*The "Kyle is wrong!" FAQ* 1. Many pointing out that if Superman was as high in the atmosphere as he appears in the scene (I said he'd want to be as close as possible), then his speed WOULD get close to light speed. This is true! BUT... 2. We unfortunately can't have it both ways. If Superman flew high enough to make his travel FTL (~6,000km up based on the revolutions and the time), the Earth would stop rotating backwards the instant he slowed down. It doesn't. And if he was this high, he wouldn't be able to attempt another popular interpretation: physically turning the Earth backwards (at least, much less so than he could by flying through the atmosphere). Both cases are why I considered him to be as sub-LS and as low to the ground as possible. For the cool stuff we can learn! (UPDATING) -- KH

I disagree with the premise that turning back time is one of superman's craziest powers with the weirdest implications. In Superman #125’s “Superman’s New Power!” from 1958 he shot mini supermans out of his hands!!!!!!

OH MY GOSH, THEY GOT A NEW GUY!! IT'S... just Kyle with glasses. I see what you did.

"Is Lois really THAT important?" Oh gosh, I laughed so hard at this!

"Well Lois is dead; guess I'll go destroy the earth then....

2:03 who’s this new guy

Maybe he used a plothole to go back in time.

As a filmmaker, I always understood that scene as an alegory to time travel. I believe Donner and his crew had discussed a lot how to do it in an interesting aesthetic way. Not everything in film has to be taken literally.

In the hypothesis of Superman's reversing time by crossing the speed of light, how can we really say the scene duration is 17 seconds ?? This can't be measured that way, BECAUSE of time dilatation. Supposing the scene is rendered with superman's point of view, seeing the earth "slowing down" means that superman's relative velocity is in fact HIGHER than 0.5c in earth's referential. Because it's taking him less time for each rotation.

So here's a better question. If Superman could fly so fast he reverses time, why couldn't he fly fast enough to catch both missiles that Luther launched?

@6:34 There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. There's no knowing where we're rowing, or which way the river's flowing. Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. Are the fires of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing?! Yes! The danger must be growing, for the rowers keep on rowing. And they're certainly not showing... any signs that they are slowing!

1. I always took the scene to be seeing things from Superman’s perspective, not literally turning back time. 2. Assuming he reached anything approaching light speed, we can’t assume that the 65 spins is the actual count-near or at light speed in the thinnest-to-near-nil atmosphere could suggest nowhere near the “flaring” of the air going to plasma. Of course there IS the issue that Superman achieving even .99 of c would mean he would have to undergo the same Einsteinian conversion to infinite mass going to energy... 3. Presumably whatever speed Supes was traveling at, even he can’t stop on a dime. There would be that trail-off as he bled off his momentum. We see in the shots of the earth below that he actually overshoots the mark slightly...could he have simply been going forward a little to match better the point in time he wanted to arrive at to save everyone? We see him pretty much flying forward at nearly the same rate as when he was flying reverse but not for as long. 4. Are we really gonna try and sort out Superman traveling through time and not that weird “plastic S dissolving boob-booby trap” he pulls in Part II against Non? Or how three Kryptonians supposedly each have the equal of his power yet he was able to literally singlehandedly hold off their combined weird super-rays from their fingers? Or how a superpowered villain survives in the vacuum of space, is bullet and fireproof, but gets bitten by a rattlesnake?!

All right i'm early, i want my heart from science Thor!!!

Professor Thor Can you talk about the Science needed to make Spartans from halo or how slip space works

This is genuinely my favourite series on YT, always a pleasure.

Thank you for doing this!!! I’ve needed this for years.

Way I see it. He goes back in time but messed up and went too far back so he goes forward a bit

Here's some cool information. If the earth stopped orbiting the sun, in a dead stop. The amount of force that initial reaction would force anything and everything into the object next to it. But it is actually enough force, that if you were witnessing this from a 3rd point of view, in a fraction of a second, you would watch your body's atoms smash hard enough into the closest wall and weave their way through it and out the other side. Every chemical bond in your body would break and you'd be nothing but a putty traveling several thousands of miles per hour in a straight vector line into space. Yeah...

One if the best videos you guys have made. Good work!

Man you really are the best ! Your videos are absolutely fantastic ! Thank you for all this ! Keep up the good work 👍

That was legitimately excellent. Can we give credit to Batman now for his position on killing Superman?

from what I learned, he flys so fast and travels through time into the past, reversing time or the planet is just a visual aid

This was a classic Because Science! Loved it!!! Keep it up!

I freaking love this series. The editing and the humor cracks me up so much... and I'm not even a huge fan of comic superheroes.

*clicks on video, sees a guy in glasses* who's this...? *guy takes off glasses, it's kyle* What witchcraft is this! >:O

Went back in time to watch this whole video already, great job Kyle

Hey. I really admire your work on drawing a globe. Most people mess it up, but yours looks great!

That was great. Keep doing what your doing its awesome.

What would stopping a bullet with YOUR EYE feel like? NEW mini-ep over on my Insta: instagram.com/sci_phile/ -- KH

batman could do it with prep time.

I've always been curious as to what would happen if the crust of the earth sloughed off from the mantle. Not that the crust just broke apart or suddenly got subducted, but simultaneous disconnection of all crust/mantle connection points but the crust stayed intact. Hypothetically, what would happen? How or would the rotation shift, what effects would we feel, what could happen when it reconnected? I think it would be something similar to Superman's earth-spin. Anyway, neat vid.

I love this episode so much I get back from time to time to rewatch it

Would a speedster be able to survive on a vegetarian or vegan diet?

who was the guy at 2:12?

I always figured that the Earth isn't literally slowing down, but that it's what Superman would perceive happening. He's traveling backwards in time, and so is seeing the Earth reverse. He overshoots a little bit, so has to reverse his spin to get to the point he wants to be at to save Lois. Pretty sure the director didn't overthink it and literally thought Supes could reverse time like a cartoon character, but the above was how I rationalized it so that Superman didn't Death Star the Earth.

Kyle - Your ending reminded me of a thought experiment I did awhile ago. The setup was, what would happen to someone standing on the beach in Chicago when the earth stopped rotating for 1 sec, and then restarted at it's original speed. There are dunes due east across the lake that I always thought they'd pancake into due to momentum, but then I thought about terminal velocity, wind speed and wondered, would they actually make the distance before the earth caught back up with them and they fell "harmlessly" into the lake.

Yeah sure Lois is that important!

I think his most interesting power is to kiss you and erase your memory

1:49 "like thinking cutting a metre stick in half is going to change what a metre is" Until 1960, cutting the prototype metre stick, in Paris, actually WOULD change what a metre is!

Thanks, Hipster Thor. I needed this

Can you explain this theory to people that believe in flat earth?

Correction: You measured the Earths circumference, but sups is in space. At twice the radius of earth that many cycles per second would in fact be faster than the speed of light. Of course the image does not show our man that far away.

These shows are awesome keep it up! So funny

Love this channel!!!!!

Are u my physics Teacher ?

I think it maybe possible that he overshot going back in time. Then sped up closer to light speed to accelerate time from his perspective. Far enough back into the future to the point he wanted to be in.

Love the videos, you should do a video on having elastic powers!

I like the surprise guest at 2:00. Seems like a cool guy, you should get him on more often.

What I think is really happening here is that, Superman isn't trying to spin the world backwards nor he's trying to move it in reverse to turn back time. Instead, he want to the space for the zero air drag and is himself traveling back in time by achieving a speed faster than light. Hence, he's seeing the earth move backwards, although in reality Superman is going back in time and perceiving the earth move backwards. Thanks!

He does both. The first time, Superman turns back time and in doing so, changes the rotation of the Earth. First of all, Superman is clearly not flying close to the surface of the Earth. If Earth was the size of an apple, then the atmosphere is as thick as the skin of the apple. In the footage, he is nowhere near that close. He is flying in space, and outside near Earth orbit. When he flies close to c, he gains mass. For the crossover to ftl, Superman gains infinite mass. But maybe he does it so fast, the crossover is finished in an infinitesimal amount of time. It still registers an effect, namely causes rotation reversal. And also all the negative effects KH mentions. Superman isn't Einstein. He realizes his blunder, slaps his forehead, and uses his reverse time trick again to redo it right. Maybe instead of orbiting, Superman does his trick away from Earth. He has infinite re-dos to get it right. He comes back at the correct time (without messing up Earth's rotation), stops the baddies or missiles or whatever the plot was. The past Superman sees the missile was stopped, so he doesn't bother doing it (and maybe doesn't notice the future Superman stopped it). So the past Superman goes to stop Lois' peril instead with plenty of time. This changes the timeline and future Superman either stops existing, or otherwise exits stage left. Problem solved! Scene explained! And still Scientifically plausible. Because... y'know.

Yup, I agree with everything you said. But at the same time I always took that scene to be nothing more than a visual representation of a power the Kryptonians had somehow mastered but forbidden. I loved that scene because it was such a powerful display and captured the heart of what Superman was trying to acheive. Granted, you're here to analyse what is shown, not what it's supposed to represent... Awesome video, though!

lol great episode, I love the humor, tickles my brain

Could you replicate the chemical reaction that forms silk? If you could, could you use it to make Spider-Man-like webs?

I don't know who the new guy with the glasses is but I don't like him

Regarding the oceans bit at the end of the video.... That's only to start with. The magma under the crust still has lots of rotational energy. Not only do the oceans create massive tidal waves, but I suspect that the crust would be torn apart by tidal waves of lava. And there's LOTS more mantle than there are oceans.

Could he also be creating a closed time-like curve and again had to adjust a little at the end?

I always interpreted that scene as time flowing from Supes perspective.

How does dragon ball Zs ki based power and transformations work.

I love these videos!!!

Great work bro

Superman is over powered as fuck.

Could you explain how that, scene with Legolas and the fallen bricks at the end of the Battle of the Five Armies, works? It's one of the best scenes in the movie, but how does it work???

Best one yet!

Loved this episode

Or he could artificially increase his gravity and pull the planet like a super magnet.

But Superman wasn't altering Earth Rotation, it's a common misinterpretation. The film-makers wanted to show a power which Superman has used canonically in previous appearances... Reversing time by flying faster than the speed of light. He already used that power as a kid on earth and if I remember well, he used it to send his adoptive parents back in time by pulling off the same stunt

He’s not turning the earth backwards, he’s travelling backwards in time, which relative to him it’s rotating backwards, and we are seeing it from his relative perspective. He would be using the earth for closed time-like curves, instead of using a tippler cylinder. He’s travelling faster than the speed of light, and you can tell because he’s zipping around the earth faster than the speed of light would, if we had the same visual representation. As he’s zipping around the earth, he’s travelling backwards in the time dimension, and so then he goes with the earth’s proper rotation, to slow down after after travelling backwards in time 1. The earth is spinning backwards because time is moving in reverse 2. He’s using the earth as a tipler cylinder a theoretical solution to time travel 3. He’s travelling faster than the speed of light as an idea as a solution to the tipper cylinder without an infinitely long cylinder with infinite density like a black hole 4. At the end he moves with the earth instead of against it, to slow down his time travel to return to a normal rate of time for him, and he’s not doing this for the rotation of the earth, just his relative flow of time

According to what I remember from reading DC comics, that while Superman and other persons could travel back and forward in time when anyone did they could not alter events and in many cases became involved in causing what he desired to change to happen!

I've been saying this since middle school.

I always just assumed that scene was showing the passage of time relative to Superman. Like only Superman is travelling backward in time, not the entire universe. Basically, he's forking the time stream. Hey, maybe he's doing it by accessing the Speed Force like The Flash.

this was one of the most hilarious episodes

2:08 It's more than just that. He changes his posture as well, plus noone expects him to be Superman as Superaman shows his face, so they don't think he has a secret identity.

I think he was travelling back in time and as time reversed it appeared Earth was going in reverse.

Such a great movie with such a painfully stupid ending.

Also read, Randall Monroe's What if article on throwing a baseball at relativistic speeds. It is also very devastating.

2:01 it is NOT JUST the glasses when Superman is being Clark Kent he slouches just enough to change his height but boll not enough for the slouch to be noticed, he wears contacts that change his eye color, and he wears baggy clothes to hide the muscles he has

Hey maybe in the dc universe the speed of light is less than ours (lets say C=3x10^7 m/s) so he is traveling faster than the C to travel back in time then he just decides to go for a nice stroll the other way around earth after he lowers his velocity lower than C. OK well maybe not but there is so much wrong with this scene.

#datkylehilldoe

Isn’t it possible he’s creating mini wormholes and periodically checking his space time position in microseconds, which is why we see the Earth spin backwards. He then spins forward because space time inertia sent him back a little too far.

Okay, you've covered what would happen if the Earth were to suddenly stop. But what would happen to the Earth if it were to gradually stop, say over 100 years or so?

Its OK tho, Ben Afleck killed Superman, so no worries.

imagine how the gravity would strenghten...reminds me of high gravity playing in CS when you died when you tried to walk down the stairs 😂

I interpret this scene as Superman himself goes back in time, not reverses it (you see the planet from *his* perspective, if he were still). He's not flying at the equator, he's above it, so there's some extra speed. Throw in artistic license because at 30fps you only get three frames per lap (ish) and you have Superman above lightspeed. No idea about respinning the planet though, maybe it's like when you unwind after getting dizzy

If I was Superman, I would have just let Lois die. She is not that important. Superman could have Wonder Woman at Lois's place. (Just saying)

"what was actually happening in this scene?" lousy writing man.

Awesome beyond measure, Kyle FTW!!

Wonderful video! Now if only Kyle could come up with an explanation for the cellophane S that is only seen ONCE in the entire history of Superman with no explanation and used with minimal effect.

Also seems to be your taking it too literally. It could be that he is going back in time and not actually changing the rotation of the planet and the film makers tried to represent this by what we saw on the movie. Which would explain why this not destroy the planet.

That's just in that one movie... It's not a power Superman actually has. He also doesn't have the ability to erase minds, throw his logo at people, etc...

Ticking away the moments that make up a full day, fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

I think another take on the view from space is his speed/trail is relative to the planet rotation.. as earth slows and reverses you multiply his speed...so at half the rotation speed he would be travelling at 1.0x light speed.

The math for how fast he's going was terrible. He's accelerating, so taking the average speed while he's accelerating is irrelevant. Final velocity isn't dependant upon initial speed. By MY count he makes it around the Earth around 55 times in 7 seconds, since most of the initial time was spent accelerating. That's already faster than light. Additionally, you're using the circumference of the earth, AT SEA LEVEL, and he's clearly in space. Add an additional 100km to the radius of the earth and you get a much larger circumference, which also increases his speed drastically. I love the show, but come on man. You REALLY dropped the ball here to push the narrative of him being unable to fly faster than light. He was clearly going well over C.

im pretty early. nice

Love your videos

So glad you mentioned what would happen if the earth actually stops spinning at the end of the vid.

This comment will get likes Because Science

“Thank you for watching, Elon… hey, ya never know” That made me keel over with laughter

ok Kyle, now you are getting into something I have a lot of feelings about! Obviously, literally spinning the world in a different direction, not only would not work, but would be catastrophic! I think that the whole seen was the only way (and cheapest) the director could explain him traveling at light speed back in time and then going so fast he had to turn around and go forward in time to get to the point where he could save lane!

Now all that needs to happen is a comic book alternate reality where a version of superman tries to do that and murders everything.

Man I really loved this episode