Thor’s flight is a souped-up version of Newton’s cradle or the billiard balls. Conservation of momentum also explains why Newton’s cradles work (they would go forever if they didn’t lose energy to heat and air resistance). A figure skater can increase the speed of her spin by bringing her arms closer to her chest-by moving mass closer to the axis of her spin, speed increases to conserve momentum. Angular momentum is conserved in the same way. When it hits the other ball, some (or all) of that momentum is transferred and the other ball moves.
When one travels towards the other, it has momentum. Think of cracking two billiard balls together. You don’t create or destroy momentum you just transfer it from one place to another. Likewise, when an object with mass moves around some axis, it gains angular momentum.īoth kinds of momentum are conserved. This value is simply the product of mass and velocity. Of course, sometimes we see Thor fly in the comics without spinning the hammer and apparently he can control the flight of it with magic demigod powers, but we’ll stick to the explanation we can explore-throwing and then hanging onto Mjolnir.Īny object with mass gains momentum as it moves. It turns out that while nerds like myself have been arguing the mechanics of Thor’s flight, the comics have at least tried to resolve the issue: But no matter how he can lift it, I sure hope he holds on, as something so dense would sink all the way through the Earth if he let it hit the ground. Thor is “worthy,” so I guess he can lift it. Now we have to invoke the demigod excuse a bit here, as it would be impossible to lift such a weight. I guess those Chris Hemsworth muscles ain’t just for show. We are talking nine times the total biomass of the Earth. As for the weight, “a herd of 300-billion elephants” (of the African variety) would weigh in the neighborhood of A LOT. I’ll give NdGT the benefit of the doubt and assume that he made correct assumptions about the dimensions of Thor’s hammer. A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoon of it would weigh about as much as a good-sized mountain. Though a neutron star could fit within the borders of Philadelphia, it’s not the size that’s important. Neutron stars are the tiny (in astronomical terms) remnants of once massive stars. Recently, the world’s favorite astrophysicist tweeted this out to his million followers: With enough strength to literally toss billions of pounds around, you would be “worthy” indeed.
With the help of Neil deGrasse Tyson, there are numbers and assumptions we can make to see just how demigodly you would have to be to wield such a power. In The Avengers and the comics, Thor’s main mode of transportation is spinning and then throwing the hammer, and hanging on for dear physics.
But the most common explanation is that Thor’s hammer, being tremendously massive, is used to propel Thor into the sky in a suitably beefy exhibition of momentum.
Others point out that he merely keeps himself hovering by spinning the hammer like a helicopter blade. The argument about Thor’s hammer usually revolves around its role in Thor’s “flight.” Some argue that Thor can summon storms, and therefore wind, to keep himself aloft. But with his resurgence in The Avengers last year, and seeing that today is Thor’s Day, the time has come to discuss in real terms his most prized possession: Mjolnir (literally, "that which smashes")-his hammer. Thor is a “demigod,” and any attempt to scientifically explore his otherworldly abilities can be dismissed as such. Thor-Norse god, Marvel superhero, and Hollywood eye candy-presents those of us living in the real world with a few problems.