How Do You Calculate the Young's Modulus of Spiderman's Webs from Spiderman 2?

[Connah]

Hi, we've recently been set a task by our physics teacher to try and calculate the Young's Modulus of Spiderman's webs in the train stopping scene of Spiderman 2. Doing research on the mass of the carriage + passengers, calculating forces from that and also using things like the velocity, acceleration/deceleration, length and extension of the webs, number of webs, time taken to stop and distance travelled. So far I have ΔL of the webs to be 600m, the unstretched length of each web to be 16m approx cross-sectional area per web to be 3.14x10^-4 m^2, mass including passengers of the 6 carriages to be 164,637.4kg, final velocity as 0m/s, initial velocity (at time he fires first web) as 35.75m/s and the time between firing first web and coming to a stop as 30 seconds. Also the deceleration as 1.192m/s^2 (or -1.192, I forget if I need the minus or not). Also there are 16 webs in total, assumed to be identical. - P.S I've had to calculate every one of these values they weren't given, just in case you think I'm lazy :)I'm guessing I may need the SUVAT motion equations? Definitely equations for tensile stress and strain, and the basic force and speed equations. Obviously I may be wrong which is why I'm asking for some input x)I haven't attempted much of it yet apart from working out almost every value I can, I need help working out how you would use deceleration to work out the force on the webs as they're horizontal and I'm used to just weights hanging off vertical supports but I would assume it's more or less similar? I'm also not sure how to get the stress and strain with there being 16 webs in total I'm just a little stuck but I would appreciate some expertise here with helping me solve this problem. I would guess the answer to be a little unrealistic, too, based on some values to be approximate and the fact its a Spiderman movie. Thanks :)

 

[Simon Bridge]

You can use suvat equations, or you could try conservation of energy assuming all the initial KE of the train ends up stored in the web.

 

[BiGyElLoWhAt]

Is this the scene where the train car's falling and almost crashes onto a boat?Here's a list of equations that involve youngs modulus, with respect to both force and energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young's_modulus#Calculation

 

[Orodruin]

Is this the scene where the train car's falling and almost crashes onto a boat?

I would guess this is the intended scene:

 

[HalfLostAndSearching]

Hi there,

First of all, I'm glad to see you are taking on this task and using your knowledge of physics to analyze a scene from a movie. It's important to note that while Spiderman's webs may not be realistic, the calculations and principles you are using are still valid and can provide insight into the physics involved.

To calculate the Young's Modulus of Spiderman's webs, we need to use the formula E = (F/A)/(ΔL/L), where E is the Young's Modulus, F is the force applied, A is the cross-sectional area, ΔL is the change in length, and L is the original length.

From the information you provided, we can calculate the force applied on each web using the equation F = ma, where m is the mass of the carriage + passengers and a is the deceleration. This will give us the total force applied on all 16 webs.

Next, we can calculate the change in length using the equation ΔL = (F/A)*L. Here, we will use the cross-sectional area and the unstretched length of each web to calculate the change in length for each web. We can then find the average change in length for all 16 webs.

Finally, we can plug these values into the Young's Modulus equation to calculate the Young's Modulus of Spiderman's webs.

As for the stress and strain, we can use the equations σ = F/A and ε = ΔL/L to calculate the stress and strain on each web. We can then find the average stress and strain for all 16 webs.

I hope this helps guide you in your calculations and understanding of the physics involved in this scene. Remember, even though it may seem unrealistic, it's important to use the principles and equations of physics to analyze and understand the world around us. Keep up the good work!