Some physics and Bishop

[brassghost]

Ok, so me and my roomate are sitting in physics, watching ice melt and metal expand (oh the joy of thermal dynamics). we got bored and started thinking about old comics. Bishop came up, specificaly the issue where his gun ran out of ammo, so he started absorbing the energy caused by the snow melting on his body. and we can up with a couple questions.
1. does bishop feel pain when absorbing the energy?
2. can he absorb all the energy thrown at him, or does some still get by him?
3. according to the laws of thermal dynamics, Bishop would be the perfect heat source, so how does he not overheat?

ok, obviously, i know it's just a comic. but i had way too much time on my hands, and i started thinking to the point where my brain hurt. if any engineering majors have made any sense out of what i'm talking about, give me your input. i'll shut up now.

[Jean_genie]

I'm not an engineering major, and I suck at physics.... but I'll have a go anyway. They say Bishop absorbs kinetic energy, but that's not really helpful, since pretty much anything can be converted into kinetic energy.

1) I dunno. I'd say it depends on what parts absorb the energy ... it's completely a writer's question.
2) Again, that'd have to be a writer's question. I'd imagine he would need to be doing it consiously though .... which leads us to the inevitable ....
3) Just because he can absorb energy doesn't mean he can't give it off. This question is sort of linked to #2. Say for instance that "energy" is instead "water". I could absorb/consume pretty much as much water as I want. However, that doesn't preclude it from coming back out in other various forms. I'm sure Bishop is much the same way: energy absorbtion is most likely a conscious thing, so if he wants to get rid of it, he does. A better question might be this: What happens when Bishop wants to discharge energy, but is somewhere where he can't just blow stuff up? Can he discharge slowly, just giving off heat? Or is it always a big blast?

[captainspud]

1. In whatever Uncanny X-Men issue was a part of Fatal Attractions, everyone started pounding on Bishop to help him kick Magneto's ###. And throughout this powerup session, Bishop was wincing and his speech was strained. So I would conclude that yes, he does feel the pain.

2. In comic physics, it's impossible to shoot someone with an energy blast and not have there be a huge, colourful explosion where it connects. An explosion equals wasted energy, so yeah, some escapes him.

3. He can project energy. They've never specified what kind-- it's just "Generic Comic Book Pink Energy Stuff". But since we can see it, it must be somewhere on the electromagnetic spectrum, which means that it's entirely possible that it can be shot off as heat. And in that same UXM issue shown above, it was demonstrated that he can't shut off his power, and once he fills up, the built-up energy releases on its own. So because of all this, I would say that if he's been shot at a lot by energy blasts and laser guns and all that jazz, he would be pretty hot to the touch.

Here are some more comic-related physics facts:

1. Fire powers couldn't exist. Fire requires heat, oxygen, and fuel to exist, and there's no way that someone like the Human Torch could hold enough fuel within his body to shoot enormous fire balls and streams of flame.

2. Invisibility would have a major side effect. If your retina and optic nerve became invisible, you would be completely blind.

3. Electric powers wouldn't work unless you could also fly. When electricity enters open air, it will attempt to reach the ground by the shortest route possible, i.e. straight down. So the only way to shock someone would be to fly over their head and then release the electricity. And no you couldn't just touch people-- you would have no control over WHERE the electrons left your body, and therefore they would leave through your feet, EVEN IF you were wearing shoes with rubber soles.

4. For the record: Just because you're invulnerable, does NOT mean you can stand still, cackling madly, as someone launches devastating energy blasts at you. The concussive force of the beam would still be acting on your body, so you would still go flying, you just wouldn't get hurt when you hit things.

But as someone once said to me, "I would no sooner attempt to apply physics to the Marvel Universe than feed my left nut to a goat."

Yeah, that guy was pretty weird.

[Jean_genie]

Dude! Hitler was a comics fan?! Or maybe you didn't hear the story about the goat ....

I disagree about the flames. Actually, I disagree with most of it, on the basis that what you say is right, but only because they did it that way to look cool. Then again, they do everything to look cool, and very rarely otherwise. As far as the flame thing goes, I would think that air contains enough flammable gases to 'create' flame (like Hydrogen, for instance). Between the flammable gases and the oxygen, you'd just need the heat. Of course, then the question becomes "How well could you do the fire thing then?"

What about magical fire, like Ghost Rider?:D

[Taibak]

Hmmm... well, a lot of these problems are as much problems for biochemistry as much as physics, but I'll have a bash.

First, it is likely that Bishop would feel some pain. According to the second law of thermodynamics, Bishop can never absorb all of the energy directed at him. Some of it will always escape in the form of light, heat, sound (concussive force), etc. Most likely, he would feel some of that as pain as some of it is absorbed by his body but not by whatever organ controls is mutant power. Some would simply escape into the environment. This answers the second question as well - second law of thermodynamics says that he can never absorb 100% of the energy directed at him.

Incidentally, he can never amplify what he absorbs either. That would violate the first law of thermodynamics, which says that he can not simply create energy. The only way around this would be for his body to produce its own energy, although it has been stated that his mutant power doesn't work that way.

As for the third question, this is where biology and biochemistry really come into play. Presumably, his mutation gives him some way to deal with the excess heat of what he absorbs. Moreover, the zeroth and third laws of thermodynamics dictate that he is always losing heat. Presumably, when he absorbs energy and doesn't immediately blast something with it, he leaks heat into the atmosphere until it's discharged.

Taibak, Glad to be doing something with his physics degree