Superman
Wonder Woman
 Introduction
   Batman     
Parallel Universes
Bibliography



The Dark Knight!

Batman grew up as Bruce Wayne, the child of a famous wealthy industrialist family in the city of Gotham. One evening his mother and father took him to see a movie at a theater. Afterwards on their way home
they where mugged in an alleyway and his parents where murdered. Batman was then born. After that moment he had to fight for justice.. Batman is one of the most important characters in the DC Comics universe
and widely known as the most popular known and liked character from the DC Comics franchise.


Batman is also famous for having no special powers. He uses gadgets and stealth to defeat his wide variety of enemies. Many of which include the Bat mobile, his cape which can allow him to glide,
explosive shurikens, grappling hook gun, and many more! Batman also has a complex bodysuit that protects him from bullets, explosives, and hand to hand combat.


Batman, just like Superman, was also one of the founders of the Justice League (Although he unofficially calls himself part of the league). He is also responsible for creating the Justice League space station
known as The Watchtower, the Justice League's base of operations. The Watchtower is a highly complex space station equipped with medical facilities, spaceship hangers, computer systems for monitoring
Earth, a large energy type weapon with the same capabilities as a nuclear missile, and much more.


                                          
                                                      Batman Fighting Enemies                                                                                                                        Justice League Watchtower
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I will be exploring only two aspects of Batman. Is it possible to have a real life grappling gun? And is a space station like the Justice League Watchtower is possible?


Batman's Grappling Gun


There are a few aspects of Batman's grappling gun I'd like to explore. Is it possible to have a grappling gun that can actually pull someone like Batman up a building? And could his grappling wire actually hold him? First lets talk about the gun itself.
The main part that concernes me is is the amount of power that is needed to pull Batman up a building. Assuming that Batman has a mass of 170kg, we can say the amount of energy required to pull him up a 30 meter building is about 50,031 Joules.
If we say that he moves about one meter per second, then it will take him 30 seconds to reach the top. So if we divide the amount of energy over 30 seconds we get 1667.7 Watts. There are electric motors that can supply that amount of power, and lithium ion batteries can provide just enough energy for the engine. (MrReid.org)  So it could be possible, but then there is the weight of the parts and the gun to consider. However overall the idea looks very promising. According to Dr. Newman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, with this grappling gun model Batman could effectively be pulled up a building, but only once. Good thing he has his gliding cape!



For the second portion, lets see if Batman's cable could actually hold him up. Below are some calculations to determine the answer to this question, Batman will be swinging off a building.


 
 


Interesting enough it is highly possible to have carbon nanotubes or spider silk for a rope. Although it will be extremely hard to acquire, and would be stretchy. Nevertheless, its a possibility!


Justice League Watchtower

 

                              Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman on the Watchtower.
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The last thing I will be discussing is if a space station like the Watchtower is really possible. The answer is complicated. It would be possible to have a space station that had an artificial gravity by applying
a centripetal acceleration. However, this also has a downfall. There is something called the Coriolis Effect which will disorientate a person jumping or moving upwards while being accelerated by a centripetal
acceleration. (Dr. Price, UAF) This happens if the centripetal acceleration is fractions larger than the force of gravity. So this would be a major problem for Astronauts, but that isn't the only problem. For a
reasonable artificial gravitational force with the least amount of Coriolis Effect the diameter of the space station will need to be huge! An estimate could be maybe 5km with a restriction on how fast you
could travel on the station. In the end it is possible, but not to the extent of the Watchtower. Maybe in time technologies will be able to fix this problem.



Batman's powers and abilities are relatively realistic and achievable, but it will take a long time for these types of technologies to become an every day reality.

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