggering nerve impulse voltage could damage the nerve itself as, atleast in humans, nerve impulse voltages are based on the size of the Schwann sheath surrounding the nerve fiber. The ones with the largest sheaths conduct the quickest, ie.e the motor nerves and the enrves for fine touch whereas the nerves conducting pain impulses are smaller and are known to conduct more slowly. Arguably Kryptonian physiology could be vastly different and not subject to the same limitations

[Captain Kal]

Back to heatvision, would a higher triggering nerve impulse voltage mean for a more powerful photonic release and greater light or heat?

IMHO a higher triggering nerve impulse voltage could damage the nerve itself as, atleast in humans, nerve impulse voltages are based on the size of the Schwann sheath surrounding the nerve fiber. The ones with the largest sheaths conduct the quickest, ie.e the motor nerves and the enrves for fine touch whereas the nerves conducting pain impulses are smaller and are known to conduct more slowly. Arguably Kryptonian physiology could be vastly different and not subject to the same limitations

Well, two things we have to consider here.

First, we are dealing with Kryptonian tissues that not only are more hardy than Terran ones due to their harsher environment, but they have the added bonus of indestructibility conferred by our environment.

Second, recall that an electron volt or a few of them are all the photon trigger needed to set-off a retinal neural impulse.  Typical neural impulses are about a billion EV, so our own nerves typically amplify the incoming signal by a factor of up to a billion times.  It's not such a stretch to suggest that a billion times higher output is possible for an active reversed retinal reaction even for normal nerve tissue.

[Captain Kal]

What if yellow sunlight changes the quantum phase of a kryptonian body or kryptonian matter, to mimic the wave function phase of so called "neutronium" or other potentially indestructable materials, thereby making flesh and bone as tough as indestructible matter, but without the weight or other characteristics? This durablility would also allow for ultra strenght and speed potentials (I say potential because they'd be useless without the juice to run them) due to the correlation between muscle strength and speed being higher with durability.

Another thing about durability is that the protein structures that make up kryptonian bone and muscle could be based on carbon nano tubes, which are pound for pound 600 times stronger than steel.

Cool thoughts re: quantum phases.  I suppose you're suggesting something like in-phase virtual particle fields in the EM, grav, etc. virtual fields surrounding all matter here.  Given that infinite virtual particle density, making them act in phase would render them pretty much indestructible to anything phased like that.

Another angle that could augment the above is negative mass/positive mass interactions in those same fields.  Negative mass repels positive mass but due to its negative inertial properties is still attracted to the positive mass.  The net result is the neg object scoots away while the pos one chases after it in a smoothly accelerating manner.  Properly constructed and balanced, a pos/neg mass construct would be truly immovable since a force acting on one aspect would be countered by the reaction of the other aspect.

As for the carbon nanotubes, that is a good idea and probably one implemented by the bioengineers back home on Krypton or Daxam.  Be aware that contrary to popular notions, the covalent bonds in biomatter are actually the strongest ones in nature, not the metallic ones commonly used in our machines.  If the covalent bonds in butter were properly aligned and utilized, it would be several orders of magnitude stronger than the steel knife used to cut it.  Similarly, rubber if so coherently aligned would be stronger than steel (think of a rubber band that actually tended to get stronger as it was stretched instead of the individual molecular fibres getting broken one at a time).  IOW, even without invoking nanotubes, better organization of existing molecular structures would give some pretty impressive material strengths.

BTW, that was one of my objections to Wolverton's book The Science of Superman.  He supposed heavy metal deposition to augment Kryptonian flesh when metals are actually weaker than the existing bonds so better organization of bonds makes more sense and requires no extra 'metallic absorption/deposition' concept which makes Wolverton's idea a bit ad hoc.

[ManSinha]

BTW, that was one of my objections to Wolverton's book The Science of Superman. He supposed heavy metal deposition to augment Kryptonian flesh when metals are actually weaker than the existing bonds so better organization of bonds makes more sense and requires no extra 'metallic absorption/deposition' concept which makes Wolverton's idea a bit ad hoc.

Not having read Wolverton's book, I don't have an opinion. However from everything that has been said and demonstrated even in our nature, it would seem like the extra metallic deposition was over and above

[RedSunOfKrypton]

I agree. It seems as if adding heavier elements into physiology would add way more unneeded weight without that much of a durability/strength increase, and it could be detrimental to speed as well.

Another angle that could augment the above is negative mass/positive mass interactions in those same fields. Negative mass repels positive mass but due to its negative inertial properties is still attracted to the positive mass. The net result is the neg object scoots away while the pos one chases after it in a smoothly accelerating manner. Properly constructed and balanced, a pos/neg mass construct would be truly immovable since a force acting on one aspect would be countered by the reaction of the other aspect.

Would this be akin to reflecting kinetic energy like a mirror reflects light?