Friday, November 14, 2014

The Physics of Thor's Hammer

Not that you should take any of these seriously, but some time, entertainment reading like this can be "fun".

Jim Kakalios, the author of The Physics of Superheroes, has written an article on the physics of Thor's hammer. I think what I am more interested in is the details trying to explain the initial inconsistencies of what was seen (such as the hammer appearing to be too heavy for everyone to lift, yet, it isn't so heavy that it crushed the books and table that it was resting on). I think that is more fascinating because in many storyline, such inconsistencies are often either overlooked or simply brushed aside. To me, that is where the physics is, because someone who notices such inconsistencies are very aware of the physics, i.e. if such-and-such is true, then how come so-and-so doesn't also occur?

Zz.

1 comment:

Douglas Natelson said...

I vaguely recall some comics explanation that Thor's hammer is actually "fixed" and the universe moves around it, but that's rather problematic for a host of reasons. Remember, before the Marvel films and their vaguely Clarke's Law claim that Asgardian magic is really advanced technology, it used to just be magic.