Hurricane anti-spin at extreme velocities - realistic solution?

[chasrob]

Okay, I’m writing a novel with the protagonist who acquires super powers. He’s what’s called a Flying Brickhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlyingBrick, similar to Superman of the comics. He is not popular with the general public, for reasons. One of which is he refuses to act the vigilante like superheroes often do. In fact, he does not respond to pleas for help in any way. He is non-violent, and says his tremendous power may help, or may not, but inevitably will cause collateral damages, including many fatalities. He does lack Big Blue’s super-brain, however .

Then he notices the enormous damage hurricanes/typhoons can cause. He happens to have viewed the original Superman movie, and the scene where Supie circles the earth at tremendous speed and reverses time doing so, thereby saving his sweetheart, Lois Lane (if I remember correctly).

So superguy, Mr. Brick, thinks that possibly he can dive into a hurricane, speed up to his max velocity of nearly 100 thousand miles per second, and circle anti-spinward (clock-wise for hurricanes) and angle up and down (change his altitude throughout the entire hundreds of miles of the storm). He thinks that his body swirling counter to the storm’s winds will cause enough wind turbulence that the hurricane/typhoon will break apart, thereby saving the day. He does consider that when he strikes atmosphere atoms at 99,000 miles plus/s they will turn into blazing hot plasma, but if he does this when the storm is well away from land and shipping in the Atlantic and Pacific, and halts when (and if) the storm breaks up (hell, he thinks, maybe the hot plasma will help the breakup), he will be welcomed home the conquering hero.

I have no super-brain also, but have a feeling it don’t work this way. What really will happen if he tries this trick? Too complicated, especially at that kind of speed, to really truthfully answer?

 

[Halc]

My naive take:

Two forces countering each other: The torque anti-spinward and the energy added.
I am presuming some sort of reactionless force similar to Superman.

So there much be a formula for this interaction. The smaller and faster object, the more heat and less help occurs. If it's really big and slow (Brick with a sufficiently large unobtanium parachute), I suspect the action could help.

But a human-size object at mach 150? The small reduction in angular momentum would be more than countered by the updraft of the plasma, thus fueling the storm, not reducing it.

 

[Nugatory]

But a human-size object at mach 150?

Mach 150 is a lot (as in four decimal orders of magnitude) less than the 100000 miles/sec that OP was considering.

But while we’re doing math…. Try calculating the g-force required to follow a circular path a few hundred miles in a diameter at that speed.

Of course no discussion of macroscopic objects moving at relativistic speeds in air would be complete without the obligatory reference to https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ (which may not be right on the details but is right about the magnitude of the energy release)

 

[Halc]

Mach 150 is a lot (as in four decimal orders of magnitude) less than the 100000 miles/sec that OP was considering.

Heh.... I read it as 100k mile/hr, not per sec. The rest of my post still stands since it is not dependent on a specific speed.

But while we’re doing math…. Try calculating the g-force required to follow a circular path a few hundred miles in a diameter at that speed.

100k miles/sec is a fair percentage of c, generating enough energy to incinerate the planet?
G-force seems not an issue to fictional superheros. I mean, superman went faster than c, so that's a g-force that maybe isn't even a real number, and flying around Earth at 1.2c (I watched the movie and it was questionably even c) would not make Earth spin in reverse. Yes, it can be done if superman follows the correct space-like worldlines, but not the one shown in the movie.

The xkcd reference is perfect for this thread, and answers pretty much all the questions in the OP.
Now we need to slow our guy down and give him that parachute.

I occasionally do 'stupid question' time with my kids. One was: At what speed will a ping-pong ball need to go to penetrate Earth? Two definitions of penetration: 1: At least one PPB of mass ejects via shock wave at escape velocity on the far side. 2: At least 1% of the 'original material' of the PPB makes it through.
#2 is far more energy (energy expressed simply as relativistic mass), and it becomes seriously questionable what constitutes 'original material' when it all degenerates into energy not represented as particles with mass.