Scientists Claim There Was An Error In A Marvel Film

A nagging, geeky question from the MCU’s mega-hyped 2018 flick “Avengers: Infinity War”:

Because that’s apparently how science works today, a nagging, geeky question from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s mega-hyped 2018 blockbuster “Avengers: Infinity War” led to a revelation regarding the nature of human hand mechanics. After seeing the critical finger snap at the conclusion of “Infinity War,” biomolecular engineering experts at George Tech were evidently fascinated enough to begin investigating it. Needless to say, there are spoilers below. Thanos — the film’s antagonist, played by a highly CGI’d Josh Brolin — snaps his fingers while wearing his uber-powerful “infinity glove” in the end, killing half the universe’s population. While the sequence mostly aimed to build up the film’s much-anticipated sequel, it prompted a tough issue for Raghav Acharya, a Georgia Tech chemical engineering freshman.

Nobody had dug too far into the intricate motion’s physics, it turned out:

As it turned out, no one had looked too deeply into the intricate motion’s physics. So Acharya jumped in. In the course of their research, Acharya and his colleagues discovered what they’re calling a “Goldilocks zone of friction”—a concept likely borrowed from the astrophysics term used to denote the theoretical habitability of planets—to determine how finger snapping works under different physical conditions. According to Ars Technica, the experiment was based on high-speed video footage of people snapping their fingers five times each under diverse physical conditions. One participant snapped their fingers while wearing a greased nitrile glove (too slippery); another wore rubber thimbles on their thumb and forefinger (too much friction); and yet another put metal thimbles on their thumb and forefinger beneath a nitrile glove (too much friction) (also too much friction).

Naturally, the experiment’s control participants snapped their fingers without any difficulty:

Naturally, the experiment’s control participant, who snapped their fingers freely, proved to the researchers that such motion was, like Goldilocks’ perfect bed, exactly right. Researchers hope that this biomolecular breakthrough will spur more research into the complicated mechanics of hands, as well as applications for prosthetic design and “bioinspired robotics.” However, the experts discovered that Thanos could not have snapped his fingers in that manner while wearing a metal, jewel-encrusted glove. “Our findings show that Thanos’ metal-armored fingers could not have broken,” Acharya added. As a result, it’s more likely that Hollywood special effects are at work than true physics. Thank you, geeks!

Credits: GIPHY