Blog

Batman’s cape is an essential part of his overall persona. Not only does it help him fly down the huge skyscrapers of Gotham city, it also adds a certain ‘cool’ factor to his outlook. However, while all that remains in fiction, it has now been divulged that according to physics, the batman cape is a highly dangerous tool which would nearly definitely kill its user on landing.

Basically, the problem with batman’s cape is that it is too good for flying but in simple terms, has no brakes. So whereas batman launches off a tall building, he can attain a fairly good speed using his cape, there is no effective mechanism to slow him down when he wants to land. The result is that he may hit the ground at a whopping speed of 50 miles per hour.

This information has been published in Journal of Special Physics Topics. In the journal, four final-year students have done a study on batman’s cape and have come up with the following conclusion, “Clearly gliding using a batcape is not a safe way to travel, unless a method to rapidly slow down is used, such as a parachute.”

The length of the batcape is about half the length of a regular glider. So if Batman decided to take off from a skyscraper measuring 492 feet in height and continued his flight for 1150 feet, he would touch a 68 mph velocity and if then, with air friction, he is able to reduce the velocity somewhat, it can at best come down to at least 50 mph. And hitting the ground at this velocity is definitely not safe, even for a super-hero.

Source: Journal of Special Physics Topics

Courtesy: Ubergizmo

[ttjad]