How Does Superman's Heat Vision Work? (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill)

[@Wi-Fi-El]

Based on the power Superman is able to release with his heat vision, it stands to reason that he can vary the intensity of it. If he let off his full strength every time he shot a laser out of his eyes, he'd be causing mass damage to everything near his target

[@elenaKS230]

In the smallville tv show his vision works like you describe, with him being able to keep it low enough to heat up drinks without melting the bottle but also able to intensify it to the level of lasers.

[@4DeMS]

I think Homelander has the most cool looking heat vision mainly because the actor is so good at making it look like he's shooting lasers from his eyes

[@internetproduction5446]

Yeah but superman could easily turn HL into to ashes if he didn’t hold back

[@irladovelasquez975]

​@@internetproduction5446 well not supermans heat vision can kill homelander because remember in the scene where solider boy and butcher fighting with homelander butcher shoot his heat vision at homelanders chest which it didn't kill him

[@03Pii]

@@irladovelasquez975Superman heat vision has repaired reality, destroyed dimensions and is stated to be hotter than a hundred suns. He’s definitely killing him with it

[@lanhhuyethan5686]

​@@internetproduction5446why you guy keep bringing up power scaling in this kind of talk, are you braindead. OP only talk about who look cooler

[@user-sp5ub7fb1h]

​@@03Pii you guys are not the real heroes I'm the real hero

[@Teth47]

Or he could just go hang out in the core of the sun, which he has done before, and gain absolutely massive amounts of power in seconds...

[@archambaultphil]

+Teth47 Woot, Superman Prime! 15000 years at the core of the Sun.

[@creme8338]

+archambaultphil woot woot!

[@chrisesquibel13]

+archambaultphil it's called superman 1 million

[@MrDd2331d]

+Christopher Esquibel Both of you are right, Superman prime one million.

[@Njrocks00]

+Teth47 He would die of radiation tho watch game theory's batman vs superman

[@jacobclark6002]

My personal explanation has always been that A: his bioelectric aura which covers him and his suit (canon) is what absorbs sunlight, not just through his skin (since most of his skin is covered by suit), and B, his cells aren't just solar batteries, but are actually like tiny contained nuclear reactors that activate and create energy upon sunlight absorption. His cells stop producing much energy under a red sun, normally produce power under a yellow sun, and go into overdrive under a blue sun.

[@ciresolstice]

This!

[@theowilds3778]

A red supergiant sun wouldn't give Superman a powerboost, it would just make him unable to recharge and get him weaker until his strength, speed, durability etc is the same as an average human. I mean his home planet, Krypton, orbits around a red sun and no Kryptonian before its destruction did what Superman did under the Earth's yellow sun, it was even addressed in the Legion of Superheroes TV show: Superman and Timberwolf went to Zoon with Brainiac's head to fix him and Superman losed his powers, which Brainiac stated near the end that Superman receives his powers from the yellow sun, and season 1's second final episode had Superman wearing a metallic suit so he can keep/use his powers under a red dwarf sun.

[@Chuck_EL]

Yup Superman is basically a human nuclear reactor

[@Devils_Lair_Comics]

or, hear me out, he could fly directly into the sun (which he has done in the past) to turbo charge his abilities. just saying.

[@bambubambubambu1194]

+Godzillarulz Exactly what I was thinking. Should speed things up quite a bit, right?

[@meganaxeliar]

not sure he can escape that gravitational field

[@Devils_Lair_Comics]

@@meganaxeliar he has...numerous times

[@meganaxeliar]

@@Devils_Lair_Comics guess that answers ur question then

[@dek5775]

He literally escaped a blackhole

[@Fraxxxi]

"he could punch right through a guy but never does" well do I have a comic book series for you...

[@miguelsantiago9411]

Injustice?

[@redgraves4030]

one punch man sucks

[@miguelsantiago9411]

Chilllll dudes

[@darknessxlight9154]

Miguel Santiago no it's the principal

[@darknessxlight9154]

only for the Japanese and weeaboos

[@keitholsen8787]

Red star would diminish his power since it was this type Krypton revolved around. Blue, however, would increase it his power dramatically.

[@anthonymathias2094]

+Keith Olsen im gonna assume your being sarcastic

[@grantharrison918]

+Keith Olsen the thing that gives superman his powers is the difference in gravitational forces not the different types of suns, but i see what you are getting at.

[@youngjondo]

+grant harrison No, Keith is right. The solar energy of a red star *drains* his powers, he only gains his famous superpowers under the power of a yellow sun. He is also correct in that a blue star gives him even more power.

[@EmeraldEmsiron]

+Suppa Suppa and that is why he said that at the end the way he did! I r angry

[@naverilllang]

+Suppa Suppa to be fair, it is mentioned that his increased strength is partly due to the lower gravity. it explains strength, but everything else still star power

[@geohiekim8705]

superman literally flies into the sun for power

[@EmeraldEmsiron]

Lets go filing!

[@austinharrison2453]

Geohie Kim basically hes a walkin battery and his body is a solar panel so without the right sun (power source) no superman

[@mortimerreid6766]

@@austinharrison2453 Yea but it would take several months for Superman to lose his power. He has been absorbing solar radiation since he was born.

[@ImAlexGoodwin]

*Batman watches this video* "So you're telling me Superman CAN melt steel beams! I KNEW IT!"

[@dmdizzy]

My only question is why his eyebeams never converge. They're always parallel, but if his eyes are focusing on a certain point shouldn't the beams meet there?

[@attercops]

maybe he can do the chameleon trick...?

[@dmdizzy]

Who knows?

[@jakepope4770]

They often do meet at the point that he looking at. Like when he uses them to write on a surface or something. He has the ability to shape his heat vision from microscopic to engulfing everything in his field of sight. I'd imagine he just has them move straight out from his eyes placement on his face.

[@brokenwave6125]

Youre wrong. They aren't always parallel.Also, just because his vision is focused on one point doesn't mean his heat vision has to be.

[@GamesFromSpace]

It's weirder how often he uses them to hit multiple enemies or track in different directions. Cross eyed superman is canon.

[@nikorobinson317]

It's simple. He has frickin' lazer beams attached to his frickin' head.

[@medea8395]

OMG

[@ethan_7480]

How bout no

[@adamhunt7872]

It's heat vision not lasers.....

[@nikorobinson317]

+adam hunt I know. It was a joke...

[@TheEpicImpaler]

FRICKIN' LASERS BEAMS! - Dr. Evil

[@mdavies97131]

OOPS, some bad numbers, though good episode mostly, I'd love to see a revised/updated one :) . He stated the sun output 100PJ (1e17 J), but wikipedia showed the sun outputting 400YJ (4e26) in thermal energy alone, which is 4 billion times as much per second as he stated. As, like any sensible person, I don't entrirely trust Wikipedia, I looked further. NASA's Cosmicopia showed the sun outputting 380YJ (3.8e26) which is actually pretty close. I really really wish he'd do a new episode with this change :) This I thought important if we consider him actually flying into the sun (he's done that historically to supercharge). Please upmark this one if you do, too. Maybe he'll notice :) EDIT: FYI, the number used at Earth's distance was correct, so all that math was fine, just the sun's output was off, or he may have referring to the tiny fraction that heads Earth's direction. If that's the case, though, at a certain point flying toward the sun, his profile (and percentage of sun's output striking him, accordingly) would increase. If, for argument's sake, he were to fly into the sun and somehow absorb all output, he'd absorb in one second roughly 60 trillion Hiroshima blasts, or 1.8 billion Tsar Bomba blasts (biggest explosion we've ever made), or enough to heat the entire by 1 degree Celsius 400 times over... that's with a one second charge. That's just nuts... b/c science!

[@Real28]

kyle, I love your delivery. keep it up. it's incredibly enjoyable and very informative.

[@Nerdist]

+LateralGs Thank you very much! -- KH

[@NiamonDrox]

+LateralGs Yeah, the delivery is really really impressive, but the facts are not always correct. For example, at the end of this video, Kyle is all wrong. For supermans xray vision to work and actually see stuff, his eyes would have to xray detectors, not emitters, therefore supermans xray vision could never ever give you cancer. Xrays, just like any ionizing radiation, are rays, and travel in a straight line. Theoretically, if superman could modify the energy spectrum his eyes sees, he could in fact see xrays. By adjusting the radiation collection scheme, and his brain compensating for our planets terrain/athmosphere induced artifacts (which the lore sets as highly probable due to kryptonian brain capacity), superman could use the cosmic background radiation as a xray default generator. Still, no way for cancer being induced from his xray sight!

[@tanyanikolaevagizdova6571]

Nerdist please make a video about marvels superman hyperion

[@Darkstar.....]

dexter floy dude you must think xrays are being created by some magical fairies that all super man has to do is see them as they move through objects. you would have to emit xrays and then in lightspeed flash to the otherside of the object to see the xrays going through before they went too far.

[@horizon4937]

Wait, a Second, a Red Sun would take away Superman's Powers! It's better with a Blue Star ;3

[@annazulfiqar2007]

This guy is right.... Because comics

[@Theolppoman]

+Clarence Ho That was the joke

[@JaelinBezel]

PEANUT BUTTER THO!

[@olivierbontinck3050]

Dindon A red sun takes away his powers as Krypton, his home planet, was a planet in a red sun based solar system.

[@willow7610]

Clarence Ho it dosent take them away it just dosent power them so if he runs out a red Sun won't supply him

[@Jamman88888]

confirmed laser eyes can't melt steel beams, lex Luther did krypton.

[@BonesCapone]

Kent did 9/11.

[@two-face1041]

Knew this comment would be here lol

[@zvonimirtomac7896]

He clearly absorbs a lot more energy than that since he charged super flare after super flare each day, and since it took 24 hours for his powers to come back it takes a lot less time for him to recharge.

[@theagg]

Perhaps Kal-El's solar absorption cells are also biological amplifiers (utilising other energy sources to scale up the stored energy and shorten time required) Plus, the angle he is standing or flying in relation to the sun at a particular point on the Earth will affect matters too..Sheesh, complicated!

[@SpiritHawk7]

At the end, your sun colors are backwards. A red sun releases less energy as they are slow burners. A blue sun however burns hot and fast, releasing way more energy.

[@zchen27]

+SpiritHawk7 However, if you are sitting near a red giant, the apparent luminosity of the star gets higher, so you receive more sunlight to charge whatever kryptonium thingimagic that powers your heat vision.

[@TSEDLE333]

You got it!

[@alexrhinehart9604]

@@zchen27 Except red suns take away his power.

[@katuwasa]

You're getting more and more fun to watch, Kyle. Sweet videos 👍🏽

[@Nerdist]

+Jers Hern Thank you so much! -- KH

[@SchlrFtrRkMystc]

Really though this is how all of Superman's powers should work... I wish they'd do a part two of this applying these rules to strength, flight, speed, and durability via stored solar joules. I know Superman never follows these rules but a superhero who did would be far more interesting....

[@BoZoiD57]

My lord your energy reminds me of Jake from VSauce

[@madmiico]

ikr

[@jukmifggugghposer]

He also makes pretty similar types of videos.

[@attercops]

they sound and sorta look alike. secret brothers?

[@diablominero]

I think in "solar energy in his cells," the word "solar" means "sun-related," not "derived directly from the sun's radiation." If yellow sunlight modifies Superman's metabolism to allow perfect conversion of matter into usable energy, that would explain most of the absurd displays of energy release we see from him without needing similarly absurd charge times.

[@abro3936]

new civil war trailer with spiderman

[@kitcollar3102]

Yesssssss

[@lolobrezzy24]

+Kit Collar sen-fucking-sational

[@nicodemusedwards6931]

It made my eyes explode.

[@Johnny_Sins]

I love you, thank you

[@forte210392]

+Abraham Martinez He looks terrible :(

[@linyenchin6773]

3:12 through to the next 4 seconds, the mannerism you employ to express the dementedness of what you are talking about, it is super adorable.

[@the_mattador726]

How long would it take superman to charge his heat vision to the same energy levels as the death star?

[@anonymususer1728]

Some questions: - how does his vision still work while the "beam" is coming out of his eyes ? How does he see and aim the beam ? - regarding the absorption of energy from the sun: can we get some details on that ? What if it's cloudy ? How about the material of the clothes he's wearing ? What if he's not directly in the sunlight, let's say it's a sunny day, but he's under the shadow of a building, how does it work then ? What about night time ? (the answers to these questions are important to me in more than 1 way, it's not only to get things straight on Superman, but also on how Vampires and their aversion to sunlight would work) - I like the calculation regarding how much energy he would need to absorb in order to power his heat vision, so how about calculating how much energy he would need to absorb in order to power his other abilities. Like for example his strength.. let's say he tries to lift 100 tons, how much energy does that require ? What about his flight ? How would that work, and what energy requirement would it entail ? - and since we've been talking a lot about Superman's different abilities that require power, how about his power storage ? How would you design Superman's "battery functionality", to have energy usable at his discretion, but also keep some in reserve for his basic functions ? What happens when he's not at full energy ? Does he have partial ability, or is he always at full strength, and when his reserves are fully depleted, he turns into a regular human ?

[@airshipgaming7471]

What about after 10, 000 years... while in the center of the Sun? (It has happened)

[@charliewalker6519]

he became omnipotent

[@MyIpadMail]

+LoL Stacker he didn't really become omnipotent

[@charliewalker6519]

Emre Kaya i thought he could do pretty much anything including rewriting someones DNA

[@jonathandelacruz8844]

+LoL Stacker he became omnipotent and learned 5th dimension moves so he can travel through time and do crazy shit

[@Probonoman]

it's not canon, so it didn't really happen

[@zacharykozak9829]

Can we all just take a second and consider the fact that he is writing backwards so that we can see it... Impressive. Most Impressive.

[@Antenox]

Can you do a video on Spider-Man's web shooters?

[@jacobburriel3972]

PLEASE DO THIS

[@ezboi7713]

+Jacob Burriel he already did -_-

[@ezboi7713]

+Tony Vega already did

[@Roberto-REME]

Kyle, you are the best. Thank you for making intelligent and entertaining video-blogs. You make learning fun and your personality is what the school system is missing.

[@shadomatch4375]

Another way to increase the effective power of Superman's laser vision is to fire it into water, if done correctly it could split into hydrogen and oxygen then causing hydrogen fusion(this would take a LOT of energy to start up). Now that the fusion reaction is going he could harness the radiation from that and continue the loop. Essentially making a small star to harness for extra energy.

[@GamesFromSpace]

He doesn't need to harness that energy. But I like the idea, and his extreme heat vision being "causes nuclear chain reactions in the air" vision makes a lot of sense.

[@shadomatch4375]

why doesn't he need to, given a strong enough foe. especially in the presence of cryptenite, he may be forced to improvise with what little energy he has left.

[@GamesFromSpace]

ShadoZerg Did you read the second half of my comment?

[@shadomatch4375]

yes, simply responding to the first bit since it states a lack of necessity. Never the less I think it would be cool if this was featured in a movie or game.

[@GamesFromSpace]

ShadoZerg The second half explains why i said he doesn't need to harness any energy from that.

[@lordmorgoth7]

explain the science of your hair. Oh Thor Odin's son protecthor of mankind, guide our minds with knowledge

[@zakirnasseri6409]

Science thor

[@iCanHasRandomness]

that double marker action seriously fucked me up D:

[@MonochromeHeart]

+Yuro Same xD I didn't realize he had two at first. I thought the lower one was a reflective effect on the glass (Although I suppose it should have been obvious that it wasn't). When he used the other, I was like...wait...What??? 0-o

[@mdx3020]

dude.. i know if off topic, but.... you guys should totally do a Because Cience of How to train your dragon... how big a dragon must be for a person to ride?, how a two headed dragon would work?, is it actually posible for a species to have 4 legs and 2 wings?, would it be possible for a dragon to sweat something for covering itself in fire?... Toothless echolocation, acid spit, the nadders spike tail, the stingers paralyzing shot, the thunderdrum sonic blast... there are lots of material that could possibly hold some real viability

[@simongreve]

If superman went to a red sun he would lose his powers, thats a well known superman weakness.

[@fancyblackpantz]

+simongreve Pretty sure that's the joke.

[@certainlynotmlgcertainlyas8971]

and a blue son (which is more common) makes him stronger

[@vryso8322]

+Certainlynotmlg Certainlyaskrub Sun*

[@certainlynotmlgcertainlyas8971]

Mr. Popo right thanks forgot to edit that

[@narrowstone5363]

wait, whys that? (sorry I dont really follow the whole superman thing.)

[@flaggerify]

The analogue effects so much better in the Reeve clip than the CGI crud.

[@flaggerify]

+The Masked Rambler Superman 3 was otherwise rubbish. It's nothing to do with nostalgia. This CGI in the newer films looks as cheesy and as fake as hell. I guess you're a CGIdiot.

[@russellhowens]

Superman can fly faster than the speed of light. I would think that him hitting someone at that speed would do more damage than his super flare attack would do. I mean wouldn't superman be splitting billions of atoms just by hitting them at that speed? That sounds more powerful than the super flare does to me.

[@dyllanbitzer7215]

true

[@GeneralBlackNorway]

+Max Powers Basically what happens in the LHC is what would happen, just with a human body weight of matter being shattered into sub atomic particles. About 30 GJ, that's about the chemical energy of 6 barrels of oil. My calculations could be wrong though, but it's not as much as a nuke if I'm correct.

[@russellhowens]

A Hadron Collider does not move the particles hundreds of times faster than the speed of light. If you calculate the amount of energy in something going faster than the speed of light, it should have a lot more energy behind it than an atomic blast.

[@son_guhun]

+Max Powers Well, you can't calculate that because it would lead to a mathemetical impossibility. Unless you want to throw away relativity hehehe

[@Ultinuc]

I just wanna say he can't move FTL. Flash can, but I don't ever recall Superman ever having canonically done it.

[@JayTheArtistOfficial]

I like how at 4:01 in the second full panel super man says "GG" 😂😂

[@adamhunt7872]

Imagine energy saving heat vision... Hippy superman

[@dubledolix0956]

Hey speaking of Solar Energy, can you do a really important calculation for me. In the Digimon franchise, a being called WarGreymon has an attack called "Terra Force" and what its descriptions said was "Takes all of the energy within the atmosphere and concentrates it into one spot, then fires it as an extremely dense, high-temperature energy shot." How much energy would that require to make the Terra Force attack?

[@EcstasyJesus]

Laser Vision can't melt steel beams

[@EcstasyJesus]

would be an interesting comic book xD

[@randomperson5426]

+Killah841 Too soon... too soon....

[@baartenkaas]

+Cabbage Head Reply of the year.

[@attercops]

+Cabbage Head Diana wishes her name was superman, in that case.

[@krbraveofficial]

steel beams can't melt laser vision

[@RedSpire-f1x]

the question is how strong do your eyes have to be in order to handle that kind of energy plus exerting it from the eyes

[@seanconor1]

I'm a big guy, I could probably make floor mats for an SUV.

[@max.wilson]

DeathBattle stated that in one comic Supes went into the sun for 15 minutes and came out with enough strength to push Earth. That's a lot of POWAAAA!

[@poiuytrewq11422]

I believe red stars actually weaken Superman.

[@dboymax1]

+poiuytrewq11422 True. Its Blue Supergiants that make him more powerful...

[@ataraxia2894]

That's the joke

[@XSRVX_01]

They do

[@ForeverGraced]

Not really. He is just used to being "overfed", so to say, with Yellow Star Radiation. Consider that Krypton has a Red Star, but they weren't hurt by it. Red Star radiation provides enough energy to sustain normal Kryptonian Life, but not to sustain superpowers. If Superman is using superpowers, and his energy source switches to a weaker one, his body responds to that (consider rapid decrease in caloric intake coupled with massive caloric output).

[@jspntr]

my thought exactly

[@iliagofman]

Superman is just able to see in the xray spectrum like we can see in the light spectrum, but xrays can go through objects and look different. Maybe for him to look at a solid object, is like looking at an aquarium. There are usually minor xray emissions in our environment which is normal and doesn't harm us at all, which he can see, right? So he doesn't need to emit xrays to see inside an object and doesn't harm you, because instead he sees them, as they are coming in from various sources and through objects, interacting with those objects and then into his eyes. Although if he wanted to see through something really dense, he could fire lazers out of his eyes in a wide dispersal area, in the xray spectrum and see those partially reflected back into his eyes.

[@icspps]

He's flown into the sun. I'm pretty sure that significantly lowers the amount of time he needs to charge up significantly.

[@-k7228]

It killed him in all Star superman.

[@icspps]

It was alternate universe. Specifically one where they toned down Superman as a tribute to the Golden Age Superman. Golden Age Superman is unarguably the weakest superman to exist. Take most iterations of Superman, and he flies into space to gather power from the sun without interference from the atmosphere, and flies closer to the sun when the situation is especially dire. There are several occasions where he entered the sun itself to gain strength rapidly. One iteration had him he spent 15,000 years inside "the heart of the sun," and basically emerged as a God. Not god... God.

[@KojinMacJorn]

Aaacccttuuuaalllly... The bomb he get rid of was designed to target Superman's ability to absorb Solar Radiation. It basically gave him Cancer, causing him to suck up so much radiation, his cells actually began to commit apoptosis (cell death). So in actuality, that wouldn't have killed him under normal circumstances.

[@gabrielthedarkangel]

significantly. lol

[@godbearxd]

icspps So what you're saying is Goku could totally beat Superman. 😆

[@AtomCarlyn]

In some movies where it shows people teleport, there's a split second where they disappear before they exit their worm hole or whatever you believe causes their teleportation- my question is, would they get from one place to another instantly, or would there actually be that slight second of absence?

[@AMDERS17]

Not cool guys. Copying a film-theory video they're going to do in the future.

[@Nerdist]

+Daniel Luzzi I actually laughed. -- KH

[@kenzofinucane4057]

+924252chongsir -.-

[@picamerons]

+924252chongsir That's the joke...

[@924252chongsir]

Oh...Well then my bad. Geez I should take things less seriously.

[@saulw6270]

+Supra Kooper it doesn't jus happen its strategically smart to link your videos to the topics other popular videos do so that your video pops up in the search engine too

[@goktimusprime]

"Quarter mile"? One thing that I've enjoyed about this video is the use of metric weights and measures that I can actually understand instead of archaic pre-metric measures that some other videos use that I understand about as well as Old English (i.e. pretty much not at all... actually, I can understand Old English a lot better because a surprising amount of it still survives in Modern English with relatively little change if any)

[@Cbev1994]

I guess we're not gonna talk about how red solar energy completely depowers him

[@Tyoda9]

That's the irony of him mentioning the RED super giant

[@Sikraj]

Funny thing is that in the comics Red Sunlight zaps superman of his powers. I think he kinda of knew that I was just making a slight joke at the end...which would explain the grin

[@nicks2437]

But, but, but......... Its specifically the yellow sun of our solar system that gives him his power. So one should assume that the yellow spectrum is the source of the power, not the full spectrum.

[@Bradyboy26]

Well he does get a power boost from blue stars so take that into consideration

[@Tooltip]

~"...He can also jump all the way up to the ISS but again he never does. Why doesn't he do that..."~ I'd say that the answer to this question is worthy of a Because Science. While I haven't run the maths, I'd wager it would be akin to a "Why Iceman shouldn't turn into Iceman" type thing. I don't think folks would appreciate random craters when SM decides to visit space :) Maybe I'm wrong, science it out @Kyle Hill :)

[@morg4620]

Man I love your channel 👍👍👍

[@Nerdist]

+morg4620 Thank you very much! -- KH

[@princereamurd3055]

I can't get enough of the special effects he put's on his videos

[@lieutenantnomad9198]

So Superman spends years on end to get enough energy to destroy a city. But when Goku trains for the same amount of time, he can destroy solar systems and even galaxies!

[@tiquezgraham7963]

+Lieutenant Nomad Stop just stop your an idiot

[@rishabh27ful]

+TiQuez Graham you're *

[@tiquezgraham7963]

rishabh singh thank you now advice for you language is only used to convay information so grammar is ultimately pointless the fact that you understood me is enough

[@rishabh27ful]

+TiQuez Graham was just a joke man, don't know why people get so offended

[@mattesses70]

+rishabh singh it wasn't a joke it was a condescending correction

[@Jer_Mar]

"but Nerdist, Superman's power is drained from red stars so a red supergiant wouldn't help him", in the nerdiest voice possible this happened in my head. then i remembered, this is science, dammit. this, is, science.

[@durinviirathkh-guzukh7806]

Heat vision doesn't melt steel beams

[@jnobile22]

But does jet fuel melt steel beams?

[@muffinman4515]

+Mr Skeltal you are over estimating jet fuel

[@muffinman4515]

+Mr Skeltal you are over estimating jet fuel

[@lieutenantnomad9198]

Wake up people!

[@rtohiu9632]

he patched holes I. reality with heat vision , I'm sure af that he can melt steel with that.

[@sphoenix41]

There was a stint in comics that Superman meditated in the center of the sun... Hahaha

[@DeadUnicornClub]

Did anyone else see Kyles sloppy handwriting and think: Time/s) and get frustrated? Tighten up that parenthetical!

[@Nerdist]

+TrulyEvilBob WRITING AND TALKING IS HARD DUDE -- KH

[@DeadUnicornClub]

TheRebelAE Truly it must be the evil in me.

[@whitherwhence]

+Nerdist l'm just amazed you flunked the writing that was right way around, as oppose to the sideways one.

[@MrFrelix92]

+TheRebelAE Is he writing backwards? Or is it mirrored in post?

[@DeadUnicornClub]

MrFrelix92 It's mirrored... or he's left handed.

[@stizan24]

Superman just chills in the core of the sun.

[@roberthoff6670]

one problem when u said a red giant his home star was a red giant so he would have no powers if that was the case

[@brianluk2006]

+Robert Hoff red or yellow doesn't make any difference in real life, just more power output, comic book science is misleading af

[@Mastermind8908]

+Robert Hoff Maybe that's why Krypton exploded. The planet probably absorbed enough of the red sun's energy and caused a nuclear chain reaction.

[@bryanwoods3373]

That's the joke.

[@Tekrothebountyhunter]

Honestly, I was more curious about what it would be like for Superman as he was shooting his heat vision. Would he still be able to see as he was firing, or does he just aim and hope? Would he feel any kind of pain as that kind of energy was blasting out of his face? How would he trigger the blast to begin with; would it involve flexing special eye muscles or simply concentrating? I suppose the same questions could be asked about X-Men's Cyclops.

[@benlipson6497]

Don't red supergiants actually weaken superman? I knows it's a red star of some kind

[@rmt430]

+Ben Lipson My thoughts exactly, and why I went to the comments!

[@darkamora5123]

+Ben Lipson Yes, in canon any red star weakens Superman. However in recent years astrophysicists have pointed out the flaw in Superman's powers. The idea was based on a lack of actual knowledge of stars and their energy output by the creators who used that as an explanation for his powers. But the reality is that a red supergiant puts out more energy than a yellow dwarf star like the Sun. Now a red dwarf on the other hand that would have a lower energy output than the Sun.

[@benlipson6497]

Darkamora it may have been a red dwarf. If I recall correctly, it was all star superman when he went to bizarro world. It may have been a red dwarf. Thanks for the knowledge anyway

[@darkamora5123]

Ben Lipson No problem.

[@photoo848]

That may have been the joke

[@Brastius]

My theory is that Kryptonians are infused with microcrystalline structures that provide them various abilities. The crystals would store energy from the sun, then release it through structures in the eyes.

[@wednellmode760]

or they just have some super mutated chloroplast in their bodies

[@jackotd]

The red star makes him normal right?

[@garthe6631]

JackoftheDead yes, yes it does

[@AmaranthOriginal]

Yeah, in the comics. But we're transposing his heat vision onto normal reality based on the assumptions Kyle has set forth. We still have to assume a man can shoot lasers from his eyes based on storage of solar energy in his cells, but we've set forth premises assuming he absorbs all the radiation, etc. Why? Because -if we want to break down a fictional concept based on conventions of real world scientific principles, it is necessary to make some concessions to the limits of our reality, and the absorption of solar energy is naturally limited by the amount of potential output from the Sun or star in question- Science!

[@TSEDLE333]

Normal for a KRYPTONIAN....a species that evolved on a planet that WAS bigger than Earth, and thus had more gravity, had a far less dense atmosphere and so on. His bones are denser than any human, his skin is also tougher and so on...people seem to forget his so often...even the fucking writers of said character...

[@email2014]

"The average human body has enough skin to make all of the floor mats in your car"

[@mohamed10403]

actually superman once went to the sun and stood there in a couple seconds and he was fully charged

[@generallymexican8978]

that's true he can even sleep in the sun.

[@mohamed10403]

+Jose Acosta exactly so he is a thousand miles (and more) closer to the sun then the closet planet in our solar system

[@SideStrafed]

+Jose Acosta he occasionally takes sun bathes

[@mohamed10403]

:) haha :)

[@kordarron3501]

"From *gestures around eyes* to ... stuff." Perfect

[@crispybacon4240]

5:25 So all the women at "The Daily Planet" would have breast cancer?

[@crispybacon4240]

***** X-ray vision. High exposure to X-rays causes cancer.

[@JLCR1993]

+Crispy Bacon...watch the Daily Planet's drop their employee insurance coverage. lol

[@user-lm7yx7wj5l]

You forgot that a big part of the light (the most energetic wave lengthes ) from the sun turns to heat at the ozon layer, which makes the amount of energy he observes, lower!

[@Dragoboi1998]

but superman poeple dont have power in a red sun

[@TSEDLE333]

That was a joke...

[@LegendOfKitty]

Could there be any science-y stuff in shape-shifting? Like werewolves and other creatures? That would make a cool video, I think.

[@RJL738]

My personal simplified theory is because Superman must absorb so much sunlight and eyes are a somewhat two-way structures, he can take all the sored energy in at least part of his body in blast it back out as some kind of infrared or heat energy. Imagine Superman absorbing a Blue Hypergiant star, or a series of them. We don't know that he can't somehow multiply that energy.

[@the83rdtrombonist60]

for a while, I've been thinking about how Superman is and Kryptonian Powers work. A red giant puts out more energy than the majority of stars but red giants colors kryptonians 2bd power. What may have happened is since their bodies are so accustomed to red Giants, when they get near a store that doesn't put out that same amount of energy, their body goes into overdrive an attempt to suck up all of the solar energy from that nearby star inadvertently giving them superpowers that they would normally not have.

[@FictagiousDaveSavage]

Maybe the energy that Superman's body stores, somehow increases within him as well as absorbing more too? Because his body is different, it can somehow multiply the energy within him like cell duplication. Just an idea... So maybe his new power wouldn't take over 700 years to charge up if only absorbing from Earth? Fiction... It's FAAANTASTIC ;)

[@sinzarh]

I just love when kyles on here explaining all these things. I want kyle as president

[@omarjustinsmith2257]

I Like how "X-ray" vision was explained in smallville. It was akin to ADVANCED batman skills.

[@harpiyon]

There are also Blue Hypergiants, which are even larger that Red Supergiants. How about he gets there? Or , as others have already stated, he could fly to the core of our sun. As I understand, he can survive that, and if he stays there for a while, he'd get super-charged much faster. So that'd be the simplest solution. For him, a trip to the sun would be only about 8 minutes (if he flies at light speed).

[@benparrish672]

I like Superman's "Super Flare" power that he started using in the New 52

[@Supermynci9000]

That brings up one more question: 1. If the super red giant actually is supposed to generate more energy than our yellow star, why does Superman lose his powers under it's influence, let alone not gain more energy out of it? Chances are the answer is that the writers haven't thought this through completely, although I wouldn't place the blame entirely on them.

[@DragonXero]

Superman wouldn't need to be as far away from the sun as Mercury. In pretty much every iteration of the character, he's flown into the sun, if not all the way through it.He is fully capable of withstanding the heat and pressure of a stellar body, at least one of Sol's magnitude. He could literally hang out inside the photosphere to super-charge (as he has done multiple times) without harm. Of course, this is discounting All-Star Superman, which is meant to be the ultimate version, in which he flies far too close and ends up being so overcharged that he starts dying. Granted, that was also in combination with him overextending his TK shield (yep, they were pretty clear that that's how his powers work in that continuity), but in general, he is fully capable of getting tons of charge right up close. Honestly, what I want to know is whether or not there's any plausible explanation, some kind of real difference, that shows why a red sun takes away Superman's powers while a white/yellow star, like ours, grants him power. I imagine the radiation from both is pretty similar, just in different doses.

[@IamnotJohnFord]

I think it's not just absorbing yellow sunlight. I believe yellow sunlight is also a catalyst for another chemical reaction that is the true source of Superman's powers. So, he's not limited to the power from the Sun directly. He's a sunlight battery, but his cells somehow use that sunlight to power his cells in an amplified manner.

[@dreski83]

I was hitting the like button before the video even started... awesome science stuff as always, Kyle. The brain flexing is greatly appreciated.

[@michaelgallina7619]

Kyle, I think we need to look even further than absorption rate. I think we need to look at it differently based on the comics. For instance, Superman has the ability to hold a black hole in his hand. The amount of energy to hold a black hole must be incredible. That got me thinking. A black hole converts matter into energy. It also is able to trap light. What if Superman's cells are a conduit like a super black hole but balanced with his ability by his body to counteract the gravity. This would explain, in my opinion how he can have the ability to store solar energy in greater amounts than you have projected. What if his cells act as some weird capacitor storing energy and absorbing it at faster rate. Case in point, we know that a magnetic field can bend light (if powerful enough). what if his body can somehow bend and condense the light around him increasing the amount of photons he absorbs. And what if his cells (mini black holes/capacitors) can absorb that light at faster rate then somehow release it at a time of his choosing. It would be interesting to expand on this further in another video.

[@draco9280]

Superman could just take literal sun baths

[@nates9536]

Well, the Fortress of Solitude is a massive crystal structure. It could capture the sun's rays and direct them to a central point and speed up the process, but that still wouldn't really help the Flare ability

[@zaksolo8927]

Supermans eyes are so Dank, they can melt steel beams.

[@linyenchin6773]

Logically, Superman's "X-Ray vision" is not actual X-Rays, it's closer to what Mat Murdock(The Daredevil) does with all of his senses working as one to produce a real-time visualization of what he is looking at. He can keenly visualize the flow of your inner physiology with just his sense of hearing, throw in sense of smell and he can read your chemistry, through in sense of touch, taste and presto he knows everything that could be known about your body...from a distance, with no physical contact.

[@liamceveart7980]

Great video, but i was curious to know if there could be a scientific explanation about why his heat vision is red, mainly, or the color it SHOULD have in relation to the power he is releasing

[@alarin612]

I picked up this theory in college that Superman is powered by Neutrinos, since yellow stars theoretically put those out and red stars don't. What might THAT mean? It'd make for a cool video, maybe.

[@rwalper]

Seems more likely that Superman's energy potential/use doesn't directly come from the Sun, but from the mass of his own body. The properties of our Sun simply allow his biology to actually use the nuclear power potential of his mass. Your average human body is about 70kg, and the nuclear power potential of that mass is 1.5 gigatons, or 26 times that of the Tsar bomb, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. Combined with comments like General Zod (in the Superman II classic movie) stating that their molecular density is what gives them super powers in the presence of a yellow Sun, this makes much more sense. Also explains the effects of Kryptonite on Superman. It doesn't actually drain his power, Kryptonite simply disrupts his body's ability to use the nuclear energy potential of his own mass, and thus he becomes as fragile and energy inefficient as his human counterparts.

[@brian2e]

There are a couple problems with your calculations the most glaring one is that only one meter squared is facing the sun at a time therefore all your times need to be doubled. Doubled assuming superman is in orbit more than doubled if he is in the atmosphere.

[@BenE8844]

Dude Superman’s powers have been developing since he was on earth.

[@JCcrewsifide4me]

I know these comments are for this video but I would like to make a suggestion on a video that you could possibly make. How much pressure is exerted from Spider-Man's web shooter and would it be a dangerous amount of pressure if used to help a falling person? In the movies and comics we see Spider-Man saving people by sometimes using his web and as it makes contact with the person it shows them to have no affect by it at all unless it would be a thief or a crook. This is just a suggestion and you could change it up to make it sound more sensible.

[@JCcrewsifide4me]

Oh and Great videos by the way.

[@MusicMike512]

"He could punch right through a guy but he never does" *laughs in Joker*

[@llywyllngryffyn8053]

Superman has a 'Uniquely dense molecular structure' as is basically said in every iteration of his story... so why would his absorption of energy be limited to visible light? X-Rays, Gamma Rays, Nutrinos... the sun puts out a lot more energy than 1400 2/m^2 if you take all of it into account. Also, he's never released it all before so... how old is he now? He goes to space fairly regularly so he'd improve his rate there too, so it shouldn't take him long to store it up for a nuke, really.

[@BananaBLACK]

Nerdist Could you do Superman's flight ability? The original jumped. So his power was strength. Modern Superman flys , so is his power based in pysonics , does he vibrate himself and the air around him , or is a directional release of solar energy?

[@CSRiddick]

Here is a another theory, Superman can fly then that means he has some control over gravity (in the movie small debris would float in the air a bit when he or Zod prepares to fly) and we know that gravity can influence the path of the light. So Superman could have like some sort of gravity lens that focuses more light towards himself. Sure that could distort his image and we don't see that in the movies so maybe he only bends and absorbs invisible rays of light.