“Stronger than a locomotive, Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…. Look, in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!  IT’S SUPERMAN!!!!”

We should all remember those immortal words announcing the arrival of one of the world’s most beloved superheroes.  Like him or not, his books have been selling well for D.C, for over the last 80 years.  Following the trend of other super hero franchises of the past few years, Superman is getting another reboot movie coming out next year.  Titled The Man of Steel and directed by Zack Snyder it promises to be a good time at the movies.  The teaser trailer was recently released, and although I’m very much looking to this movie, there was one error of physics that just confused me, and let me down.

Let’s all take a break and watch the clip, and then come back and discuss it.  Let’s pay careful attention to about the 1:12 mark, where we see him flying through the clouds.

Did you notice that funnel shaped cloud that appears around his body as he flies upwards through the clouds?  You can see the exact same thing on this F18 as it accelerates towards and then through the speed of sound.  The condensation in the air is being compressed by the shockwave expanding from the aircraft as it accelerates faster than the speed of sound, and forms as a cloud of condensation  on the backside of the shockwave, making the disc shaped cloud appear.  The sharper the angle of the disc, the faster the object is moving.  In both of these cases, you can see the angle is quite flat, meaning the objects in question are both near the sound barrier.

So what does that tell us about Superman?  it tells me that he was accelerating past the speed of sound as he was climbing.  Why is this a problem? Why was he accelerating at all?  Superman, as we know, cannot fly.  He leaps.  Over tall buildings in a single bound.  We’ve known this for over 80 years.  An object in motion will remain in motion, until acted upon by another force.  Our good friend Newton taught us this, and this becomes crucial.  Superman pushes off the ground and takes to the air in a mighty leap.  His foot pushes into the earth, and the earth pushes back with an equal force.  This causes him to jump into the air.  The instant his foot leaves the earth, his acceleration reduces to zero.  The Earth has finished imparting all of its velocity to him, and he will now keep that same velocity until something else causes him to either gain more, or lose some.  The drag on his body from the atmosphere would cause him to lose velocity, and continuously decelerate.  Airplanes can continue to accelerate because their engines provide forward momentum that counter-acts the drag from the atmosphere.  Superman, a baseball, or a bullet all leave their individual projectors with all the velocity they are ever going to have.  This is why bullet velocities are measured at the muzzle.  Any measurement after that would be after the projectile has been affected by atmospheric drag.

In the Trailer, Superman flies by, and we hear the telltale sonic boom and see the shock wave of him accelerating past the speed of sound.  Unless he’s hiding a rocket engine under that cape, or he’s gained a new power I’ve never heard of, our good friend Mr. Newton has a strong argument to have with the Man of Steel.  Now, the only option here is that he’s decelerating down through the speed of sound as we watch him in this clip.  unfortunately, that would have to mean that left the earth at supersonic speeds, and that he’s been bleeding off speed since he took off.  A sonic boom at low altitude from a passing fighter jet has been known to shatter glass, set off car alarms, and be very unpleasant to everyone around.  Superman jumping to supersonic speeds had better be doing it very far in the woods, or I’m sure the people of Metropolis would get pissed.  Well, except anyone with a job in window repair.  For context, thing of a modern artillery piece.  It launches a 90+ pound projectile at supersonic speeds.  Think of the violence involved in launching that into the sky, and now imagine launching something over twice that weight to the same speed.

You can defeat Lex Luthor, but you can’t defeat physics.  You know, A super strong man from another planet that can pick up cars and shoot laser beams from his eyes I’m willing to live with, but having him accelerate after leaping and suddenly I get filled with physics nerd rage.

NOTE:  I’m just an amateur when it comes to the higher concepts of physics, and never ever claim to be a super expert in this stuff.  Ballistics and firearms I know because it’s my job, and has been for over 14 years.  If you happen to be a REAL expert in this field, and I’m completely off my rocker, please let me know.  If you’re a comic book guru, and happen to know that I’ve forgotten something about Superman, please let me know that too!  If your name is Vi Hart and you want to teach me physics OMG YES PLEASE! #MassiveFanBoy

NOTE: If you don’t know who Vi Hart is, SHAME ON YOU.