The Wonders of Physics

This summer, Wonder Woman returns in her second feature film, Wonder Woman 1984. The superhero, who also goes by the name Diana Prince, is an Amazon warrior princess bestowed with gifts from the Greek gods. She’s amazingly strong and has lightning-fast reflexes. And she’s got plenty of awesome villain-fighting tools: a Lasso of Truth to snare bad guys, bracelets and a shield that can stop bullets, and an invisible jet in which she can zip around the world!

Wonder Woman’s fictional universe, extraordinary powers, and weapons have a mystical backstory. In reality, the right materials and knowledge of physics could also explain some of her impressive feats. Here’s how science helps put the “super” in one of comic books’ most legendary superheroes.

This summer, Wonder Woman returns in her second feature film, Wonder Woman 1984. The superhero also goes by the name Diana Prince. She’s an Amazon warrior princess with gifts from the Greek gods. She’s amazingly strong and has lightning-fast reflexes. And she has plenty of awesome tools to fight villains. Her Lasso of Truth catches bad guys, and her bracelets and shield can stop bullets. She even even zips around the world in an invisible jet! 

Wonder Woman’s made-up universe has a mystical story behind it. Her amazing powers and weapons are part of that. But could her feats happen in real life? The right materials and knowledge of physics could explain some of them. Science helps put the “super” in one of comic books’ most famous superheroes. Here’s how.

Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth is indestructible and forces anyone captured by it to tell the truth. In real life, lie-detecting devices monitor a person’s physical responses for signs of stress that may indicate deceit. And “truth serum” drugs have been used to get people to spill secrets. But both methods have proven to be unreliable.

Scientists have come close to developing unbreakable materials, though. One contender is graphene, made of a lattice of carbon (C) atoms. It’s the strongest known material. Graphene is lightweight, flexible, and about 200 times stronger than steel. Manufacturers are using it to develop tougher smartphone screens and aircraft wings. A Wonder Woman-like lasso made from graphene isn’t too farfetched. But to be truly unbreakable, the lasso would need infinite tensile strength—the amount of pulling force a material can withstand before it breaks.

Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth is unbreakable. It catches people and forces them to tell the truth. Devices that claim to detect lies exist in real life. They check a person’s physical responses for signs of stress. Those signs may reveal a lie. And people have used “truth serum” drugs to try to get secrets from others. But research shows those methods are not reliable.

However, scientists have come close to making unbreakable materials. One is graphene, made of a grid of carbon (C) atoms. It’s the strongest known material. Graphene is lightweight and bends easily. It’s also about 200 times stronger than steel. Manufacturers are using it to develop tougher smartphone screens and aircraft wings. A Wonder Woman-like lasso made from graphene isn’t too hard to believe. But the lasso would need endless tensile strength to be truly unbreakable. That’s the amount of pulling force a material can withstand before it breaks.

Actress Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman in the 2017 movie and its upcoming sequel, doesn’t have superpowers herself. To create her incredible on-screen abilities, stunt coordinator Rob Inch had to combine science with movie magic.

For some of her character’s battles, Gadot wore a harness connected to wires that could lift her into the air. The setup allowed Wonder Woman to appear to defy the downward pull of gravity. For shots that were too dangerous for actors to pull off, Inch turned to super-realistic, computer-generated visuals.

People watching Wonder Woman 1984 this summer might be too busy enjoying its action-packed plot to think about the science happening on screen and behind the scenes. But that doesn’t bother Inch: Bringing fiction to life is what he loves most about working on movies. “Letting people imagine they live in a different world or that they are the superhero for just a short while,” says Inch, “is such a great escape.”

Actress Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman in the 2017 movie and its new sequel. She doesn’t have superpowers. So stunt coordinator Rob Inch had to create her amazing on-screen feats. To do so, he combined science with movie magic.

Gadot wore a harness connected to wires for some of her character’s battles. It could lift her into the air. That’s how Wonder Woman seemed to defy the downward pull of gravity. Some shots were too dangerous for actors to pull off. For those, Inch used super-realistic, computer-generated images.

When people watch Wonder Woman 1984 this summer, they’ll be busy enjoying its action-packed plot. So they might not think about the science happening on screen and behind the scenes. But that doesn’t bother Inch. He brings fiction to life. That’s what he loves most about working on movies. “Letting people imagine they live in a different world or that they are the superhero for just a short while,” says Inch, “is such a great escape.”

In the 2017 Wonder Woman movie, the superhero crosses through a raging battle during World War I. But whenever a bullet zips toward her, she deflects it with one of her bracelets. Even though that bullet is flying through the air at about 700 meters (2,300 feet) per second, its impact doesn’t cause the superhero’s arm to move an inch.

“What you have to think about is momentum,” says Nicole Gugliucci, a physicist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. Momentum is the amount of motion in a moving object and is equal to its mass times its velocity. “If I throw a bullet at you,” says Gugliucci, “you could block it with no problem.” The tossed bullet has a small amount of mass and a low velocity, resulting in low momentum. “But a bullet fired from a machine gun is going much faster, so its momentum is much greater.” It’s probably safe to assume that Wonder Woman’s enhanced strength is what allows her to swat away the high-speed projectiles without even feeling them.

As enemy fire intensifies, Wonder Woman raises her shield to hold off the barrage. This time, the force of so many bullets striking her shield causes it to bounce back slightly. That shows a scientific principle at work: When objects collide, their momentum is conserved. The bullets’ momentum can’t just disappear. Instead, some of it is transferred to the shield, pushing it in the direction of the bullets’ force.

What’s truly impressive is Wonder Woman’s ability to move fast enough to block bullets in the first place, says Gugliucci. Bullets travel faster than a normal person’s reaction time—how quickly an organism responds to a stimulus. “Wonder Woman needs superhuman reaction time to deflect those bullets,” says Gugliucci. She’d have just milliseconds to lift her arm into the line of fire.

In the 2017 Wonder Woman movie, the superhero crosses through a heavy battle during World War I. Bullets zip toward her, but she blocks them with her bracelets. Each bullet is flying through the air at about 700 meters (2,300 feet) per second. But it doesn’t move the superhero’s arm an inch.

“What you have to think about is momentum,” says Nicole Gugliucci. She’s a physicist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. Momentum is the amount of motion in a moving object. It’s equal to its mass times its velocity. “If I throw a bullet at you,” says Gugliucci, “you could block it with no problem.” The tossed bullet has a small amount of mass and a low velocity. The result is low momentum. “But a bullet fired from a machine gun is going much faster, so its momentum is much greater.” What allows Wonder Woman to bat away the high-speed bullets without even feeling them? It must be her super strength.

The enemy fire heats up. Wonder Woman raises her shield to hold it off. This time, many bullets hit her shield.  Their force makes the shield bounce back a little. That shows a scientific principle at work. When objects crash together, their momentum is conserved. The bullets’ momentum can’t just disappear. Instead, some of it moves to the shield. The momentum pushes it in the direction of the bullets’ force.

Wonder Woman can move fast enough to block bullets. That’s the truly amazing part, says Gugliucci. Bullets travel faster than a normal person’s reaction time, or how quickly someone responds to an action. “Wonder Woman needs superhuman reaction time to deflect those bullets,” says Gugliucci. She’d have just milliseconds to lift her arm into the line of fire.