A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Ask Greg Archives

Young Justice

Archive Index


: « First : « 1000 : « 100 : « 10 : « Previous : Displaying #1020 of 4577 records. : Next » : 10 » : 100 » : 1000 » : Last » :


Posts Per Page: 1 : 10 : 25 : 50 : 100 : All :


Bookmark Link

Gothic Cowboy writes...

I read a recent answer from you about super-breath and, while I certainly agree that it's kind of "out there" in terms of plausibility, I feel that some of your objections are flawed.
Consider volume, for instance. Yes, his lungs aren't any bigger than a baseline human's, but they're much stronger and more durable than a baseline human's lungs would be. While liquids and solids are practically incompressible, gasses are not (have you ever checked the air pressure in your tires?), and pressurized air is widely used in society (aerosol spray containers, for instance). Given the assumptions, it is consistent with physics for Superman to hold a greater volume of air in his lungs, it would simply have to be at a greater pressure than a human would be able to endure.
On the subject of coldness, the air in his lungs would be under tremendous pressure. Rapidly forcing all of that high-pressure air out into a lower-pressure environment would have a cooling effect, though probably not to extent typically shown.
I apologize if I'm coming off as pedantic. I agree that it isn't very plausible, but it feels like your primary objection is that gasses are incompressible, and they are not. Imagine you have two tanks, one made of titanium, the other tin, and you pump air into both of them at the same steady rate until they burst. Which tank will burst first, and why? Thank you for your time.

Greg responds...

So he's capable of super-inhalation in order to pressurize the air in his lungs? That just doesn't work for me. I can't get my head around it.

And, as you said, the air wouldn't be as cold coming out as it's depicted.

The fact that gases can be pressurized is well known to me. But that's not the source of my objection. I don't see any system for this that makes sense, any biological system to actually pressurize the air in his finite lungs, let alone making it cold enough to actually freeze things when he exhales.

Look, I don't think you're being pedantic. Or - rather - no more pedantic than I'm being. I just can't buy into it. It seems like a silly addition to his power-set, like someone once said, "Okay, we've got him shooting heat from his eyes, let's have him shoot cold from his mouth."

Mostly, however, it's just that he's powerful enough. He doesn't need that, too. At least not in YJ.

Response recorded on January 28, 2020


: « First : « 1000 : « 100 : « 10 : « Previous : Displaying #1020 of 4577 records. : Next » : 10 » : 100 » : 1000 » : Last » :