How to Become Spiderman
Created by legendary comic book writer Stan Lee and brought to life by artist Steven Ditko in August 1962, Spider-Man has been a prominent pop culture icon for decades. He’s been featured in numerous movies, games, and merchandise, and over 385 million copies of Spider-Man comics. Many people around the world have fallen in love with the relatable teenager, Peter Parker, as he balances his normal life with his life as Spider-Man. As I grew up, I wondered if it was possible to become Spider-Man even without getting bitten by a radioactive spider. With the power of science, let’s dive, or, more aptly, swing, into this question.
The two main components of web-swinging are the strength of the web material and the strength needed for the swing. Spider-man’s webs have a variety of functions, like movement, combat, and rescue operations. To be able to handle all this, his webs must be able to withstand the immense amount of force applied to them. The main issue is that the force that the webbing needs to withstand while stretching is a combination of both the weight of Spider-Man and the force that changes direction while he swings. To see if his webs can sustain this amount of force, we need to find the tensile strength of spider silk.
If we assume his webs are made of actual spider silk, the tensile strength of his webs ranges from 0.45 to 2.0 gigapascals, which is stronger than steel at 0.4–0.5 gigapascals. This number can be a bit misleading, as a strand of spider silk can break very easily, like breaking a strand of your own hair. However, when combined in clusters, the webs will be almost impossible to break. It’s even been suggested that spider-silk can stop a Boeing 747, which has a top speed of 570 mph in flight. Spider-man should have no problem catching falling cars, stopping moving trains, and swinging around New York City with webs this strong.
The second main component of Spider-man’s swing is the pendulum arc, which is the main way he soars throughout the city of New York. The main forces that are being applied to Spider-Man are his velocity going forward, the force of gravity pulling him down, and the tension being applied to the webs. He’s able to swing around so effortlessly by taking advantage of the conservation of momentum. When Spider-man starts his swing, he jumps off a building or gets a running start before shooting his web and attaching to a building. This gives him initial velocity and forward momentum from the pendulum motion of his swing. As he swings, he follows a downward arc at first, then at the peak of the arc, he lets go, and it launches him upward. In addition to these, he can retract the web so that he can fire another one to switch directions on the fly. All of these together make the act of web-swinging look fun, practical, and visually appealing.
After knowing all this, you might be inclined to believe you can become Spider-man in real life. Sadly, the title was entirely clickbait due to a fact that wasn’t mentioned: the strain on the body. The only way Spider-man is even alive and able to do any of his superhuman feats is because he gained super-strength when bitten by the radioactive spider. Without that, any other person trying to become the real-life Spider-man will quickly either lose their arms while swinging or die colliding into a building. While becoming Spider-man isn’t possible in real life, it definitely is theoretically possible. Spider-man can be anyone under that red-and-white mask. As Mary Jane said in Into the Spider-Verse, "My favorite thing about Peter is that he made us each feel powerful. We all have powers of one kind or another. But in our own way. We are all Spider-Man. And we're all counting on you."
Sources:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a30856848/fastest-subsonic-flight-plane-speed/
