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The Science of Iron Man
Posted by
timothy
on Thu May 01, 2008 10:18 AM
from the no-duh-it's-iron-man dept.
from the no-duh-it's-iron-man dept.
holy_calamity writes "New Scientist takes a look at the evidence-base behind the science and technology in the new blockbuster Iron Man, and finds it is pretty solid. From exoskeletons to real-time translation there are at the very least proof-of-concept demonstrations of pretty much all the glitzy tech the hero Tony Stark uses."
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Real Life Aliens PowerLoader (Score:2)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/25/sarcos-military-exoskeleton-becomes-a-frightening-reality/ [engadget.com]
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But for the record, a very similar scene was in an Iron Man comic book years before ALIENS. (Issue #19, Tony in the old armor vs a rogue Life Model Decoy android in the new armor.) They'll never use it in an Iron Man sequel now, because everyone would go "Boo, ALIENS rip-off!" and that's really unfair.
Print Version (Score:2, Informative)
Without the ads and other extraneous stuff.
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It's spam really. Spam we like, but nonetheless, spam.
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All that's left (Score:3, Funny)
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This is one of the reason I want to see this movie (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh, and none of the "I got bitten by a mutant spider/got exposed to gamma ray/etc" crap that is usually associated with american super-heroes.
Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:2)
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Science-fiction is fiction based on science. It doesn't require actual, current technology, only theoretically possible technology.
Just because you think it's not possible with today's technology doesn't mean it'll never exist.
In any case, a rocket-jet-inside-a-shoe is still at least more believable than some guy being bitten by a spider who can then hold a tramway full of people with his bare hands.
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In any case, a rocket-jet-inside-a-shoe is still at least more believable than some guy being bitten by a spider who can then hold a tramway full of people with his bare hands.
No. The rocket in a shoe violates conservation of mass and energy. There is no such thing as a reactionless thruster, and likely never will be unless the laws of physics are much different than we imagine them to be. A physical being the size of spider man holding up a tram full of people is at least physically possible.
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No.
"So, I think both spider-man and iron-man are equally possible."
neither are possible.
Both can be fun.
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Then you please can tell us what's the theoretical possibility for some one hundred kilograms mass the form a human body to be pushed from their feet and be able to control it without any control surfaces -on the air? (do you know what happens with a back-traction car on a slipery road? Then think about the same on a 1000 times more slipery "road": the air).
No to talk about th
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Sure, now all you have to do is work around the fact that the human body isn't aerodynamic, that there's no space for fuel, and make a rocket engine fast enough to outrace a fighter jet, yet fit into a shoe. Sounds like a SMOP to me.
Actually it's not that improbable, just expensive. The human body is actually decently aerodynamic if the air is traveling from the head down to the feet. Yes, the human form won't function as a lifting body on its own but that's easily solved by adding some strategic fins and surfaces to a suit, perhaps ones that can be extended and collapsed at will.
Honestly though, you don't need to have lifting surfaces to fly, all you need is properly directed thrust. That takes energy and a lot of it. What you ne
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Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:4, Interesting)
That is not really the Science Fiction part of the story. It is just a plot forwarding device to explain how the person got the powers. Even Iron Man really isn't Sci-Fi they are more under "Modern Fanticy"
Good Sci-Fi uses unheard of technology or really advance technology to forward the plot. Bad Sci-Fi uses unheard of technology or really advance technology to resolve the plot (I talking to you Star Trek Fans (Espectially Voyager))
Parent
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Where can i get some boots with engines capable of mach 2? A real life mach 2 engine is much larger than a man.
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Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:5, Insightful)
If you go back a couple dozen years it was outright impossible to build an engine capable of mach 2. We didn't have the science or technology to make it happen. It was maybe a glimmer in some technician's imagination, but that's it.
And before that we didn't even have the ability to fly at all.
Today we have cell phones with more processing power than an entire building full of computers a few years back.
We've got tiny motors in toys and gizmos that were also flat-out impossible a few years back.
Sure, by today's standards Iron Man is completely impossible, but that really doesn't mean much. I'm not claiming that such a thing will ever actually be possible... But claiming that our current understanding of science and technology is as good as it is ever going to get is awfully arrogant.
Parent
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I'd love to see a Seinfeld-style sitcom with the Doctor (Voyager), Data (Next Generation) and Julian Bashir (DS9).
Star Trek: The Seinfeld Chronicles.
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Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:5, Funny)
after watching spiderman, i was so psyched.
I went right home, caught a spider, microwaved it for a few seconds to mutate its DNA a little bit, then I took it out and let it bite me.
and guess what?
No superpowers
spiderman is bullshit.
this ironman fellow, this is real superhero stuff for sure...
Parent
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Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:5, Funny)
I used a Brown Recluse. After a couple seconds of microwave enhancement, I let it bit me. And damned if I didn't develop a bad-ass super power:
Necrotic Lesions.
Sure, sure, doesn't sound like much. But you just have to be creative. Normally I keep them covered up, but when I'm say getting the jump on some bank robbers, I just expose my hideous gaping wounds and dead flesh, and they toss their cookies giving me ample time to shoot them or whatever. It's awesome. Everyone should get super powers like mine.
Parent
Re:This is one of the reason I want to see this mo (Score:2)
For once, it looks to be at least within the realm of possible science...Oh, and none of the "I got bitten by a mutant spider/got exposed to gamma ray/etc" crap that is usually associated with american super-heroes.
Of course, there are somewhat realistic aspects of the suit, but there are still problems. Notably, how are you going to generate power, how do you make something that sleek-looking also structurally sound enough to pull off the stunts he pulls, and how are you going to actually fly that suit.
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Close to comic (Score:2)
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Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
In the great magnetic field
Where he traveled time
For the future of mankind
Don't spoil it! (Score:3, Funny)
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Flying suits of armor? I don't think so. (Score:4, Insightful)
Forget for a moment that a large percentage of people can't safely drive a vehicle on the ground at 65 mph. We now want to develop suits of metal capable of flying hundreds of miles per hour (Iron Man can out run jets and other craft)?
Then there is all his armament that he carries within the suit. How many rounds of ammunition, not to mention various missiles and such, is he carrying? Yeah, I thought so.
Yeah, yeah, I realize this is all fantasy and it makes for good enjoyment. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and try to claim that everything developed in a fantasy environment is directly translatable to real life.
Super-duper computers capable of interacting with humans? Sure. It will take some time but it is feasible and most likely probable. New uber-compounds which can retain their shape or make repairs to themselves? Already happening. Suits of armor capable of flying hundreds of miles per hour? Not gonna happen.
On a side note, is it just me or do Downey's whoops and hollers sound flat? I realize he wasn't actually flying but his yelling just doesn't seem, to me, to be indicative of someone who's flying in a suit of armor.
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Nobody is claiming that.
The "unlimited energy" thing is an extremely obvious impossibility, as are others. This article focuses on those "super power" aspects which do have a plausible amount of reality behind them.
Power is the big magic item here (Score:2)
Right. He develops a new tiny power source that produces megawatts. Out of scrap.
If he developed a new power source that good, commercializing it would put the oil states out of business. Success is the best revenge.
"My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum (Dubai) 1912-1990.
Spoilers! (Score:2, Informative)
"Iron Man" the song (Score:4, Funny)
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suspenders not necessary (Score:2)
New Scientist selling out, too? (Score:2)
Iron Man's Suit Defies Physics -- Mostly (Score:3, Interesting)
Iron Man's Suit Defies Physics -- Mostly [wired.com]
By James Kakalios
Tony Stark's amazing suit is a long way from realization, mostly due to practical energy constraints.
As a comic book fan and physics professor, I am looking forward to the big screen debut of Iron Man. This is due, in part, to the fact that instead of getting belted with gamma rays or being born a demon from hell, industrialist and scientist Tony Stark got his super powers by means of his engineering genius.
But just how realistic is Stark's amazing suit?
Sadly, nearly all of the features of the Iron Man suit, with one important exception, are not likely to be realized anytime soon. Let's look at each of the suit's major elements in turn.
Jet boots
The reason that we don't fly to work using boot-mounted jets as Iron Man does has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with energy. We know how to achieve thrust and propulsion using personal jet packs, and a person can indeed fly from home to their place of employment like Buck Rogers or Adam Strange -- provided they live 30 seconds from work.
The problem is that lifting a full-grown person 100 feet into the air considerably increases their potential energy, and that gain in energy must come from the stored chemical energy in the jet pack. Ditto for the energy required to zip around once airborne. You just can't store enough energy to make long flights without making the suit too big to wear. So jet boots alone don't make Iron Man an escapist fantasy, but the idea that Stark could store enough energy in his suit to fly for more than half a minute does.
Repulsor rays
Similarly, the directed energy weapons Iron Man uses, such as the "repulsor rays" built into the palms of his gloves, should require that Stark drag along a large power generator whenever he faces off against the Mandarin or Titanium Man. I'm not exactly sure what a "repulsor ray" is, but if it's anything like a high-power laser, then the energy demands are considerable.
Even assuming that Iron Man can convert any stored energy in his suit into laser light with 100 percent efficiency, then to generate a beam powerful enough to melt a fist-size hole through a half-inch thick steel plate (which any comic book fan can tell you is well within Shellhead's capabilities) would require an energy pulse of more than 2 gigawatts of power, greater than the output of a nuclear power plant.
Cybernetic helmet
There is one aspect of Iron Man's armor that is not only scientifically sound, but may be available for our use someday soon: the "cybernetic helmet" Tony Stark uses to control the devices within his armor. When Iron Man wants to discharge his palm-mounted repulsor rays, he does not have to manually release a safety switch, enter a firing sequence code or even pull a trigger -- he just tells the supervillain to "talk to the hand" and fires!
In fact, Bin He of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota [umn.edu] has already created a helmet much like Iron Man's. It works on the principle that neurons' electrical currents create electric and magnetic fields, which can be detected with devices such as the electroencephalograph, or EEG. While the EEG has been around since the 1920s, recent advances in signal processing have enabled scientists to isolate and identify the firing signatures of neurons associated with particular motor-imagery tasks.
Professor He identified the specific firing pattern that arises when a person, watching images on a computer monitor, tries to mentally move a cursor to the left or right. These detected frequencies can then be amplified and, when suitably modified, can instruct the computer to move the cursor in the same direction.
Of course, He is not int
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A pretty hot (both literally and figuratively) bipropellant rocket could manage about twice the specifi
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One is that the current implementations being "sometimes-acceptable" means they don't count as a "proof of concept". Actually I think that's exactly what it means, same as muscle-enhancing exoskeletal body armor is very much in a "proof of concept" stage, and not actually usable in real-world deployments yet.
Second is that to actually improve the translation to the point where it is accurate requires a hard AI. Surely translation algorithms, enhanced with knowledge of colloqui