Could Spider-Man’s web really stop a runaway train?

A group of University of Leicester physics students have determined whether a scene in Spider-Man 2 is scientifically accurate.

The group of fourth year MPhys students calculated the material properties of webbing needed to bring a runaway train to a standstill and found that the strength of the web would be proportional to that of real spiders’ webs.

One of the students, Alex Stone said: "It is often quoted that spider-webs are stronger than steel, so we thought it would be interesting to see whether this held true for Spiderman's scaled up version. Considering the subject matter we were surprised to find out that the webbing was portrayed accurately."

The students’ paper is entitled ‘Doing whatever a spider can’ and was published in the latest volume of the University of Leicester’s Journal of Physics Special Topics. The journal is published every year and features short and original papers written by students in the fourth year of their physics degree.

One of the team members, James Forster said:  "While our work may not seem to be very serious it has helped teach us about applying physics to varying situations as well as the peer review process through which scientific journals operate. This makes it an invaluable experience to anyone who wants to go into research later in life."

The train in the film is made up of four R160 New York City subway cars. The group first calculated the force that would be needed to stop these cars by using the momentum of the train at full speed, the time it takes the train to come to rest after the webs are attached, and the driving force of the powered R160 subway car. They were then able to calculate the strength and toughness of the web.

The team discovered that the Young’s modulus (or stiffness) of the web would be 3.12 gigascals. This is a reasonable figure for the stiffness of spider silk, which ranges from 1.5 gigapascals to 12 gigapascals in the orb-weaver spiders.

The toughness of the silk was calculated as almost 500 megajoules per cubic metre - a similar value to web from a Darwin’s Black Spider which produces the strongest known webbing of any spider.

Course leader Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "A lot of the papers published in the Journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall. Our fourth years are nothing if not creative! But, to be a research physicist - in industry or academia - you need to show some imagination, to think outside the box, and this is certainly something that the module allows our students to practice. Because Physics Special Topics is run exactly like a professional journal, the students get the chance to develop all the skills they will need when dealing with high profile journals like Nature or Science later on in life."