How heavy is the body?

[frankreid]

My son recently posed an interesting question. He is a comic artist and often creates his own superheros for the stories he writes. He gave me some information then asked a question.

Suppose a few men were working in a steel plant and something happened to one of them. He was above a cauldren of melted iron when the building was hit by a beam or ray that caused much damage. The man above fell into the molten iron just after he was hit by the beam which altered his body so that when he went into the vat instead of burning up he became a true "IronMan" and was able to climb out and cool off.

Assuming a very muscled man about 6'ft 2' and about 200 lbs.
Question: How heavy would he be at 100% iron? My son tells me that he could keep both states and turn on and off the ironman at will.

I looked up the specific gravity of iron, not steel, cast iron. Using him as a body of water at 1000 and iron at 7000 I'm assuming he would be seven times heavier than he was before. 7 x 200 = 1400lbs. That would be too heavy to climb stairs or walk across a wooden floor without damage, given the small surface area of one foot.

What do you think?

Frank Reid
Reid Engineering Services of Utah

 

[GregLocock]

I think you have successfully taken this high school level question to a satisfactory conclusion.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Body is like 97% water or about 62.4#/cubic ft. Steel is like 490# cubic foot.

So - 490/62.4 = 7.85 times as heavy or just round it off to 8 times heavier.

So about 1,600 lbs!!

Yes - he would wreck many things that he stepped on!! But the new codes might make it OK??

 

[JohnRBaker]

Maybe your son should have his 'superhero' fall into a cauldron of molten Aluminum, which would result in only about a 3 to 1 increase in weight, or if he was looking for something more durable there's Titanium for approximately a 4.5 to 1 ratio. I think 'Titanium Man' has a certain modern hightech ring to it. Of of course you could go even further up the high-tech scale and have him fall into an autoclave and emerge as 'Composite' or 'Carbon-Fiber Man' ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[MintJulep]

Or if you want to work it out another way we found where to find the volume of a human body in thread404-226046.

 

[TheBlacksmith]

If his hero has the ability to use either state just add the power to alter gravity while in the steel state. Problem solved.

 

[SNORGY]

This doesn't make sense to me. I have been watching Iron Man Triathlons for years and I don't notice the footprints being any deeper than normal.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[Walterke]

You never noticed the trail of rust in the swimming part?
Clearly you have not been paying attention...

NX 7.5
Teamcenter 8

 

[kingnero]

that's because they run as their alter ego...
I doubt they could swim in their "steel state".

 

[SNORGY]

I suppose, after a long swim in salt water, it would be entirely within the realm of possibility for an Iron Man to end up with an altered ego. But that might be getting a bit off topic.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[corus]

If he fell into a ladle of molten iron and had sufficient cooling to his inside then only a shell of iron would 'freeze' on his outer surface, hence enabling him to maintain a reasonable weight. Blast furnaces use the same principle, in reverse, to form a 'skull' on the inner surface.

 

[Walterke]

If he fell into a ladle of molten iron and had sufficient cooling to his inside then only a shell of iron would 'freeze' on his outer surface, hence enabling him to maintain a reasonable weight. Blast furnaces use the same principle, in reverse, to form a 'skull' on the inner surface.

average body surface area for a grown man is 1.9m² (google is your friend). Assume a 10mm thickness, that would give 150kg or steel (rough calculation)

NX 7.5
Teamcenter 8

 

[imagitec]

I was an avid comic fan as a kid. My dad - a civil & mechanical engineer - enjoyed pointing out such things as, "If that guy lifted that bus like it's shown there, it would buckle and smash him between the two halves."

Rob Campbell, PE
Imagitec: Imagination - Expertise - Execution
imagitec.net

 

[corus]

Walterke, In the middle ages we managed quite well with a suit of steel armour, though much less than 10mm thick me thinks.

The 'iron' man in this case must go through some processing to be made of steel as iron is fairly brittle, and would of course rust away quite quickly. He would do better to fall into a ladle of steel therefore to save some time.

 

[drawoh]

JohnRBaker,

You are looking for The Man of Beryllium. 1800kg/m³.

JHG

 

[kingnero]

apart from probably a dozen of other reasons why practically this isn't feasable, [insert smiley face here]
Beryllium also causes severe illness!

 

[drawoh]

frankreid,

In classic science fiction, you are allowed to change one scientific law, only. The story proceeds from this, obeying all the other laws in the process.

Your Hero, having been turned into cast iron, can battle evil villains who don't have armour piercing weapons, and he can eat Mexican food. He is no longer cuddly enough to pick up girls, and he has to deal with the fact that structures and modes of transport are not rated for his weight.

Your son will have to make a choice. As noted above, other superhero comics definitely are not classic science fiction.

JHG

 

[SnTMan]

Ohhhh, I know, I know! WHAT IF, when he fell into the vat only an outer shell of dense iron was formed, while the inside was transformed to into FOAMED IRON. Pick your density.

Hey, it could happen

 

[FeX32]

For a second there I thought I was reading the pub section


Fe

 

[starfarooq]

Very simple solution. Dip the man in the tub of water and measure the volume of displaced water. The same will be the volume of man. Multiply it by the density of steel...that's it!!