Episode 3: Make Up Some Sciency Stuff to Throw Them Off | E5 & E6 of The Flash

Photo by Ruvim Noga on Unsplash

Make Up Some Sciency Stuff to Throw Them Off (E5 & E6 of The Flash)

That's Not How Science Works

Bomb Chicka Wow Wow! We first discuss bombs and how they cause damage through overpressure. Cool fact: When the writing team of The Flash writes down a number, there is a 92% chance they made it up. Then we discuss the physics of fighting and go through a bunch of calculations related to supersonic punches. Hey! Don’t tune me out now! It’s fuuuuun math about puuunches, okay, listeners. Fun math.

Articles:

Running up Buildings

• Here’s the Wired article that Caitlin and Nicole both discuss

Overpressure

• A great article by FEMA about overpressure and the effects of bombs

• This is another article that discusses the damage overpressure can have on various objects

• Here is a paper discussing damage caused by different overpressure psi

Running on Water

• Why Humans Can’t Run on Water: A Video Debunk

• A Quora discussion specifically about The Flash running on water

Supersonic Punch

• Here’s the Reddit post that Nicole references in her discussion of the supersonic punch. She doesn’t agree with all of the assumptions, but this is a good place to start with the calculations.

• The Simple Physics That Makes Some Bullets Deadlier Than Others

• How Do You Estimate Impact Force?

• A YouTube video showing the effect of a Lapua Magnum rifle on a steel plate

Fun Stuff

• Why do they put the suits back on the mannequins? A web comic. (Nicole isn’t sure whether this is the web comic she was thinking of, but this is amusing nonetheless.)