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Calc: MCU Spider-Man Gets Hit By A Train

Updated: Jun 27, 2023



This feat has already been calced very well by Quoran Drake Jackson. I'm just gonna expand on what he did.


After running the numbers on Jackson's estimation, I was able to corroborate his figures. Spidey's probably taking about 360 tons of force.

I've seen people try to get the momentum or KE of the train itself, but remember that the train didn't even slow down visibly. Functionally, the impact is just like Spider-Man running into a stationary train at 100 m/s. The bulletproof vest he's wearing would probably help a bit, but certainly not much.


But what I really want to know is: How much force was applied to Spider-Man's head? If he was knocked out, we can figure out how much it takes to do that.


Peter's head hits the train at greater relative velocity than the rest of him, because the front of the train is curved and so it kind of whiplashes his head into it. However, this effect is probably minor. Let's assume his head hits at 100 m/s.


Spider-Man is an average-sized high schooler, so his head probably weighs about 9 pounds (4 kg). The things I look up for this site.


The surface area of the side of Spidey's head is probably about 8 x 10 inches, or 0.05 m^2.


The momentum of Spidey's head is about 400 kg*m/s. The kinetic energy relative to the train is around 20 kJ. Dividing this by the impact distance (Jackson guessed a tenth of a meter, so I'll go with a twentieth, since his head will compress less than the rest of him) gives us a force of 400,000 Newtons. Dang. I seem to remember that that's more than the bite of a T. rex. I look it up and it's a lot more.


400,000 N ÷ 0.05 m^2 = 8000000 Pa (8 MPa) is the final pressure. That's less than a bullet exerts, but more than that exerted in many car crashes by my estimation.


Also, Peter's head would accelerate at approximately 20,000 G, which would of course be enough to turn normal human tissue to mush (and even exceeds the rating of electronics in artillery shells). Michael Wong says the human brain can handle up to 300 G's of acceleration without injury—briefly. Peter's brain suffered only a concussion at almost seventy times that.

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