According to new studies, we’ve gotten it all wrong. Spider Man shouldn’t be able to climb walls unless he had feet that fit size 114 shoes. Stan Lee has some serious explaining to do.
English Scientists Disprove Spider Man Wall Climbing Abilities
This could have been in an issue of the Daily Bugle, but Spider Man’s feet are seriously too small to allow him to climb walls. According to scientists in England, this ability wouldn’t be possible even if Peter Parker did get bitten by a radioactive spider. But alas, this is the magic of fiction.
This Superhero Could Have Been Named Gecko Man
According to the report, having the ability to climb walls with just fingers and toes would require huge feet. To be exact, they’d have to cover between 40 and 80 percent of the body. Geckos and spiders are best known for having this ability because about that much of their bodies are covered in little sticky pads.
The results, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. The researchers took the weight and footpad size of 225 climbing animals, and many of them were restricted in their ability to climb by the size of their bodies.
Spider Man Isn’t 80% Feet
The research also proves that in order for the motion to be seamless – much like Spider Man makes it look – these sticky pads would have to cover 40% of a person’s body or 80% of their front. This would allow climbing on vertical or even inverted surfaces. The science behind this is fairly simple. As animals grow bigger, their surface area per volume also grows bigger. Bigger and heavier organisms need more stickiness – for lack of a better word – in order to climb around freely like smaller animals. Not only that but bigger climbers have some help from claws to hoist themselves.
Why did these researchers go through all the trouble of finding this information? For human applications, of course. This research could help shape the development of bio-inspired adhesives. There are similar adhesives in existence, but they can only be used on very small areas. The study will be followed up to find out how to make footpads like those of geckos stickier and usable for humans.
