How heavy is Superman?

[freeflyfree 0]

I was having a conversation with my son when the subject came up: How Heavy is The Man of Steele? I did a quick reading on the net and came up with de theory that he's light as a feather and THAT explains his powers... And you guys, have you ever contemplated such deep questions? (My son is 3)

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[riddler 0]

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And you guys, have you ever contemplated such deep questions? (My son is 3)

Yes, we thought of those questions when we were 3. The correct answer is he is as heavy as his given mass multiplied by the gravitational quotient at whatever place he is. That is because weight is dependent on gravity, which changes based on location (which is why astronauts are "weightless", but truthfully they have a small amount of weight). If Superman is flying in space, he has very little weight. If he is on Krypton, he weighs less than on Earth - although we do not know the gravitational field of Krypton, we do know that the only time Superman was there was when he was a small baby, therefore he likely weighed less there than as an adult on Earth

Now, go ask your son who is faster: Superman or The Flash?

Edit - I think just opened a relativistic can of worms here, since both Superman and Flash can travel faster than the speed of light. And we all know that increases one's mass as well as contracting your length and dilating your relative time. Man, this might end up being a long thread

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[DJL 235]

I think the more accurate question is "How much mass does he have?" since weight is a function of gravity and we know he lives independently of gravity.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[lippy 918]

Would all of you please fuck off? This line of thinking is WAY too heavy for Sunday morning and it's making my brain hurt. Why don't you go hide some eggs or something

I got nuthin

[JohnMitchell 16]

The mechanism of his seemingly infinite strength and his ability to fly could be independent of his density (since Superman is a specific volume, specific density would be a good answer to our question).

My question is how can he stop speeding locomotives and cars by pushing against them? Does he have super powers over coefficients of friction? Can he increase his density to provide more traction? Or does he have a trans-dimensional link to forces and resistances we don't understand?

I need to know.

[Coreece 190]

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If Superman is flying in space, he has very little weight. If he is on Krypton, he weighs less than on Earth - although we do not know the gravitational field of Krypton, we do know that the only time Superman was there was when he was a small baby, therefore he likely weighed less there than as an adult on Earth

From wiki:

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it was explained by the early 1950s that Kryptonians were powerless on their own planet, and would only gain super powers within a lower gravity environment.

I think this would suggest that he actually weighed more on Kryton thus giving him more strength on Earth...This strength was also increased exponentially because of our yellow sun which is hotter and produces more energy than Krypton'e Red Sun.

I could not find the any reference on the actual amount of force of gravity on Krypton, but we do know that it was stronger than Earth's eventhough they are both about the same size:

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Krypton was approximately the size of Earth and orbited a red sun called Rao, 50 light-years from our solar system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypton_(comics)

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[kallend 2,146]

It doesn't matter, his strength comes from the Strong Force.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[riddler 0]

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"How much mass does he have?"

Depends on how fast he's traveling - as he approaches the speed of light, his mass would increase significantly.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[ryoder 1,590]

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It doesn't matter, his strength comes from the Strong Force.

Is this the same Force Luke used?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.