Could Spider-Man Swing on Actual Spider Silk? (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill)

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Spider-Man is finally webslinging in the MCU thanks to Captain America Civil War, but could he use REAL spider silk? Kyle uses his spider sense in this week’s Because Science!

Because Science every Thursday.

Artist: Andrew Bowser

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[skirnir]

Thor stop making videos on youtube, the avengers need you back

[kroposman]

So this is what Thor is doing in his free time. Very educational. Thumbs up!

[ToshiUchiha]

It's almost like no one watched the Amazing Spider-Man films. He did indeed design his webshooters but the silk was sourced from Oscorp. The cartridges were made by Oscorp from genetically altered spiders, one of which, bit Peter. This made a lot more sense in the real world than actually designing synthetic spider silk but I'm a comic book purist (sort of ) so I liked the fact that he did that in Civil War. :D

[danielathayde]

Well the string has to stick to a concrete/brick wall. The string might survive, but how strong is the bond between the spider string and the concrete? Or even the concrete itself, since it's gonna have to withstand so many newtons of pull on such a tiny spot.

[ieuanhunt]

Now tackle the train scene from Spider man 2

[Slutuppnu]

My favourite moment in Captain America Civil War; when Spider-Man sees the Captain's shield bouncing around and says "That thing doesn't obey the laws of physics at all!"

[kgmotte]

the fact that Peter Invented his web Fluid (and web shooters really) is kinda a Big deal, it's the part of his character design that's a constant Physical manifestation of his Genius, I mean in Earth 616 he has an IQ of 250, Reed Richards (the guy who figures out new ways to hop dimensions in his spare time) once said that Peter is as Smart as he himself was at his age! Reed Never said anything of the sort to Tony Stark, in fact Tony gets confused when Reed, Hank Pym and Bruce Banner get together and start Talking science in earnest, Tony Just flat out can't keep up with these guys... Translation: Peter's smarter than Tony, he just doesn't the Experience, Cash or spare time to do what Tony does... Heck during the Civil War comics Peter Hacked Tony's Mainframe like it was nothing, while Tony had actively set up protections against him specifically!

That said, Peter's web fluid once it's out of his wrists is actually pretty close to real Spider Silk in Tensile Strength, well the basic recipe is anyway, Peter's made a few Variants for special occasions or Villain countering over the years. Such as Webs that Burn, webs that Electrocute, Acid Resistant webs and a bunch of others I'm too lazy to enumerate...

Anyway my point being that the Webshooters are FAR more Efficient than an underground Spider Silk Farm, and more versatile to boot... that and spiders don't tend to play nice with each other, they're kill/eat each other if they get too close to one an others territory. Someone In real life decided to make a dress (looks like a poncho really) made from spider silk... it took them about 3 YEARS to collect enough silk to make that one dress, and they were being as efficient as possible considering how much space "Spiders farms" take up in order to avoid the spiders eating each other... now if Peter could do like Ant-Man Does with ants but with spiders, and he had a few million of them constantly Spinning webs, or some genetically Engineered super spiders designed to Crap out Absurd amounts of Silk in a Specialized High tech lab, then sure the underground Silk farm would work... but he has neither, so he'll have to make due with his far more efficient fluid brewed with his home chemistry set!

[lemonlordminecraft]

"Harvesting thousands and thousands of pounds of spider silk."

Could sell it on...







The Silk Road.

[Tbrekke]

I remember reading the 80's run of the spiderman comics (my aunt was part of the team translating it for norwegian), and the thing that impressed me the most about spiderman was exactly the fact that he friggin managed to not only recreate, but improve upon the design of spidersilk. So he had small rectangular packets about an inch in length, worn on his web shooter. Now, the amount of spidersilk he uses per outing is pretty big, so I can see why the Toby Mcguire films decided on "nah, he's just got semi-magical glands now" instead of building a web shooter. Looking forward to see you tackle this.

[vizthex]

So I can build a web shooter, have millions of spiders I harvest for silk, make sticky shoes & gloves, then become spider man?

I'm on board then.

Oh also martial arts training, a witty sense of humor & quipping.

[lucasm.]

I think you got the weight wrong if we are considering Spider-Man 3. He has to live with the weight of (at least partially) ruining that franchise.

[wheelsndealz]

Someone else already mentioned the fact that spider webs stretch so that would change the numbers which you didn't cover. But what I think should also be discussed is the "stickiness". Multiple times he's shown catching things incredibly heavy i.e. a bus, cable car, buildings to stop a train and strictly relying on the surface tention to have enough grip to stop them. The web doesn't wrap around the items like you would with a rope or grappling hook so how much stickiness and surface area would be required to support that much weight?

[rami_ungar_writer]

Now you just have to tell us how the spider bite gave Peter superpowers, Kyle.

[Everest]

Another problem: Not only the spider silk would have to hold the force you estimated, but also the "connection" between the silk and the building or whatever he shoots it onto. Not sure if spider silk is adhesive enough for that.

[trogdorsstopmotionstudio]

I like this, because according to the comics, Spider-Man's web line can resist 10 tons of force, just like you explained in the video! Amazing!

[billychambers]

I'm learning more about physics here than school. Thanks Dude!

[jabman]

wait wait all just take in the fact that this 2:02 is Kyle's imitation of Peter

[lcs_crr]

IN REAL LIFE HOWEVER spider webs are elastic and to find out the tension you would have to use T=(λX)/l, where λ is the modulus of elasticity, x is the extension and l the original length of the web. Great video non the less :)

[RunCMD]

There's actual science behind weaving spider silk for actual use. I had to do a research project in Biology in 10th grade. There's a company that is making spider slik applicable to be used. They take the genetic coding for spiders that allow them to produce silk and rewriting it into that of a cow so when a cow gets milked it's milk will also contain spider silk. They plan to make stuff like body armor seeing it's more lightweight than Kevlar and has the capability to have a higher resistance to stuff like bullets

[sshum]

Yo Thor, you're losing the bicep porn war to Cap