Impossible Gender Forge
Using granite as a default material an applying my novice level understanding of physics:
Breaking granite as a result of compression requires a pressure of 200 Megapascals or more. (This is 1,000,000 Newtons per square meter.)
Using these forumulas and Wolfram Aplha
, the force required to exert this pressure across a 30 foot cube of granite is 170,000 Meganewtons. Wolfram Alpha tells me this is 34 times to force that water exerts on the hoover dam.
The same amount of force exerted across the surface area of a human body is 98270 Megapascals. For reference, water pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench has been measured at about 110 Megapascals.
But, of course, all these assume that the force is being applied evenly across the object as a whole. Hitting 30 cubic feet of granite hard enough to completely shatter it all would probably require even more excessive amounts of force.
To put the amount of force required into a bit of perspective, 170,000 Meganewtons is enough force to accelerate 170,000 Gigagrams of stuff at a rate of 1 meter per second. Since your character probably can't do sustained pressure except in the form of repeated punching, that means they could punch-shove something of that mass about a meter.
170,000 Gigagrams is about 80% of the mass of the USA's trash production per year.
Of course, I'm quite possibly missing some things, but it's safe to say anyone this guy punches dies suddenly and painfully.
What If? could probably explain it in more detail, but the gist of it would most likely be this:
It would end messily...for everybody. That punch of his, regardless of what he is targeting, is a city-buster. Hell, it'd probably be capable of busting cities half a continent away from its original target.
Given his invulnerability it's likely that after punching some poor bastard he'd be the largest solid piece of matter remaining within a kilometer radius.
How fast is the fist moving and does it explode.
He gets thrown back with such force that he breaks every bone in his body on landing.
There would definitely be an explosion effect. That kind of energy transfer just doesn't happen peacefully.
As for the "recoil" problem...the OP established that the character is invulnerable. But yes, Newton might have a thing or two to say about that.
Hmm. If he punched the ground below him, he could probably achieve orbit.
Lurker that doesn´t lurk
"How fast is the fist moving and does it explode. "
The fist is moving at normal speed, the energy manifests itself at the end of the punch, when it reaches its full extension. It does not explode per se but, based on what I've been reading here, an explosion would be a very likely outcome.
I'm curious about the "reaching orbit" comment. Wouldn't the energy just travel down, instead of up? I know that in martial arts, for example, if you try to break a board and fail, the energy rebounds on you (for lack of a better term), but if you strike it right, you just go through. Doesn't the same happen here?
Suffer not the witch to live.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
If his ability/power also cancels out force acting against him from the punch and limits it to the target while also being invulnerable there is your answer. It behaves in an impossible manner pretty standard for super powers really.
As for if he hit a person the phrase pink mist comes to mind if that. It might be like getting directly hit by a 155mm artillery shell the only thing left is particulate. Provided he doesn't move as a result of his punch he could punch deep craters, create tsunami's, and topple mountain tops with possible ease. He would be a Personof Mass Destruction.
Who watches the watchmen?
Newton's Third. For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. To take the martial arts example, the board does push back, but you outmass it enough that the same force doesn't produce that much noticeable recoil (at least if you've done it right). Also in everyday life, friction and gravity help disperse this pushback over even larger areas. It is (I've been told) much more noticeable in low friction areas like on ice).
However you're in an energy regime where friction just isn't an issue anymore (it probably vanishes in rounding error) and more than enough to push against gravity. And against something like a mountain (which is connected to the mass of the entire planet, the mass side of the equation is no longer on the human's side.
I don't speak as an expert, so take my thoughts with a gain of salt, and I stand to be corrected.
However, there's the question of whether shockwaves would be produced in the surrounding tissue, which could well result in a complete "pink mist" effect at these energy levels.
Ultimately, a proper analysis probably calls for a correctly-done physical analysis, and rather more knowledge than I have offhand.
My Games & Writing
Sounds a bit like Dragon Ball which leads me to wonder. Does the main character have any self control and awareness of their strength? If so they can limit themselves to not instantly gibbing every human they punch. If not then they would be treated as a WMD at best.
The mist wouldn't be pink. It'd be incandescent. And it really wouldn't be mist, it'd be plasma.
Again, that kind of energy transfer doesn't go peacefully. You're not going to knock a hole into somebody...you'll put so much energy into them that every single atom will run off on its own while shedding its electron shell in the process. Hell, you'll have a good chance of triggering some nuclear processes as well. Like fusing a lot of hydrogen (which is a major component of the human body) into helium.
Fair enough; I stand corrected.
(Indeed, on further thought I think that I was rather underestimating just how much energy was involved.)
The mist might still be pink, however. Pinkly incandescent, admittedly, but pink nonetheless. :P
edited 29th Jan '15 9:49:02 AM by ArsThaumaturgis
My Games & Writing
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Particulate fits...with a boom.
So this would be the Megaton Punch taken a bit more literally.
Who watches the watchmen?
Lurker that doesn´t lurk
Wow, it's a good thing I asked: so many possibilities I didn't consider!
Regarding the control, yes, the character can switch between "kaboom" and "normal" at will, but he can't pick any kind of middle ground.
What would be the effects of the turning of hydrogen into helium? An explosion? change in temperature?
Also, what would the effect be of punching water (like the sea) or the air?
Suffer not the witch to live.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
He is talking about an atomic reaction occurring.
Who watches the watchmen?
That's the same reaction that powers the sun and powers hydrogen bombs. So yes, a lot of energy released and a massive temperature spike (though given the amount of energy released from punch itself, you might not notice).
The problem with a mountain destroying punch is that only a very small part of the mountain will actually make contact with his fist. To actually destroy the whole mountain, the punch would have to be powerful to an extent that the mere shockwave from the impact would reach across and shatter the whole mountain.
However, as long as you're giving the character powers that defy the laws of physics, you could throw in something where the force of his superpunch expands outward to cover a much larger area than the size of his fist would suggest. Like, whatever he punches will have the force of his punch evenly distributed across the surface area of the object (or at least the surface area that's facing him).
That might not be the way you want to go with it. I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility if you want to keep the character's strength out of the cause-atomic-reactions range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fL8zopddI
Specifically for superman, but probably useful.
Lurker that doesn´t lurk
That Superman video was awesome, thanks! :D
Suffer not the witch to live.
So, basically you want to write One Punch Man and see the possiblities.
For my novel, I am thinking of a character who is basically a human atomic bomb. He\'s absolutely invulnerable and, instead of fancy kung fu moves, or flying, he can throw punches that can shatter a mountain. He doesn\'t have a middle ground: either normal punches, or massive destruction.
Due to his invulnerability, as well as a dose of Rule of Cool, he is immune to the effects of his punch: his arms won\'t fly because of the forces at work, he won\'t explode, etc. Also, the energy is released in a straight line from his knuckles the moment he finished extending his arm. He can decide between normal or superpowered punches, but nothing else. Also, it only works with punches: his kicks, elbow strikes, etc., are only those of what a normal (though very well trained) human could give.
What I am curious about, is what the effect of such energy unleashing might reasonably be in the world around him. Since saying \"a mountain\" is way too vague, let\'s say enough energy/ power to turn a huge block of stone (let\'s say 30 by 30 by 30 meters) to rubble. I know that\'s way less than a mountain, but it\'ll serve as a starting point.
My questions are related to its effects:
What would happen if it directly hit a person?
What would happen if it hit the ground?
What would happen if it was released when hitting the air?
What would happen if it was released while underwater?
Sorry for the long post: I have a bit of imagination, but I\'m really ignorant regarding to physics, and I\'d like to get this aspect really consistent, since it\'s quite important for the plot.
Suffer not the witch to live.