Steel is in Washington D.C. and must stop a terrorist attack masterminded by Metallo. Metallo has a new body and Steel uses a strategy used by Superman in his battles against Metallo: He knocks off Metallo’s head. We will calculate Metallo’s durability in order to estimate Steel’s super strength.

METALLO’S DURABILITY

Typically, Metallo is made of an indestructible steel alloy. We will use Metallo’s feat in ‘Adventures of Superman’ (1992) #491, in order to calculate Metallo’s durability. Here, Metallo’s indestructible metal alloy upgraded by Cerberus actually reflects Superman’s heat vision.
In Adventures of Superman (1992) #491, Metallo’s indestructible metal alloy upgraded by Cerberus actually reflects Superman’s heat vision. AP Photo/DC Comics.

NUMBER CRUNCHING

Metallo’s upgraded steel alloy reflected Superman’s heat vision. Typically, Superman’s heat vision reaches temperatures as hot as the sun’s surface, which is about 5520 degrees C. In real-world scenarios, since Metallo is made from a steel alloy, we can assume Superman’s heat vision here is equal or less than steel’s melting point of 1540 °C. And steel’s heat capacity is 480 J/kg °C.

In addition, we can assume Metallo’s head takes up 1.8 percent of his body mass, as in humans.

Thermal Energy = W on system = (1540 °C-20 °C)(480 J/kg C)(272.155 kg*0.2) = 39712857.6 J.

It takes more than 39712857.6 Joules of energy in order to destroy Metallo’s upgraded steel alloy. This is merely a rough estimate and it is very possible that it would take millions of degrees Celsius, a temperature matching the sun’s core, in order to melt Metallo’s upgraded steel alloy.

Our strategy is to use the Conservation of Energy to calculate the kinetic energy used by Steel’s kinetic hammer to knock off Metallo’s head from the thermal energy or work done on the system.

From 4.4: Momentum And Energy, we find:
W_onsystem=ΔKE_system⟺FΔx₁=1/2m₁v₁²

Since the change in kinetic energy equals the work done on the system, we can calculate the impact force in the elastic collision. The elastic collision caused Metallo’s head to travel five meters from its body.

F = ΔKE_system/Δx₁ = (39712857.6 J)/(5 m) = 7942571.52 N.

Since Steel caused a deformation of Metallo’s body, we calculate the shear stress.

Steel, ‘Steel’ Vol 2 #21

In terms of power output, the head knock-off generated 88542021.6202 W of power.

SUPER-STRENGTH

Steel’s kinetic hammer generated 44125397 Pa of stress knocking off Metallo’s head in an elastic collision. In order to knock off Metallo’s head five meters away, Steel had to generate a Building-Level of Super-Strength.