• RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    1·
    4 months ago

    Gotta love the movies where someone is falling only to be caught by a superhero who has accelerated to ludicrous speeds to catch the fallen and intercepts their trajectory at 90° just before hitting the ground. So the victims goes from 150mph down to some crazy speed at a 90° vector to their original path after being slammed into by superhero.

    They’re so dead.

    But the superhero Suspension of Disbelief Field extends to secondary characters in the story.

    • Neato@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Transformer movies were awful with this. Human falling hundreds of feet to the pavement. But wait! They’ll hit a giant steel hand instead! Much better. Soft.

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      4 months ago

      You’re not wrong but there is one thing: hitting the ground is an instantaneous impact with a hard surface. Being swooped in some direction is a relatively slower process - the swooper is softer than concrete, and the change in velocity is spread over a longer period of time (even if it’s still “instantaneous” to the casual observer, it can be an “instant” 100 times longer than ground impact).

      It’s like landing on a mattress vs a hard floor - from a high enough height both are deadly, but I’d still pick the mattress.

  • Tolstoshev@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    Penny: Yes, I know men can’t fly.

    Sheldon: No, no let’s assume that they can. Lois Lane is falling, accelerating at an initial rate of 32ft per second, per second. Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel. Ms. Lane, who is now traveling at approximately 120 miles per hour, hits them, and is immediately sliced into three equal pieces.

    Leonard: Unless Superman matches her speed and decelerates.

    Sheldon: In what space, sir, in what space? She’s two feet above the ground. Frankly, if he really loved her, he’d let her hit the pavement. It would be a more merciful death.

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Superman should just fly completely under Lois, grab her and instantly match her speed, and crash through the concrete and the layers below (protecting her with his Super Bod), decelerating slowly enough that Lois is saved without harm.