The Physics of Spiders: Spider-Man's Web

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro, directed by Marc Webb, tells the adventures of one of the most famous heroes of the Marvel universe. In this chapter, Spider-Man is engaged in the fight against Electro, a super villain capable of manipulating the laws of electromagnetism as he pleases. This power makes him a fearsome opponent for Spidey who will have to protect himself from the huge electric currents generated by Electro.

Electro seems to be able to store electrical charge in his body and then release it in the form of electric currents: a sort of human battery. Therefore, Spidey needs a particular material to use his web to grab Electro's electrically charged body. In fact, a common spider web could be damaged by the enormous electric current produced by the huge potential difference between Electro and ground.

Electro is a human battery.

Let's see how the web is damaged by the current!

An insulating material, also called dielectric, can support up to a certain potential difference between its ends. When this limit is exceeded, electric breakdown takes place. This means that an electric arc is created between the ends of the material and a current flows through the dielectric. This process occurs because of the ionization of the material caused by the huge electric field. In uncontrolled situations, this process causes the destruction of the material (the spider web) and, in addition, it is highly dangerous for our hero.

Quartz

The destruction of the web is caused by a rise in its temperature caused by the Joule effect. Therefore, Spidey's web must be built with a material that can withstand high voltage drops. For instance, quartz satisfies this requirement but it would make the web less flexible and much heavier than a normal spider web!

Therefore, Peter Parker must find a solution to this problem quickly because no one is safe when a super villain like Electro is around.

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