Journal of Physics Special Topics
P4 9 Inferring the Nuclear Properties of Vibranium
J. S. Baker, K. E. Wright, T. W. Buggey, R. R. Norisam,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester. Leicester, LE1 7RH.
November 19, 2015
Abstract
In this article, we calculate the proton number of Iron Man’s synthetic element, Vibranium, using footage
from the Marvel film Iron Man 2. We do so using a model with equilateral triangles with electrons at
each vertex tiling the surface of a sphere. We find that Z = 108 which coincides with the already existing
element Hassium. We then infer the stable number of neutrons using an empirical fit to the table of stable
nuclides. we find this to be N = 179. We therefore suggest that the stable isotope of Vibranium is 287
179 V i.
Since only lower mass number isotopes of the existing element Hassium have ever been synthesized, we
use the half-life of the most stable isotope to infer the recharge time for the Arc Reactor to be 14s.
Introduction
Vibranium is a fictional element in the Marvel Universe. It is the primary constituent of Captain America’s shield and is known for it’s high impact absorption. In the fiction, the element can store the energy
from impacts and subsequently discharge the energy
in a powerful blow [1]. In the recent film Iron Man 2,
hero Tony Stark synthesizes a new element in order to
power his ’Arc Reactor’ which not only powers his Iron
Man suit but keeps deadly shrapnel from entering his
heart and killing him. It is in this scene, for the first
time, that we see the entire electronic structure of Iron
Man’s new element in the form of a hologram [2]. In
the Comics, he originally brands the element ’Badassium’ but we later learn that this element is one in the
same with Vibranium [1].
In this article, we calculate the electron number (and
therefore proton number) of Vibranium using footage
from Iron Man 2. Then, using the raw data from a
table of stable nuclides, we use an empirical fit to infer
the stable neutron number for the element. Based on
this, we make comments on the stability of the element. Fig. 1: A triangle tiled sphere representative of the elecWe also make comments on the use of this element to tronic structure of Vibranium
power the Arc Reactor.
2
using A = 4πr
. Given then that area of an equilateral
√
Finding the Stable Isotope
3 2
triangle
is
a
where a is the inter electron distance,
4
The hologram of the electronic structure of the element
we
can
find
the
total
number of equilateral triangles on
can be found in reference [3]. We assume this structure
the
surface
of
the
sphere
by taking their ratio
to be the electronic structure and not the nucleus as
there is nothing to distinguish protons from neutrons
in the footage. This section now details a method of
performing a good estimate of Z using this footage.
The electronic structure appears to be a sphere tiled
with equilateral triangles (a clearly fictional arrangement of electrons)(Fig. 1). If we count the number of electrons in a straight line across the centre of
the sphere, we can infer the radius (in terms of interelectron distance) since C/2 = πr. We can then use
this radius to calculate the surface area of the sphere
NT riangles =
4
√ (Ncount − 1)2
π 3
(1)
Where Ncount is the number of electrons counted across
the half circumference distance. Since there is an electron at each vertex of the triangle, we find that in a
triangular lattice the number of electrons (vertices) is
Nelectrons = 3 + (Ntriangles − 1)
(2)
This arises since the original triangle has three ver1
Inferring the Nuclear Properties of Vibranium, November 19, 2015
approximately 14 seconds thus is an non-viable source
of nuclear fuel. Our recommendation now is to investigate the viability of the Arc Reactor to be modelled
as a nuclear fission reactor, using 287
179 V i as the active
isotope.
tices and each subsequent triangle adds one more vertex to the lattice. The non-ionised species then obeys
Nelectrons = Z where Z is proton number.
We can now infer the stable isotope using an empirical fit to the table of stable nuclides [4].
N = 192tan(0.007(Z − 1))
(3)
References
Where N is neutron number.
A quantitative measure of the stability of a nuclide
is it’s time constant τ . This is the time elapsed for 1e
nuclei to decay it can be shown that [5]
τ=
1
λ
[1] Marvel Database, ’Vibranium’, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Vibranium.
[Accessed: 18- Nov- 2015].
[2] IMDB, ’Iron Man 2 (2010)’, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/
plotsummary. [Accessed: 16- Nov- 2015].
[3] YouTube, ’Iron Man 2 New Element Scene’, 2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
9P2hgl50Bf4. [Accessed: 16- Nov- 2015].
[4] Y. Kun, ’Tendency equation and curve of stable nuclides’, Nature, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.nature.ac.cn/papers/paper-pdf/
Equation_of_stable_nuclides-pdf.pdf. [Accessed:
17- Nov- 2015].
[5] H. Ohanian, Principles of physics. pp. 887 New York:
W.W. Norton, 1994.
(4)
Where λ is the decay constant [5]. Since
λ=
ln2
t 12
(5)
We can express τ (t 12 ).
Results
We counted the amount of electrons in the half circumference field of view across 5 different paths. We found
that the mean value was Ncount = 13. Using equations
(1) and (2) we find that Z = 108 to the nearest integer.
According to equation (3), the stable neutron number
is then N = 179.
We can now coin the most stable nuclide of Vibranium as 287
179 V i. This element, however, is already in
existence and is known as Hassium. It is also a synthetic element but few over 100 atoms have ever been
synthesized. The most stable isotope synthesised to
date (269 Hs) is still very unstable with a half life of 9.7
seconds. Using this value with equations (4) and (5)
we find that τ = 14s.
Discussion
If we treat τ as the recharge time for the arc reactor,
we find that iron man would have to be inserting a
new Vibranium/Hassium core every 14 seconds. This
is clearly tedious and there is no evidence of such an
action in any of the Marvel fiction. It is however possible that Tony Stark managed to synthesize the stable
nuclide 287
179 V i which could have a considerably lower
half-life. Given this, the Arc Reactor could be modelled as a very small fission reactor.
The validity of equation (3) must be questioned. The
extrapolation of this function into high Z is dubious
at best as little data has been collected from high Z
elements due to their inherent instability.
Conclusion
We have inferred that the stable isotope of the element
synthesized in Iron Man 2 is 287
179 V i. We have found that
this element is already in existence and is known as
Hassium. Given the stability of this known element we
suggested that recharge time τ for the Arc Reactor is
2