The Science Behind The Summer's Biggest Blockbusters
Man Of Steel Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures The answers to the most nagging, fascinating, and bizarre questions of the summer movie season. How Strong Can Someone Become? Inspired By Man Of Steel THE PLOT: In the latest remake of the 75-year-old comic franchise, Superman, an innocent farmer's son, discovers his powers and saves the planet from two deranged villains, General Zod and his henchman, Faora, who arrive from Krypton bent on destruction. THE ANSWER: Superman may be able to lift a bus or an oil platform, but humans come with pretty strict limits on strength, the first of which is the nature of muscle. The maximum force that humans produce depends on how our muscle fibers work. Over the years, scientists have extracted muscles from different vertebrates and tested their capacities. What emerged was a nifty rule of thumb: A muscle can produce about 30 newtons of force (or 6.75 pounds)...