INTRODUCTION STRONG AND SPEEDY Dogs don't look left and right when they cross the road Good thing there are heroes to save them Somebody save my dog You hear cries for help and see a crowd gathering Two blocks away a curious puppy is running through a traffic filled city street With a burst of superspeed you race toward the puppy reaching him in less than a second But before you can grab him a horn blares a warning You glance up and see a huge truck zooming right toward you 4
Luckily your superpowers don’t stop at speed You also have superstrength With no effort you pick up the puppy with one hand while your other hand stretches out and brings the truck to a gentle halt With superspeed and superstrength you could save all the wandering puppies in the world Sounds like a dream right But what would it really mean to have these powers Superstrength is a common superpower for comic book heroes 5
CHAPTER 1 THE SCIENCE OF SPEED Superspeed is a super ability Many comic book and movie heroes are naturally superfast Others need magical items to assist them like special suits magic hammers or jets Plenty of characters can travel faster than the speed of sound which is 761 miles 1,225 km per hour Some are famous for being faster than a speeding bullet or about 1,800 miles 2,897 km per hour A few can even move at or surpass the speed of light 6
What about traveling at light speed in real life According to physicist Albert Einstein anything with mass will never be able to travel as fast as light Mass is the measure of weight or the amount of stuff an object is made of Light is made up of photons which are particles without mass They don’t need energy to move Light travels 186,282 miles 299,792 km per second Humans have mass so according to the known laws of physics we will never be able to travel at the speed of light Shock waves make a cone of pressurized air As the air spreads out it creates a loud noise called a sonic boom SUPERFAST FACT Pressure waves build when something travels through air faster than the speed of sound This creates a shock wave BOOM 7
