Spider-Man Swings Above the City

About this drawing

Web-swinging Spider-Man is basically a giant pendulum. When he fires a web at the top of a building and lets gravity take over, he drops, picks up speed through the lowest point and rises again on the other side, just like a kid on a playground swing.

To keep moving forward, he has to let go at just the right moment and fire the next line ahead. Release too early and he comes up short; too late and he loses speed. Spider-Man times every swing almost without thinking, the way a skilled cyclist balances without looking at the pedals.

The trick works best in cities with tall buildings. Out in the suburbs or the countryside there is nothing for his webs to stick to, and some stories have fun with that by making him run, hitch a ride or hail a cab.

Pendulums have been studied for centuries. Galileo noticed that a pendulum takes about the same time to swing back and forth no matter how wide the swing is, an idea that later helped people build more accurate clocks.

• spider-man
• web-swinging
• city
• marvel
• physics