Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm more in Vogelbaum, and today's episode is a classic
Speaker 1: from our former host, Christian Sagar. The team here around
Speaker 1: the currently virtual office loves a comic book and has
Speaker 1: been delighted that Marvel has been bringing that love to
Speaker 1: a wider audience with its cinematic universe. So today let's
Speaker 1: get geeky with a deep look into how Captain America's
Speaker 1: signature shield would work if it, you know, really existed.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, I'm Christian Sager. The official Marvel Comics
Speaker 1: database says that Captain America's shield is a metal disc
Speaker 1: that's approximately two point five feet in diameter and weighs
Speaker 1: twelve pounds, but Rhet Elaine at Wired Magazine did some
Speaker 1: math and figured out that it would be more likely
Speaker 1: to weigh forty three point nine pounds, despite the shield
Speaker 1: being made of a unique alloy combining vibranium, which is
Speaker 1: a fictional metal, steel, and an unknown third component. Elaine
Speaker 1: also figured out that the density of the shield would
Speaker 1: be somewhere between eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty seven
Speaker 1: and four thousand, three eighty three kilograms per meter cubed
Speaker 1: that is somewhere between the density of iron and titanium. Now,
Speaker 1: in the Captain America comics, the story goes that Dr
Speaker 1: Myron McLean was attempting to replicate Hercules golden mace by
Speaker 1: fusing vibranium with an experimental iron alloy. Some say it
Speaker 1: was a steel alloy, but even McClain didn't know what
Speaker 1: it was because he fell asleep when an unknown catalyst
Speaker 1: was introduced to the process. He was never able to
Speaker 1: duplicate the process, so the government painted the disk and
Speaker 1: gave it to Captain America. But how would you forge
Speaker 1: such a thing, especially since metallurgy is so complicated. Just
Speaker 1: the forging temperature alone depends on the materials carbon content,
Speaker 1: it's alloy composition, maximum plasticity, and the out of reduction required.
Speaker 1: Was it heated by induction or by continuous fuel fired furnaces.
Speaker 1: With a material this unique, you would have to carefully
Speaker 1: control the heating process. Now, forgibility is how easy or
Speaker 1: difficult a material resists deformation, And since Captain America's shield
Speaker 1: is indestructible, it would have to be a very narrow
Speaker 1: forging temperature range, meaning it could only be forged for
Speaker 1: a short time after heating. With metallurgical factors like crystal structure,
Speaker 1: chemical composition, and grain size at play, the only way
Speaker 1: McClain could have diminished their influence would be by adding
Speaker 1: alloying elements, possibly compounds that easily dissolve within the metal.
Speaker 1: There are all types of elements that could have been introduced,
Speaker 1: but it's likely that Captain America's shield was forged like
Speaker 1: a super alloy. This is how metall are just referred
Speaker 1: to iron based, nickel base and cobalt based alloys, specifically
Speaker 1: the ones that offer very high strength at high temperatures.
Speaker 1: These really high strength metals and iron based grades are
Speaker 1: the least difficult ones to work with, so that would
Speaker 1: narrow down McClain's experimental alloy to iron. Super alloys are
Speaker 1: really difficult to forge because of their narrow temperature range.
Speaker 1: You can't even use regular sizing presses and hammers on
Speaker 1: them because they'll deform. They even wear down the tools
Speaker 1: designed for forging them pretty easily. They're also extremely expensive,
Speaker 1: like ten times the price of carbon steel. Sounds a
Speaker 1: lot like Captain America's shield, right, But how do we
Speaker 1: explain the shield's ability to absorb kinetic energy, supposedly from
Speaker 1: the vibranium in the alloy. Usually materials absorb kinetic energy
Speaker 1: through other mechanisms like plastic or elastic deformation or dynamic
Speaker 1: fluid flow, but cap shield doesn't seem to be an
Speaker 1: elastometric material, and it's not organic like polyurethane in the movies.
Speaker 1: It actually seems to reflect vibration rather than absorb it,
Speaker 1: like when Thor hits it with m Olner in that
Speaker 1: first Avengers movie and the shock wave flattens a whole forest.
Speaker 1: Perhaps that was because the shield reached its absorption limit.
Speaker 1: Another thing that's tough to explain is how aerodynamic the
Speaker 1: shield is. If it really weighed forty three point nine pounds,
Speaker 1: it would be difficult to throw, even for a guy
Speaker 1: in peak physical condition like Steve Rogers. In the comics,
Speaker 1: Tony Stark actually puts electro magnets under the shield to
Speaker 1: help control it in midflight, but Captain America later ditched
Speaker 1: them because they upset the shields natural balance. It seems
Speaker 1: like the soldier and the shield are made for each other.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Christian and produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other topics that
Speaker 1: shout excelsior, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff
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