Spider-man vs. the train, or fiction meets science

There's a fun article in Live Science: Spider-man's Silk Really Could Stop a Train.
That's right, some physics students have tried to find out if the scene from the 2004 Spider-man movie could really have taken place.  According to their calculations - it could.

They "calculated that the force needed to stop four New York City subway cars packed with nearly 1,000 people total would be 300,000 newtons, after taking into account the momentum of the train at full speed, the time it takes the train to come to rest after the webs are attached, and the driving force of the subway car."

They also estimated the strength & stiffness the silk required and compared that to existing spiders. "Having determined these parameters, it can be stated that Spider-Man's webbing is a proportional equivalent of that of a real spider, namely a weaker orb-weaver spider, but curiously, with a toughness more akin to some of the strongest spider silks," the students wrote in a paper in University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics.

So there you go, sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction - excepting of course that in this case Spider-man doesn't exist.
 

Fun Library videos

As an (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) honorary week for libraries and the librarians therein, I've be posting one video each day this week this is the last - enjoy them all.

I ummm and ahhhedabout my last choice, but this montage seemed the perfect way to end the week :)

Fun Library videos

As an (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) honorary week for libraries and the librarians therein, I'll be posting one video each day this week - enjoy them all.

Mr Bean at the library

Fun Library Videos

As an (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) honorary week for libraries and the librarians therein, I'll be posting one video each day this week - enjoy them all.

The Kickass Librarian

Fun Library videos

As an (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) honorary week for libraries and the librarians therein, I'll be posting one video each day this week.

Fry and Laurie - The Patriotic Librarian (1989)

Fun library videos

Last week I posted a librarian workout video. After the post my fingers went walking through YouTube and found more librarian videos. As I was watching them I couldn't help wondering what going to happen to libraries as we move more & more into the digital age. I know a lot of libraries have eBook lending sites, but growing up there I always enjoyed going to the library, browsing the shelves, the feeling of being in a place where books & learning were valued. I also wondered not just about the libraries but about the librarians, once things go digital what happens to the people. You can't just wonder over to the reference desk & ask someone to help you find what you need. I guess Google does that now...

As an (admittedly tongue in cheek) honorary week for libraries and the librarians therein, I'll be posting one video each day for the rest of the week. 

First: The Two Ronnies - The Confusing Library (1983)

Library Workout

I worked as a librarian for a few years and when I saw this it rather tickled my fancy.
The ad might not be real but the library & librarians are. This was done in 1987 so admittedly by the time I was working in a library more had been computerized but still...
My biggest problem with this job was the shelving - two reasons. It was pretty boring putting books back on shelves & making sure things hadn't got moved around. The other reason was temptation, it was a real effort to put books away when all I wanted to do was investigate. Some days it took me a lot longer to put those books away than it should have :)

The weird & wonderful world of signs

Seen signs that made you look twice.
As a writer things like this always remind me of the importance of having someone else proof read my work :)

And finally a sign it's important to read VERY CAREFULLY - and the one that made me decide to do a signs post :)