How Strong Does Superman Need to Be to Pull Our Sun?

[DaveC426913]

Superman, in flight, can accelerate himself to speeds greater than the speed of light. His flight thrust is infinite.

Perfect.

Now all we have to do is establish how indestructible he is.

If his flight thrust has no upper limit and he is indestructible, his strength could be zero, and he could still move a star.

Of course, then he would look like this - using his flight but not his strength:

 

[gmax137]

Getting back to the strength of the chain. If it turns out the neutronium energy density is insufficient, Superman could use chain woven from Chuck Norris's belts!

 

[DaveC426913]

I may be attempting to lighten the thread, but I'm not attempting to derail it. When examining the question it he title of the thread, one cannot ignore all physics.

Yes, you can ignore inconsequential things, like "the target doesn't collapse" but you can't ignore Superman's flight when asking if he's strong enough to move a star. They're inseparable.

 

[Jarvis323]

Given that superman can achieve infinite acceleration, it might be worth considering another explanation beyond physical strength for his chain breaking ability. Sure, he is depicted with muscles and his effort looks strenuous. But, take Keanu Reeves as an example. At first he became a kung fu expert. Then he became a super fast punch blocker, and then he transcended into something else altogether, beyond physical. The truth is that his fighting power was an illusion. All of those super human abilities were never shows of strength, reflex, or even skill.

Superman may still be at a stage where he believes he is somehow using his muscles. The truth is, maybe, there is no chain.



In fact, his muscles may be doing no more work to break those chains, than Mr. Mxyzptlk's muscles are when he pulls universes out of his hat.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I don't know how much superman is strong but God-Man can do anything!

 

[Uberhulk]

You still have two things to factor:
how strong Superman is, and how much thrust he can produce in flight.

With insufficient flight power, all he's doing is hauling himself toward the star.

Superman's strength tops out at bench pressing the equivalent mass of the Earth. When he needed to move an object larger than the Earth (mass unknown), he needed help.

 

[Uberhulk]

[Moderator's note: Unnecessary introductory statement deleted.]

There's a comic where Superman breaks out/shatters chains that were designed to haul stars across the galaxy
- Let's say these chains were made to pull (our) sun
What tensile strength would a chain need to help pull our sun without breaking? And if I'm not asking the right questions, please let me know what other information you need to solve thisView attachment 261146

You missed the previous scan, which shows this was a dream. Superman is in bed with Lois, starts to dream and suddenly he's chained up. Nowhere in the story did we see him captured and chained up. He closes his eyes, then he's chained up. It's obvious we're shown a dream.

 

[Whipley Snidelash]

Supermans strength, or any superhero for that matter, is directly dependent on the writer god in control and whether or not he wants superman to win or lose in any particular situation. This is all contrived because the way he is defined is that he is completely powerful and invulnerable to everything except kryptonite and magic. So when a writer is in control he does get hurt sometimes he gets killed sometimes he gets beat up sometimes and it’s not always by kryptonite or magic If I recall correctly I’m not a big superman fan

 

[h1a8]

I have no idea how the discussion became about Superman moving stars with flight. Superman appears to break the chains by pulling them apart with his arms. So the question is: "What is the minimum force of tension the chains can be subjected to without breaking?"

Assumptions:
1. The star is replaced with an indestructible solid spherical object with the sun's mass and having a diameter of 4in.
2. The object is accelerated by the chain from 0 to 184,410 mi/s in exactly 60 seconds.
3. Relativity applies
4. 1 of the 2 following cases apply (to simply things):
case1: Chain supplies a constant pulling force (implies a decreasing acceleration)
or
case 2: Chain accelerates object at a constant rate (implies an increasing force).

The relativistic force equation is
$F=\frac{d}{dt} \left[\frac{Mv}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}\right]$
After doing some Calculus and Algebra
$$ \rightarrow 1) \space F={\frac{M}{\left(1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}\right)^{3/2} } \frac{dv}{dt}}$$

$$case1:\space a=\frac{dv}{dt}\text { is constant}$$
$$\rightarrow v=at$$
$$\rightarrow 1*) \space F=\frac{Ma}{\left[1-(\frac{at}{c})^2\right]^{3/2}}$$

Step1: Calculate the acceleration
You already did.
$a = 4.94463e6 \frac{m}{s^2}$

Step 2: Calculate the mass of the object
You already did.
$M = \text{1 solar mass} = 1.989e30kg$

Step 3: Calculate the maximum force of tension (or the maximum force the chain exerts on the object) during the time interval [0,60].

Since the acceleration is constant (case1:), the force of tension would be increasing on $[0,60]$.
Use eqn 1*) and plug in both the acceleration and the value of t in [0,60] that gives the maximum force of tension in that interval.
$F_{max} =$

Step 4: Calculate the minimum tensile strength (optional)
$P = \frac {F_{max}} {A} = \frac {F_{max}}{\pi \cdot 4in^2} =$$$case2:\space \text {F is constant}$$
$$\rightarrow \frac{dv}{dt}>0 \space\text{and decreasing on} \space[0,60]$$
$$\rightarrow 1**)\space \int_0^{t_f} \frac {F}{M}dt=\int_0^{v_f}\frac{dv}{(1-\frac{v^2}{c^2})^{3/2}}$$
$$\rightarrow \space F=\frac{Mv_f}{t_f \sqrt{1-\frac{{v_f}^2}{c^2}}}=$$

Then you can calculate both the maximum force of tension (using the appropriate t and v values) and then the minimum tensile strength (optional) like in steps 3 and 4 above.