If you had true, problem-free super speed, the limits on the possible race away. You could travel forwards through decades of time on a whim, just to see what the future was like. With FlashOpens in a new tab-like powers you could move so quickly that the pace of human life would be meaningless to you. But what happens when one extreme super power meets an equally extreme construction of science fiction? Could someone like the Flash…touch a lightsaberOpens in a new tab?[brightcove video_id=”5970075087001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]
In my latest episode of Because ScienceOpens in a new tab, I’m taking a delightfully nerdy thought experiment sent in by a viewer. How I interpret the question is: could the Flash—or anyone with super speed—safely touch a lightsaber. That is to say, is super speed fast enough to allow someone to touch a lightsaber when it’s turned on without burning themselves? We want to know then, how quickly one would have to pull a hand away from a lightsaber before its heat energy did something really bad to it. And you know the Star WarsOpens in a new tab universe hates hands…
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