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The Death of Gwen Stacy

TheOldMole Sep 22 2006 06:08 PM

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuVpwjYgvgg]The Physics of Superheroes I -- the death of Gwen Stacy[/url]

soupcan Sep 24 2006 09:23 PM

Count me as educated. Thank you Mole.

Vic Sage Sep 25 2006 10:36 AM

i was 11 when i read that issue and, when i saw that "snap", i knew exactly what had happened... regardless of the Goblin's stupid ranting. I never could understand why this was considered a topic of even the most inconsequential debate, even without understanding the equations behind "conservation of momentum." It not only made scientific sense, it made dramatic sense. Spider-man has always been a hero with tragic dimensions, and the idea that he killed the girl he loved in the act of trying to save her was just so profoundly right, in a thematic sense, that no other possibility should have been entertained. You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Edgy DC Sep 25 2006 11:16 AM

It was a common explanation piously said to children back in the day as skyscrapers took over our landscape, that if you fall from great heights, the fall would kill you before the landing did, because the thought of the landing was disturbing enough to unquiet the sleep of many an otherwise hardened child. It was said enough that many adults believed it more or less, without thinking about it, despite their presumed familiarity with parachuting.

Yancy Street Gang Sep 25 2006 11:29 AM

Of course, somebody who willingly jumps out of an airplane with a parachute on would be less likely to be frightened to death than a girl who is thrown from a bridge by a flying guy in a goblin suit.

soupcan Sep 25 2006 11:47 AM

I had always assumed that somehow the speed at which one would fall from a great height would cause one to be unable to breath and so one would either suffocate or at least lose consciousness prior to impact. I suppose parachuting never factored into my thinking because parachutists descended at a much slower rate. Not taking into account the amount of time spent falling before opening their chutes.

MFS62 Sep 25 2006 11:51 AM

soupcan wrote: I had always assumed that somehow the speed at which one would fall from a great height would cause one to be unable to breath and so one would either suffocate or at least lose consciousness prior to impact. I had thought that death of someone falling from great height would be caused by a heart attack (the anticipation of the impact). Unfortunately, Soupy, there has been no record of a post-death interview that confirms either of our theories. When we were in the Army, we used to tell the GIs who were going for Airborne (parachute) training that "Only two things fall from the skies - birdshit and idiots". Later

TheOldMole Sep 25 2006 02:04 PM

I wanna be an airborne Ranger...

MFS62 Sep 25 2006 02:17 PM

TheOldMole wrote: I wanna be an airborne Ranger... I didn't, but thanks for the flashback. Later

Yancy Street Gang Sep 25 2006 02:28 PM