Stop-Motion Animation

I know it's hard to think of this as a character.. but I tried. I'm no animation major here. I thought I would try to make it look like the lamp was waking up, checking to see if anyone was watching, and start dancing, then go to sleep. It came out poor, I know, but like I said this isn't my major.. this is the first animation I've ever done.

Analysis of Walking

Clip A:

Clip B:

Clip C:

Clip D:

(meet my bunny!)

Clip E:

Mid-Semester Survey

"This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html)."

1st Term Paper - Superman

Laws of Physics in the 1978 Superman Movie

The premise of the Superman story is the remarkable heroism of someone from another planet, who looks very much human, but is capable of defying the laws of physics on earth in ways that humans cannot. Because superman is the only being who is able to defy physics as it is known on earth, I will make the hypothesis that the irregularity lies with him, and not with humans or physics itself. In other words, the reason Superman is unique in his abilities is that there are certain things about Superman (some explained, some not explained) that make him exempt from earth’s physics; the fault is not the failed portrayal of the laws of physics in the movie. While Superman is able to endure many trials that a human would be incapable of, such as direct exposure to fire and being shot by close-range bullets, the focus of this paper will be on his strength (force), speed, and flight.

One of Superman’s unique abilities is his incredible strength. As soon as he landed on earth as a three-year-old child he demonstrated his strength by lifting up the back end of a car above his head. Because a car’s weight is distributed throughout the body, and not centered in the front end of the vehicle, the boy would need to have incredible strength to be able to lift one end on his own.

Superman shows his strength, one way, by breaking through a thick (at least a few feet) of solid ice that was frozen around him. Ice doesn’t seem as impressive to break through as steel would be, but ice shouldn’t be overlooked as an easy obstacle to break through. Take a simple ice cube, for example. Using only my own body strength, I wouldn’t be able to break it. Only by hitting it on another object would I be able to create a split or weakness in the ice. Superman, however, was able use only his muscular strength (primarily arm strength, as we see his arms swinging out horizontally when he emerges from the massive block of ice) to crack the ice enough to escape.

Another demonstration of Superman’s strength is that he can lift a falling airplane while in flight himself. He does this twice in the film – first to save Lois Lane when the helicopter topples off the side of a tall building and he flies up from below and grabs both Lois and the helicopter, lifting it back to the top of the roof, and second when a commercial sized airplane loses an engine and he supports the weight of the wing while in flight at the same speed of the plane. More remarkably, when he does these things, he experiences no rebound force. According to the action-reaction theory of physics, the upward force Superman exerts on the falling helicopter should be equaled by the force of the helicopter pushing back down on him. He should rebound downwards at the enormous force of the helicopter, but instead he seems to follow a straight path upward even when the helicopter collides with his hand. There is one explanation for this in the laws of physics, and that is that Superman’s mass is so great that the force of the helicopter wasn’t enough to move his large mass downward. Although Superman admitted to Lois in their interview that he weighs 2,225 lbs, I am doubtful that that mass would be even close to enough to not feel the effects of a falling helicopter.

The last, most impressive, and least probable demonstration of Superman’s strength I will discuss is when he is able to lift the earth’s sinking crust. When Lex Luther sets off two missiles, one headed for New Jersey and one for California’s San Andreas Fault line, Superman is able to divert the path of one missile in time, leaving the California fault to be blown apart by the second missile. As the earth’s crust begins to fall, Superman rushes to help support the fault before the western coast of the state crumbled into the ocean. He is able to reach the fault and fly under the crust, raising it up with him from below. We already know that Superman has incredible strength, so there is no doubt that he could support that weight. There is a problem, however, with the amount of land that must be supported in relation to the very small area of support provided by his hands. A distance of over five hundred miles of coast could not be supported by one set of hands in one place. It is comparable to a tiny needle supporting the weight of a large sheet cake. Although the needle is strong, it would pierce the object it meant to support because it doesn’t provide a large enough base of support.

The next remarkable ability Superman has is his speed. He first shows off his speed as a teenager when he runs home from school and reaches his house faster than the people in a car who left the school before he did. Along the way, he races a train, and although they seem to be tied for a short time, Superman ultimately wins by running at a higher velocity than the train, then changing direction and crossing the tracks just barely before the train passes.

Superman’s speed in flight is much faster than his speed on foot, as is seen when Superman thwarts the first missile, and then flies across the United States in only a few short moments to rescue the coast from the second missile. He is able to fly faster than a missile, so much faster in fact that even though the missile was launched several minutes before he got up into the air (he was drowning first with kryptonite around his neck) he was still able to catch up with it in time to throw it off-target before making its mark. Immediately after, he flies all the way across the country and helps minimize the damage there. He reaches the coast it seems only seconds after the missile hits.

The most impressive display of Superman’s speed is without a doubt when he flies circles around the earth in order to reverse the earth’s orbit and go back in time. He does this in order to save Lois Lane, which leads me to the hypothesis that Superman is able to exert greater energy and reach higher speeds when there is a great personal need involved as motivation. The great difficulty of this task is not only that Superman covered a great distance in a short period of time, but also in order for time to actually be reversed, he would need to have travelled faster than the speed of light, or 299,792,458 meters per second, which is no small task.

The final superhuman ability Superman possesses is the aptitude for solo flight. The manner in which Superman flies is unrealistic within earth’s atmosphere, given his mass and earth’s gravity. Even with a huge push-off, or initial force upon leaving the ground, superman would not be able to continue in straight flight for the amount of time and distance he does in the film. There are three main factors make Superman’s flight impossible, even with his super-human abilities. The first is that when he takes off from the ground, he does not exert a large force on the ground to aid in his lift-off. Second, he is out of balance with the action-reaction law of physics. And the third, he flies in a linear movement, not parabolic.

The amount of force required to take off in flight as Superman does would need to be immense. Even with the Hulk, who is able to jump very high and travel many miles needs to exert a noticeable force on the ground to accomplish the large jump. Superman, on the other hand, exerts seemingly no force before he takes flight. There is very little to no noticeable bend in his knees or push-off. It looks effortless, and with his mass, even given his extreme strength, it is unlikely that he would be able to gain as much upward momentum as he does with so little force exerted on the ground.

Given that Superman has little initial force when he begins flight, he would need to gain momentum somehow while in flight in order to sustain his velocity (speed and direction). Rockets, missiles, and airplanes use the action-reaction force to their advantage when in flight, to help propel themselves forward by exerting a force, air or fuel exhaust, back behind them. Superman, however, does not displace anything behind him in order to propel himself forward. Without this force, due to gravity and air resistance, he should eventually slow and follow a parabolic path of action down to the ground.

The third impossibility of Superman’s flight is that his movement is linear, rather than a parabolic arc as it should be given that he exerts no action-reaction force to sustain his velocity while in the air. He always appears to be moving in a straight line, following the same velocity. Even when an object rises it follows a parabolic, or slightly curved, path upward. Superman’s path upward isn’t curved at all.

To conclude, the character of Superman, while not plausible on planet earth, makes for great superhero movies and comics. They made some attempts to rationalize his abilities, for example by noting that he is unhurt by bullets because of his density and incredible mass. Some abilities, however, such as the ability for flight, were left completely out of the discussion, making it unrealistic according to the known laws oh physics on earth, even for someone from another planet.