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Can The Flash fly/jump by running off an incline?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Jumping consists of traveling off of something with enough momentum that it carries you through the air faster than the rate at which gravity pulls you down. I know nothing about the comics but it seems like the Flash is just running crazy fast rather than slowing down time or whatever. This means he would be affected by gravity at the normal rate, so at his speed he should be able to jump considerable distances. I dunno how fast he actually runs, but if it's in the neighborhood of 25,000 mph the curvature of the earth would act like a ramp - it would curve away faster than he was pulled down to it by gravity - allowing him to run himself into space (not orbit, orbit requires circularizing once you're in space near the apogee of your trajectory.)
Flash can easily run fast enough to observe the movement of lightning(he can technically go FTL and time travel)
He has some comic-type dimension he taps into, to avoid pesky things like physics. So he could probably launch himself out into space. Although most versions can't run if he can't step on something. So he'd be screwed.
That sounds like some time-dilation bullshit that would probably ruin the physics I was talking about.
It really, REALLY depends on which Flash we're talking about. Even then it's super inconsistent.
I'm Snyderverse, he's faster than light and rewinds time. I think on the TV show he does this too. But then sometimes other people can react to him? Idk it's pretty dumb. If we're applying physics to Flash, if he's even running at 25% the speed of light, and the air he's hitting isn't causing a wave of fusion reactions akin to a supersonic shock wave from a fighter jet, colliding with something solid isn't going to be much different.
Somehow as he's breaking through the light speed barrier gravity still affects him. But at those speeds he's got enough momentum to leave the solar system if he runs off an incline and does a little hop I guess. He seems really stuck to the ground otherwise.
Meanwhile I'm still hung up on the idea that there's more than one Flash. I am not a comics person at all, I am a physics person.
Lol there are 10 flash or flash adjacent characters that I can think of off the top of my head.
And every time one runs into a wall at fatal speeds, two slower ones appear.
Comics are weird. Asking questions like, could the Flash run so fast he exits the universe can almost always be answered with "if the plot calls for it."
He has the power of fast. He goes exactly as fast as he needs to. It's magic, not science. They make it sound like science but it's magic.
Kinda like how Tony Stark invents time travel in an afternoon, or Peter Parker affords an apartment in NYC of even only barely.
Which is a big part of why I never got into comics. I didn't read them as a kid, and as an adult it seems like I'd have to sift through too much reality- (or at least immersion-) breaking nonsense.