Vsauce, I’m Jake and after watching Captain America: Civil War I got to thinking about
Cap’s shield and how powerful of a weapon it is.
According to Marvel the shield weighs 12lbs, has a diameter of 30in, a blunt edge and,
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is made entirely out of the fictional metal Vibranium.
And from watching the movies we know how strong it is: It can block bullets, robot arm punches,
and Thor’s hammer - which we know is incredibly powerful.
But when wielded properly, the shield can also be used as a very effective weapon that’s
able to: literally disarm an alien, cut through elevator cables, stick into the side of a
car, cut a robot in half and penetrate Ultron’s chest.
All of that got me thinking about something in particular...if the shield can cut a robot
in twine....what would happen if Captain America’s shield hit you?
Now, the first thing you’re probably thinking is that since Captain America is a very well
trained soldier, he probably throws his shield less powerfully at a human being than at a
sentient machine and I thought the same thing so, using the amazing open source physics
software Tracker, I calculated how fast the shield was travelling.
Not only when being thrown at normal people but also at super villains and inanimate objects.
It turns out that they were all around the same speed, which flies through the air at
an average 18.4m/s or 41mph.
So now we have a giant spinning 12lb disk flying at you at 41mph...what would happen
to your body when it makes contact?
The results I got were very surprising.
So much so that I reached out to two people very well versed in physics, Dr. Martin Archer
and Dianna from the awesome channel Physics Girl to verify.
And what we discovered is...that nothing too devastating would happen.
It would have around the same kinetic energy as a professional boxer’s punch.
That being said, if the edge of the shield hit you in the face you’d almost certainly
not be alive anymore but if it hit you anywhere else, you’d likely just be pretty bruised
and sad.
So you wouldn’t really have to worry about his shield too much, but he has something
else that would be devastating...his foot.
Using Tracker I was able to calculate the speed at which a villain travelled backwards
after being kicked by the captain, and it was pretty fast at 16.5 mph (7.4m/s).
And the acceleration from 0 to 16.5 was almost instantaneous which would not be good for
your well being.
You’d experience about 9gs of force immediately, 1g more than what a F16 pilot experiences
pulling out of a dive.
To put that into perspective, an average person would pass out after 5gs.
Not only that though, but if he kicked you with the complete surface of his foot, it
would most likely break every bone it came into contact with.
However, it gets worse.
Let’s say just the heel of his foot hit you, since the surface area is now much smaller
but he is still transferring the same amount of energy, the damage done would be not great
for you.
His heel would be able to break through 1.5in (4cm) of solid bone so if he were to kick
you here in the sternum his foot would most likely go into your body but don’t worry
it wouldn’t make it all the way through because your spine would stop it.
If his foot was aimed somewhere else, say at your head...uh, well, you can probably
imagine but if you can’t...
When it comes to Captain America’s shield, it is surprisingly less damaging than I expected,
to be honest.
I imagined a 12lb flying disc with an edge, even though dull, the size of my pinky to
cause more bodily harm but math showed me differently.
His foot well, ...the Captain might stand for freedom but the only freedom he’d be
dispensing is freedom from living.
And, as always, thanks for watching.