How Fast Can Superman Fly?
Why “Faster than a speeding bullet” is hardly good enough.
We all know the lines. “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…”
Yeah, yeah. Personally, I’m not impressed. With all that’s expected of him, I don’t think being faster than a speeding bullet is hardly enough for Superman to do his work competently. Why?
How Fast IS A Speeding Bullet?
According to The World Book Encyclopedia (New York: World Book, 1998), the fastest recorded speed of a bullet is 1500 meters per second (m/s).
Sounds fast? Not if we look at it in layman terms.
Superman is based in the fictional city of Metropolis . While the real Metropolis is in Illinois , Superman’s Metropolis is more synonymous to New York City , so we’ll put Superman’s real life home base in New York .
Now Boston , Massachusetts is 306 km or 306,000 meters away from New York City . If Superman can fly at 1500 m/s, it will take him 204 seconds, or almost three and a half minutes to reach a call for help in Boston . Not bad?
If you were in a bus falling off a cliff, you would have crashed in much less time than three minutes.
Another Problem: The Speed of Sound
We are, of course, assuming that Superman heard your S.O.S. the very second you uttered it. But while the Man of Steel has super-sensitive ears that can detect the faintest sound waves, he still has to wait for the sound waves to arrive.
Sound, unfortunately, is a notoriously slow traveler. It only moves at 340.29 m/s.
That means, from Boston to New York , it will take your cry for help 899 seconds or nearly fifteen minutes just to reach Superman’s ears! Add to that his flying time to get to you, and you have to wait almost twenty minutes to get help!
And that’s just New York to Boston , 306 km away. What if you lived in Chicago , which is nearly four times as far at 1158 km ? Or California at 3961 km ? (In case you’re wondering, it would take your screams from California almost three and a half hours just to reach New York , and Superman would take another 44 minutes to fly to you.)
The Real Superheroes
The point I am making is that while Superman sounds impressive in DC Comics, we’re lucky that we don’t have to rely on him in real life. He’s just too slow.
If I had an emergency, I know who I can call who would give much faster and more competent help: 911.
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15 Responses to “How Fast Can Superman Fly?”
On December 23, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Maybe Superman’s ears would send out signals at the speed of light, anywhere he wants, instead of waiting for the sound-waves to take too long to reach him.
On May 23, 2007 at 3:32 am
First off it FASTER than a speeding bullet not the same speed. And his flying speed is unknown!
On June 16, 2007 at 5:30 pm
THat’s just his old saying, superman can fly near the speed of light
On January 11, 2008 at 3:06 am
This was really entertaining. Witty too!
I actually made friend of mine angry at me once for making a similar argument. He was a huge Comic Book fanatic!
I think the other readers above me are taking this a little hard too.
I have a pending article you would probably like written with a similar tone. If you can check it out sometime. It’s called Reflection of Survival.
On March 10, 2008 at 10:43 am
superman SUCKS
On April 28, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Boy Beatrice…you sure took the starch out of that one!
Welcome back!! (I’m gone a lot so in case you’ve been back for awhile…)
On April 28, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Well, now you have me wondering about Superman’s abilities. Maybe 911 is our best bet.
On May 24, 2008 at 1:55 pm
superman can go faster than the spped of light. his home planet was 168 million light years away and he flew there and back in just five. so he would have to go faster than the speed of light. unless his body can under take the pressures of a black hole and they really are teleportation like devices???? who knows. if everyone tries to over anylize it then u all are just trying to ruin the fun and imagination comics bestow upon us. and who really wants to do that. growing up is not fun….
On May 30, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Interesting writing!
On May 31, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Awesome. I can’t believe that people are getting bent out of shape about this. Superman is a fictional character. Beatrice’s article was funny and original. Good job.
On October 24, 2008 at 4:37 pm
If you say Superman sucks, yous suck!He’s iimpossible to beat .
On March 11, 2009 at 9:30 am
Yu leave my mate Superman alone – i tell you one thing- you wouldnt sau it to his face becasue he would kick your big hole alway the way the land of the nerds – which is where you belong
On June 1, 2009 at 1:18 am
this is funny!!!
On November 13, 2009 at 5:51 pm
id take the flash over superman anyday
flash is the fastest being in the universe he can reach anywhere in a matter of seconds
for a falling bus or anything he can spin superfast and make a tornado that he can control to catch the falling bus and place it gently on the ground or a plane or anything
On November 13, 2009 at 5:54 pm
only reason hes able to go to krypton and back so fast is cuz in space theres no air or wind to slow him down or anything down
any superhero is able to go as fast as him in space that is able to fly or if u could run then run as fast
wonderwomen green lantern hawk girl captain atom you name it they could all fly there and back super fast
give flash sumwhere to run on and he will make it there and back in half a second or less
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