IRON MAN

THE ENGINEERING OF IRON MAN

ANTHONY CHOW

Iron Man

Anthony Chow

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CONTENT

Introduction

Energy

THE ARC REACTOR

ALTERNATE SOURCE

Flying

ROCKET MOTION

PLANES

System

SYSTEM

MORAVEC’S PARADOX

Conclusion

Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

The Iron Man made his first tribute in the comic

“Tales of Suspense #39” in March, 1963i. Tony

Stark, the man behind the suit, is described in the

movie “Avengers Assemble” in 2012 as a “Genius,

billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”ii

The Iron

Man suit is what makes Iron Man who he is; it is

what makes Tony a superhero. The suit consists

of advance technology gadgets and weapons,

which aid Iron Man to defeat his enemies.

The Iron Man suit is constantly being modified.

For example, the suit is grey in its very first

appearance. However, by the very next issue,

Stark decided to change the colour to gold as it

makes more of an impression on women. iii

Besides the cosmetic sides, the technology side

also changes continuously. The Iron Man used to

have a radio antenna in one of the earlier comics.

As transmission technology advances, the need

of an antenna no longer exists, and wireless

technology has cooperated into the suit.

The Iron Man suit reflects the most advance and popular technology in the world today. It is a science fiction

which “takes stuff maybe in the near future or the more distant future and builds a story around it.”iv This is

why I have chosen to do this project. In this project, we will look into the realistic sides of the Iron Man suit,

discuss about the ideas and what is currently being done about them. We will attempt to answer the question:

IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO BUILD AN IRON MAN SUIT?

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ENERGY

THE ARC REACTOR

Background

When Tony was in the Middle East, a missile

exploded next to his body. Then in a random cave,

a man named Yinsen helped Stark to remove the

shrapnel fragments from the blast. But he could

not remove all of them. The shrapnel was

prevented from going into his atrial septum by an

electromagnet, powered by a car battery.v Tony

Stark needs a more efficient way of generating

power to his electromagnet. So the Arc Reactor

was made.

What is an Arc Reactor?

An “arc” simply means a “huge electrical spark”, whilst a

“reactor” is where “you combine two different materials

and make a new compound”.iv Arc reactors already exist in

reality, but they are not very exciting. They are used to

make nitrogen oxides, used in agriculture. The arc reactor

Tony Stark uses is a fusion reactor, which will power his

magnet and his suit.

What is Fusion?

Fusion is the process that powers the sun and all other stars. This occurs when light atomic nuclei overcome

the repellent electrical forces and collide together releasing energy in the form of neutrons.vi The nuclei must

be travelling at a very high speed for the collision to occur

To obtain the nuclei, the electrons of the atoms are separated with heat and electric fields, creating a plasma

(the fourth state of matter). Although the nuclei have the same charge and will repel each other, when

travelling at high speed, they will fuse together if you fire them at each other. This is because the “Stong Force”

over comes the repulsion, binding the two nuclei together (the Strong Force binds the protons and neutrons

together in the nucleus).

The fuel used for the traditional fusion reaction is

deuterium and tritium (both are heavy hydrogen

isotopes). When they collide, they form helium gas.

There is a difference in mass between the product

helium gas and the reactants. Therefore, Einstein’s

equation 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐2 may be applied; the lost mass is

turned into energy.

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ITERvii

The current fully functional fusion reactor, JET can release

about 65% of the input energy. This is why a bigger reactor is

going to be built –ITER. ITER is a tokamak reactor, like a

doghnut. The place where the plasma is will become a vaccuum

as the plasma will be heated to over 100 million degree Celsius

–this is about 6 times hotter than the Sun. A higher

temperature is needed in order to compensate the low

pressure in the vessel, comparing to the Sun’s gravity.vi

The high temperature can be achieved by neutral beam

injection, where accelerated deuterium particles are fired at

the plasma. Another way is to use high frequency EM waves

and lasers to heat it up. Ultimately, researchers hope to

achieve a “burning plasma” where the energy released from

the reaction is enough to maintain the plasma temperature.

Through this way, the external heating methods will then be

strongly reduced, or even switched off, making the method

even more efficient.

No single material can withstand such temerpature. Therefore the plasma must be kept away from the walls of

the plasma vessel. If the plasma touches the walls, it will cool down and fusion will stop; it must be confined.

This is done by using 18 superconducting torodial field and 6 polodial field coils. The plasma will also follow the

magnetic field lines, just like iron fillings under the influence of a bar magnet.

In order for the for the magnets to deliver the desired strength, the magnets will need to operate near

absolute zero. Therefore, cryogenic (low temperatures) technology will be used to maintain the low

temperature. The magnets have to be cooled with supercritical helium at 4K. For the other auxiliary systems,

such as the radio frequency heating system, the chilled water system can be used as well.

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Deuterium and tritium are used as fuel as the D-T reaction has been identified as the most efficient, meaning it

gives the highest energy gain at the lowest temperature. Deuterium can be distilled from all forms of water,

and so it is widely available. Tritium, on the other hand, is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, and can be

produced by a fusion reaction of lithium.

In the D-T reaction, high energy neutrons are released as well as helium. These neutrons are absorbed by the

blanket modules (walls). Blankets with lithium are considered as “Breeding Blankets”. When the neutrons hit

these breeding blankets, a fusion reaction occurs, where an atom of tritium and helium are given out. The

tritium is then recovered back into the plasma, causing a chain reaction to happen. When the neutrons hit the

blanket modules, the energy from the neutron is transferred to the wall, which is then used to generate power.

The ITER tokamak reactor is a gigantic

construction. When working, the maximum

plasma volume can reach 840 cubic metres.

The machine is 23,000 tons –over 3 times the

weight of the Eiffel Tower. The building

measures 73 metres (60m above ground, and

13 underground). The machine is designed to

give out 500MW of power, with an input of

50MW.

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Cold or Hot Fusion?

In the film Iron Man, it is mentioned that Stark needs “1.6g of

palladium”. Palladium is commonly known to link with Cold

Fusion, a hypothetical type of fusion may occur at room

temperature. The process involves electrolysis using a

palladium cathode and heavy water with an electrolyte in a

vessel. When a current is passed through the cathode, heavy

hydrogen fusion takes place in the palladium and so energy is

released.

This technology has gained a reputation of pathological science;

in 2000, TIME magazine listed cold fusion as one of the “worst

ideas” of the 20th

century.viii

It is known that fusion can only

occur under high temperature, and therefore the idea of fusion

at room temperature may be a bit ridiculous. In addition, when

the results and methods were published, many scientists did

their own experiments on it, and many had negative results.

Even if we allow the idea of cold fusion, it still does not agree with the film. The cold fusion vessels are tubular

but the arc reactor Iron Man has is circular. I believe that although Tony Stark needs the palladium, it is almost

certain that the fusion that takes place inside is “hot” fusion, the more traditional and scientific fusion.

The Reality

Extreme Heat

In order for fusion to occur, the plasma is heated over

100 million degree Celsius. Although the plasma itself is

being confined by the magnets, the heat released in

the reaction is far too high for it to be safe inside the

body. The arc reactor on Stark’s chest is about the size

of a hockey puck, with around 5cm radius. This is about

280 times smaller than the actual tokamak, meaning

the heat will be even more focused.

Magnetic Field

It takes a magnetic field of about 10 tesla to levitate water. The maximum magnetic field produced by the

magnets in ITER is 11.8T. It is far more than enough to levitate Tony Stark’s body, which is made mostly out of

water. Even if the magnets used are smaller and in theory, gives a smaller magnetic field, it will still be quite

large, and will affect the blood movement significantly. Not to mention that having a giant magnet next to a

metallic suit will definitely have severe impact on the movement. Also, it will affect the EM waves the suit uses

to communicate with Jarvis, the computer.

Auxilary Systems

The tokamak itself does not generate the energy; it requires many different parts. The magnets will need to be

cooled by a cryogenic system, pumping liquid helium to the magnets constantly. But more importantly, the

energy generated by the fusion reaction is plain heat energy. It needs to be turned into electrical energy by

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means of heating a boiler to produce steam, result in driving a turbine. These additional systems are far too

huge to be carried by a person, and certainly cannot be shrunk down to a size of a hockey puck.

Source of Fuel

The lithium breeding blanket will need to be constantly replaced, and we don’t see Tony doing that at all.

Instead, we are shown that he replaces his palladium. But as discussed before, palladium is commonly linked

with cold fusion, and it is nothing but some pathological science. Although the reactor does not produce

radioactive waste, it will become radioactive itself overtime, as neutrons may collide with atoms in the blanket

module, changing the material’s property. To fix this, JET currently uses robots controlled by humans to fix the

interior of the vaccuum vessel, as it is too dangerous for a human to do the job. This suggests that the

radioactivity of the arc reactor may also kill Tony.

Energy Output

Quoting from the Iron Man film, if Stark’s calculation is correct, the output of the crude reactor is about “3

Giga Joules per second”, which is 6 times greater than the expected output of ITER, even when fully functional.

This figure is likely to increase when Stark improves his design. “No machine is ever 100% efficient”iv Just the

waste energy released from the reactor will be huge, hence making it impossible to be inside a body.

In conclusion, it is impossible for the arc reactor to be realistic at all. However, once we allow this to happen,

what follows next is unimaginable.

ALTERNATE SOURCES

Generating the Energy Realistically

Because we are very sure that an arc reactor of a size of a hockey puck put on one’s chest is not possible, then

surely there has to be another logical way to obtain this energy. In the 1960s Iron Man was fitted with solar

panels in order to supply the energy needed. Tony is constantly flying, so surely the Sun can provide enough

energy for the suit. A second approach of obtaining the energy is harnessing the energy from a thunder bolt. In

Avengers 3, Thor fired a lightning strike at Iron Man. Tony cleverly converted this energy to his own, and fired

it all back at Thor. In this section, we will talk about the ideas of Solar Energy and Harnessing Lightning.

Solar Energy

The photoelectric effect theory states that “electromagnetic radiation can push electrons free from the surface

of a solid”. Light travels as packets (quanta) of energy as photons, and each photon has a specific amount of

energy directly proportional to its wavelength. In other words, the colour of the light determines the amount

of energy the photon carries. The energy it carries must be above a certain threshold for a certain material in

order for the energy to be transferred.ix

A main part solar cell is basically made of two layers

of semiconductors, an N-Type (phosphorus doped)

and a P-Type (boron doped), a p-n junction. The p-n

junction forms an electric field when the electrons

from the phosphorus doped silicon diffuses across

to the boron doped silicon to bond with the holes.x

The field prevents electrons to go directly from the

N layer to the P layer.

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The basic theory of solar cell states that when photons hit the N layer, electrons are excited, jumps out of their

atom, leaving a hole behind. Because of the electric field in the p-n junction, the electrons must find another

route to bond back with the hole. The electrons from the N layer are drawn up to the electric contact above,

whilst the holes move down towards the P layer. The electrons will flow through this contact to recombine

with the holes. If we connect an electric appliance to the two ends of the contacts, a current will flow through

it, hence giving it electric energy to power the appliance. xi

Solar Experiment

In order to understand more about solar cells, I set up three experiments in a dark

room to investigate three different factors that can affect the voltage output of a

solar cell –The Light Intensity, The Distance of the Light Source, and The Area of the

Solar Cells. The basic set up is shown on the right. The Ammeter is put there to see

whether the resistor is working according to Ohm’s law, where V = 1000 × I. It turns

out the resistor worked out fine. Safety was indeed quite important in the

experiment, as the room is completely dark when the lamp is switched off.

Therefore, there are no wires lying on the floor as they are trip hazards. The results

are shown as follows :

Intensity

(%)

Voltage

(micro Volts)

0 0

2 0.3

26 3

42 10.7

49 22.7

75 40

79 60.7

80 83

81 106.4

82 128.9

83 151.4

Distance

(cm)

Voltage

(mV)

100 70.8

90 77.8

80 93.8

70 107.2

60 123.9

50 149.4

40 187.2

30 416

20 576

10 777

Number

Cells

Voltage

(mV)

1 247

2 494

3 537

4 616

5 619

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For Voltage against Light

Intensity, the equation is

Obviously this model breaks

down when the Light Intensity

is small, however it exemplifies

that the voltage across the

resistor increases exponentially

with light intensity increase.

𝑉 = 2.8 × 10−6𝑒0.21𝐿 + 7.6

For Voltage against Light

Intensity, the equation is

This shows that the closer the

cells are to the light source, the

higher the voltage can be

generated, and so more power

is released (𝑃 ∝ 𝑉)

This graph is quite expected as

the light intensity is

determined by the inverse

square law, meaning the longer

the distance, the lower the

light intensity. Since Voltage

increases with light intensity, it

must decreases with an

increasing distance.

𝑉 = 1200𝑒−0.043𝐿 + 45

For Voltage against Number of

Cells, the equation is

However I do not trust this set

of results. Although they have

been processed and tested for

anomalies, the light is not

guaranteed to have shined on

all of them. Therefore an

accurate relationship cannot be

determined

𝑉 = −680𝑒−056𝑛 + 680

With the graphing program Logger Pro, several graphs are produced to see whether I can find a numerical

equation to define the relationships. The graphs are shown below

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Harnessing Lightning

As James May put it in Things You Need to Know about the

weather, “Lightning flashes up to about a hundred times a second

worldwide, you think this would be enough for us to understand it

properly, but it isn’t… Lightning is a big streak of up to a billion

volts and two hundred thousand amps of static electricity… All

this energy is released as a bolt five times hotter than the Sun.”xii

Our lack of knowledge in the subject is due to the fact that we

cannot predict where and when the lightning will strike. The most

common theory of lightning formation is that tiny ice crystals and

lumps of hail are crashing against each other in the clouds,

causing electrons to be transferred to the hail. This separation of

charge causes the negatively charged hail to accumulate at the

bottom of the cloud. The electrons in the cloud repel the

electrons on the ground, giving it a positive charge. Because the

potential difference between the cloud and the ground is so huge,

the dielectric (air) breaks down. A pathway is made and a rapid

electrical discharge takes place, producing a bright flash bolt.xiii

Does this information help us harness the energy from lightning? The most likely answer for this stage is no.

The main reason being that we cannot accurately predict where lightning is going to strike. However, what if

we know exactly where the bolt is going to go, just like how Tony knows that Thor will strike him directly? A

proof of theory experiment has been done by Nokia. They used a spark of 200,000 Volts across a 30cm gap

between two transformers, where a Nokia Lumia 925 is put underneath to be charged. The experiment works

perfectly fine (see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJTl2oqaWPs [Accessed: 9th

November 2014)

where the phone still worked perfectly fine after the experiment.xiv

However, the voltage used in the Nokia

experiment is much lower than the actual voltage of the lightning bolt, meaning it poses a great difficulty to

this method, as the step down transformer on the receiver side will have to be much larger.

The Reality

Say Tony is about 175cm tall and weighs about 70 kg. Using the Du Bois formula he has a total surface area of

about 2 square meters. A solar cell has an area of about 10 cm2, so we can fit about 1000 of them to the

armour. Let’s say all the Sun’s energy hits the solar panels with a light intensity of 100% (which in theory

should not be because of the inverse square law), each solar cell should give 3.7 mV with a 1kΩ resistor,

meaning each will give about 4 Joules per seconds. Therefore with 1000 of them, we should in theory be able

to generate 4kJ per second. Recalling back to the Arc Reactor chapter… Tony’s arc reactor gives off 3GJ per

second –that is a million times more than what the solar cells can generate. Having solar panels is a fantastic

idea, but no… it cannot generate enough power to support the suit.

Harnessing energy from lightning is quite a fascinating idea, as it’s free energy slipping away from our hands.

However, even if you are like Tony, who knew exactly where the bolt was going to hit, having such a great

electric impulse requires a huge step down transformer to convert this extreme voltage into manageable

energy. Transformers consist of a ferromagnetic core with two coils of wire wrapping around it. The more the

voltage needs to be stepped down, the more coils there needs to be. Moreover, energy conversion is never

100% efficient, and in most cases the lost energy is turned into heat. With the data provided by James May, a

lightning bolt can have power up to 200 Giga Watts. Even if the conversion is 99% efficient, 2 Giga Watts of

heat is lost. This is as much power as the Hoover Dam can generate! This extreme heat will definitely cause

damage to the suit, hence making harnessing lightning a very impractical idea.

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Equations:

Variables: 𝑚, 𝜌, 𝑣, 𝑥, 𝑡

Constants:

𝑚0,𝑢,𝐻,𝜌0, 𝐶𝐷, 𝐴, 𝐺, 𝑚1, 𝑟

𝐹𝐷 =1

2𝜌𝐶𝐷𝐴𝑣

2

𝐹𝐺 = 𝐺𝑚𝑚1

𝑧2

𝜌 = 𝜌0𝑒−𝑧/𝐻

𝑧 = 𝑟 + 𝑥

𝑚 = 𝑚0 − 𝑘𝑡

𝛼 =1

2𝐶𝐷𝐴𝜌0

𝛽 = 𝐺𝑚1

FLYING

ROCKET MOTION

When Iron Man takes off, his boots acts as two rockets. They eject hot gases from the bottom, hence

propelling Stark into the air. The basic idea of this rocket motion is that the thrust force generated by the

rockets is greater than the weight of the suit and any resistance forces, hence lifting the suit into the air.

Rocket motion can be explained by this diagram, where the blue block is ejecting mass:

(𝑚 − 𝛿𝑚)(𝑣 + 𝛿𝑣) + |𝛿𝑚|(𝑣 − 𝑢) − 𝑚𝑣 = 𝐹𝛿𝑡

𝑚𝛿𝑣 − |𝛿𝑚|𝛿𝑣 − 𝑢|𝛿𝑚| = 𝐹𝛿𝑡

|𝛿𝑚|𝛿𝑣 is very small, and so it is negligible.

𝒎𝒅𝒗

𝒅𝒕= 𝑭 + 𝒖 |

𝒅𝒎

𝒅𝒕|

Because the weight of Iron Man is estimated to be quite large, and the distance from the Earth’s core he will

be above is quite high, the gravitational attraction equation 𝐹𝐺 = 𝐺𝑚𝑚1

𝑧2 is

used. The resistance force is assumed to be only the drag force, defined

by the equation 𝐹𝐷 =1

2𝜌𝐶𝐷𝐴𝑣2. The density of air also changes with

height, governed by the formula 𝜌 = 𝜌0𝑒−𝑧/𝐻. In the model, the rate of

ejection is modelled as constant.

The workings are as follows:

𝑚𝑑𝑣

𝑑𝑡= −𝑢

𝑑𝑚

𝑑𝑡− 𝐹𝐷 − 𝐹𝐺

𝑚𝑑𝑣

𝑑𝑡= −𝑘𝑢 −

1

2𝜌0𝑒−𝑧/𝐻𝐶𝐷𝐴𝑣2 − 𝐺

𝑚1𝑚

𝑧2

𝑚𝑑𝑣

𝑑𝑡= −𝑘𝑢 − 𝛼𝑣2𝑒−𝑧/𝐻 − 𝛽

𝑚

𝑧2

𝑚𝑑𝑣

𝑑𝑡= −𝑘𝑢 − 𝛼𝑣2𝑒−𝑧/𝐻 − 𝛽

𝑚

𝑧2

(𝑚0 − 𝑘𝒕)𝑑2𝑥

𝑑𝑡2+ 𝛼

𝑑𝑥

𝑑𝑡

2

𝑒−(𝑟+𝒙)/𝑥 = −𝑘𝑢 −𝛽(𝑚0 − 𝑘𝒕)

(𝑟 + 𝒙)2

𝑚 𝑚 − 𝛿𝑚 𝛿𝑚

𝑢 𝑣+ 𝛿𝑣

𝑣

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𝑚 is mass

𝜌 is air density

𝑣 is rocket velocity

𝑥 is the displacement

𝑡 is time

𝑚0 is initial mass

𝑢 is fuel ejection velocity

𝐻 is scale height of atmosphere

𝜌0 is air density at sea level

𝐶𝐷 is streamline coefficient

𝐴 is rocket surface area

𝐺 is gravitational constant

𝑚1 is mass of the Earth

𝑟 is distance from Earth core to starting point

A differential equation is worked out here. However, the differential equation involving both 𝑑2𝑥

𝑑𝑡2 and 𝑑𝑥

𝑑𝑡

2is

beyond my knowledge. Therefore I need to seek for a simpler model. With the help of an MIT online lecture, I

found out indeed the results cannot be integrated implicitly, and so it has to be integrated numerically.

However, the document notes that drag is actually negligible in typical cases, being only about 2% of the

gravity force in a rocket of 12,000kg and cross section area of 1 square meter.xv

Stabilising

Another factor that may affect the trajectory is the position of

centre of mass of Iron Man. During the flight, the rocket will tend to

wobble and rotate about its centre of mass. The rotation will cause

the rocket to fly at an inclined angle instead of flying straight. When

this happens, a restorative force is generated by the rocket body

and the fins.xvi

The lift force acts through the centre of pressure of

the rocket, acting as a counter-balance torque to the destabilising

force. The centre of mass must be in front of the centre of pressure,

otherwise the direction of the torque generated by lift is reverse,

causing the displacement angle to be bigger, hence destabilising it.

To prove this theory, I have conducted a simple experiment. I

used a pressure system to release a range of rockets with

different body length at an angle of 40 degrees. The pressure is

kept at a constant 30psi, whilst the materials of the rocket body

and fins are all the same. When I fired a 10cm (±0.05cm) rocket,

it flies very quickly, but not straight at all; it drifts to the right

violently. When I fired a 15cm and 20cm rocket, both had quite a

straight trajectory. This exemplifies the theory very well, as the

10cm rocket body is very short, and so the centre pressure is

quite likely to be in front of the centre of mass, causing the rocket to be out of control.

However, normally with big and heavy rockets, the restorative force will not be sufficient. Instead, a gyroscope

and a series of mechanisms are used to stabilise the flight. In the traditional ballistic V2 missiles, a similar

device is used. A potentiometer is placed next to the gimballed gyroscope, which is spun using energy from the

fuel. The potentiometer varies the current going across the veins of the rocket, which controls the angle of the

fins, hence stabilising the rocket.xvii

A similar technology is utilised in guiding planes. It is therefore almost

certain that Iron Man has a small gyroscope in his suit, helping him stabilising both during take-off and in-flight.

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VASIMR

One thing that might puzzle a lot of people is

that: provided that we have this huge amount

of energy generated by the arc reactor, how

will the engines or the rocket boots produce

enough thrust to lift this heavy piece of

machine? I mean, surely a lot of fuel will be

needed to generate that much lift?

As the Marvel website suggests, Tony utilises a

technology called VASIMRxviii

(Variable Specific

Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket). The rockets

that we are used to gets its power from

chemical energy, where hot gases are

produced during a chemical reaction and

pushes the rocket upwards according to

Newton’s Third Law. The major disadvantage is that it has a relatively low specific impulse comparing to

plasma based propellers. xix

The specific impulse measures how efficient a rocket obtains thrust from burning

its fuel. In general, the hotter the rocket’s exhaust the greater the impulse value. The advantage of using

VASIMR is that it contains no moving parts, nor combustion, nor electrodes. Some plasma rockets have grids,

which can melt if the temperature gets too high, meaning the fuel cannot be heated up by too much.

The VASIMR allows a variable exhaust and contain three major magnetic stages –Injection, Heating and

Ejection. The 1st

stage injects the propellant gas (argon or xenon) and ionising it. Then using Radio Waves the

plasma is heated up. This heated plasma (more than 1 million Kelvin) is prevented from touching the nearby

structures with a great magnetic field. The final stage involves a magnetic nozzle which converts the plasma

energy into directed momentum. Because the system is developed for space missions, the superconducting

magnets can be cooled mainly by radiation to deep space, with some supplemental cooling system.xx

The VASIMR allows faster, more reliable and richer power vehicles. But this is all to do with space! We cannot

forget that the sole reason for the huge rocket engines is because of the force due to gravity, whilst there is

little attraction in space. When I continued my research, I came to the realization that a VASIMR engine can

produce a thrust of approximately 0.1 N!xxi

With this little force even an apple cannot be lifted! My source for

this information is published in 1999, and by now VASIMR engine can give about 4N. This is very little in this

context. However, this is huge to astronomers –it is predicted that it will now only take 39 days to get from the

Earth to Mars, all thanks to this high specific impulse engine slowly accelerating the vehicle to high speed.xxii

In conclusion, even if we allow the high energy output from Tony’s chest to happen in reality, the Iron Man will

never be able to take off like a typical rocket

using the VASIMR technology like how Marvel

suggests. One might suggest that we use

traditional chemical rockets which have a higher

thrust. However, where are we going to store the

fuel? Since traditional rockets have quite a low

specific impulse, it requires a large amount of

fuel to get it going… So no, flying vertical using

flying boots is not possible yet, and is unlikely to

be possible in the near future.

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PLANES

Lift

Okay, so we know that it is quite impossible for Tony to fly vertically. What about horizontally in the sky? We

first have to look at something more familiar to us –Planes.

Planes fly because wings produce a lift force that causes the fly to stay airborne. This is achieved by diverting

air down. Imagine there are many lines of air going towards the wing as the plane flies forward. These lines are

called streamlines, and they communicate with each other, and when there are two different velocity

streamlines, a force is generated to restore them back to equilibrium. Note that because of the wing diverting

air downwards, the speed of the air increases with distance from the wing. Now when the streamlines go head

onto the wing, it doesn’t just travel horizontally, but bends around the wing because of the lowering of

pressure.

According Newton’s 1st

law, we know that bending the air requires a force on the air. Therefore with Newton’s

3rd

law, we know that an equal and opposite force will act on the wing –and this is the famous Lift Force. The

magnitude of lift is equal to the mass of air diverted per time multiplied by the vertical velocity of air.

The mass of the air diverted is proportional to the airplane speed and the air density. This makes sense as mass

is the product of density and volume. Also the faster the plane goes, the more area the wing would have

covered in the sky, so more air would be diverted.

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

When we talk about vehicle motion, we need to mention the internal combustion engine. Most internal

combustion engine utilises a thermodynamic cycle called the Otto Cycle, which consists of four stages. Intake,

Compression, Power and Exhaust. During intake, the piston moves down, the intake valve opens and a mixture

of air and fuel is drawn into the cylinder. Then in compression, the intake valve closes. The piston moves back

up the cylinder to compress the air, raising its temperature and pressure. As the piston gets near to the top, a

spark plug produces a spark which ignites the air fuel mixture. The gas expands and drives the piston down the

cylinder. This is the power stroke. Finally, the exhaust valve opens and the piston pushes the waste gases out,

and the whole process is repeated.

The internal combustion engines are used to drive a propeller in the early days, but they are less common with

the modern ones. This is because to increase the amount of work done by the engine, we either increase the

number of cylinders or raise the pressure in them. However, increasing the number of cylinders add more

weight to the plane, and will slow it down. Increasing pressure creates more heat which can stress the metal in

the engine. Special fuels are needed to prevent knocking, and hence combustion engines are less common

with aircrafts now.

JET ENGINES

A typical jet engine consists four stages, intake, compression, power and exhaust. In turbine engine, air is

drawn in and compressed. Fuel is added and burned, which causes hot gases to expand out the rear of the

engine. Using Newton’s 3rd

law, we know that because this exiting air has a high momentum, it will cause a

forward thrust to the plane. Some of the exhaust gases turn a turbine, which can produce electrical power and

will also drive the compressor, which sucks the air in. Only a low percent of the air from the compressor is

combusted because they are used to cool the combusted gases down to temperatures just below that which

would damage the turbine. Also, it should be noted that the nozzle restrict the flow of air before it gets out,

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Anthony Chow

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1 2 3 4 Mean

3 1.51 1.23 1.53 1.42 1.4225

4 2.49 2.39 2.22 2.24 2.335

5 2.04 1.98 2.03 1.74 1.9475

6 1.26 1.19 1.58 1.53 1.39

7 1.07 1.13 1.45 1.18 1.2075

Airborne Time (s)

Size

1 2 3 4 5 Mean

No 1.21 1.08 1.35 1.8 1.16 1.32

2 2.19 0.84 1.04 0.84 1.15 1.212

5 0.96 0.7 0.76 1.18 0.9 0.9

Tape

Airborne Time (s)

0.60.8

11.21.4

none 2 5

Air

bo

rne

Tim

e (

s)

Number of Tapes

creating additional pressure. An afterburner can be added to the nozzle, where fuel is injected into the hot

gases after they pass through the turbine. This can give short bursts of speed.

A modern passenger aircraft usually uses turbofan, where a large fan with many blades is at the front of the

engine. Only a tiny portion of the air going pass the engine enters the core. And so the fan produces much of

the thrust of the engine. Although there is less energy added to this air than it would have going through the

core, by moving a large amount of air the turbofan gets a large boost in thrust for very little fuel. It is

understandable why airliners would want to use this as their preferred engine.

Experiments on planes

To investigate on the factors that affects the

airborne time of a plane, I have made different

types of paper planes to test out the theories. I

have folded different sized (using A3, A4, A5

paper…)planes with the same design and same

type of paper. And then I’ve folded 3 extra

planes using A5, one with 5 tape at the tip, one

with 2, and one without any. This will move the

centre of gravity further forward so that I can

investigate the stabilizing effect as stated above.

The results are shown as below.

Although the experiment was extremely crude

and there are many sources of error, it does

show a very interesting relationship. As shown by

the results, it is not the biggest plane that stays

in the air longest. True a large wing does

generate more lift, but this must be able to

counteract the increasing weight of the wing.

In reality, there are strict restrictions on the size of a plane, otherwise they won’t fit into the airports.

Engineers face great difficulties in keeping the wing span under the maximum limit, yet having it generating

enough lift for the gigantic plane to stay afloat. A perfect example is the new Airbus A380. A slight

improvement on the wing tip (ie adding a little edge to reduce eddy current) increases the lift by more than

0.5%. That may sound little, but with a fuel hungry monster like the A380, 0.5% means saving millions of fuel

cost each trip.xxiii

To test this theory, I’ve done a second

experiment concerning the tip of the wing. I’ve

folded two A5 planes, but one with a folded tip

as shown in the picture. The theory works,

exemplified by the convincing fact that it stayed

in the air for 0.5 seconds more, give or take 0.1

seconds.

My last experiment is test the theory of

stabilizing flights by moving the centre of mass

towards the front, or keeping it in front of the

centre of pressure. I have attached different

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Anthony Chow

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amount of tape to the front of the plane.

The experiment was a failure, as the planes with the tape just crash landed. The tapes were far too heavy

compared to the little lift generated. For some reason, the first try of the 2 tape plane shows an impressive

2.19 seconds. But then again, this experiment is so crude that these results should be taken as a pinch of salt.

Discussion

It is important to notice that the motion of flying can only be brought about with fuel, unless we are prepared

to have giant fans driven by an electric motor. The suit definitely cannot fly vertically without consuming a

large amount of fuel. With the laws of classical mechanics, we know that a vertical motion can only be brought

about with an equal and opposite force exerted by fuel ejection. Whilst for a horizontal flight, we can stay

airborne by diverting air under the wing. Because a human arm is relatively narrow, the suit must travel at a

relatively high speed in order for the “wing” to cover a relatively large area to generate lift.

With the current technology known to me, I cannot explain a vertical flight without a large fuel tank. I suppose

the motion of a helicopter might do the job, but then a large rotating fan will be needed to generate the lift. I

can justify that Iron Man can stay airborne with a very fast spinning fan fitted to its back. These fans can

generate a high thrust, propelling the suit at a high speed in the air. Because of a high horizontal speed in the

air, we can just about get enough lift for the suit. We will not be using an internal combustion engine to

generate the energy to turn the blades, as they are very heavy. If we allow that the arc reactor is possible, then

we can use the power from there to drive an electric motor.

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SYSTEM

SYSTEM

Jarvis

Jarvis, or short for “Just A Rather Very Intelligent System”, is Tony

Starks’ butler. As Marvel puts it, it is a “multifunctional software

program capable of managing the local environment of Tony

Stark’s mansion interior. It employs a highly advanced user

interface with holographic peripherals and voice input, and

communicates data back to its user via speech audio, holographic

displays and conventional LCD monitors.xxiv

” However to me,

Jarvis is more than just a super computer that does maths, but a

computer that can interact with Tony in a semi human way,

exemplified by the fact that it sometimes mock Tony using

sarcasm.

Moore’s Law

The processing power of computer has grown exponentially over the last few decades, and the trend fits very

nicely with the famous computer science law –Moore’s Law. It predicts that the number of transistors on an

integrated circuit will be doubled every twenty four months. In other words, “the number of electronic

components that engineers could cram into each integrated circuit would rise within ten years from around 50

to 65,000.xxv

”

So when will Moore’s law end? Many people have been trying

to predict the end, and many have been proven wrong over

and over again.xxvi

That’s not because they are ignorant of the

physics behind, but they underestimated the people working

in the computer industry. On the other hand, theoretically the

smallest transistor that can be built has been created using a

single phosphorus atom. This is done by a team of researchers

at the University of New South Wales, Purdue University, the

University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. Klimeck, the director of the Purdue group says that “this

is the physical limit of Moore’s law. We can’t make it smaller than this.”xxvii

Currently, this is only a test for theory experiment and the transistor can only be used under a very low

temperature. However, over and over again brilliant tinkering has found ways to overcome the supposed

physical limitations. As Intel executive Mike Mayberry says, “If you’re only using the same technology, then in

principle you run into limits. The truth is we’ve been modifying the technology every five or seven years for 40

years, and there’s no end in sight for being able to do that.” The end of using phosphorus silicon transistor may

be near, but there are infinite amount of ideas that can be developed.

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Transistor

“If cells are the building blocks of life, transistors are the building blocks of the digital revolution.”xxviii

Transistors have transformed the world, leading it

into the second machine age; transistors are found

in almost every single electronic appliance. An Xbox

One SoC (System on a chip) is 363mm2 in size and

contains about 5 billion transistors.xxix

An SoC is

essentially the brain of the Xbox. If a simple SoC

needs this many transistors, than how many will a

supercomputer need? Over 177 trillion! (data from

the Titan Supercomputer.)

But why are transistors so important? Transistors are

mainly used for two purposes –as amplifiers and as

switches. And there are two types of transistors –

bipolar and field effect transistors. I’m going to focus

on bipolar transistors as switches, because this will

lead me to a more interesting area –Logic Gates.

Bipolar transistors consist of two p-n junctions,

meaning a thin slice of lightly doped p- or n- type

semiconductor is sandwiched between two thicker

heavily doped materials of the opposite type. The

middle layer is the base, whilst the outside ones are

the collector and the emitter.xxx

Essentially, when a

voltage is applied across the base, the transistor is

“switched on”, and so current can flow through the collector and the emitter.

Let’s take a look at an n-p-n transistor. When it is made, the electrons from the n-type semiconductor diffuse

into the p-type semiconductor, forming a depletion layer. Because the p-type semiconductor has all its holes

filled, it will repel any extra electron coming through, acting like a switch in its off state. When a positive

voltage is applied to the base, the electrons are attracted, and they shrink the depletion layer, and so current

will flow through the transistor.xxxi

Logic Gates

As mentioned before, the idea of transistors will lead to the development of logic gates. Logic is important in

information technology because switches in circuits behave in the same way as propositions, and the ways in

which switches can be wired together reflect logical operations.xxxii

In essence, by using transistors as switches,

then arrange them in a specific way, will turn them into a logic gate. And different arrangement will lead to a

different logic gate. These logic gates are governed by Boolean algebraic rules, and when there are a series of

them the logic gates can be used to do many things, like calculations, comparisons etc.

There are seven types of logic gates (technically eight, but I would not include the Buffer Gate, as it is only an

amplifier where the outputs are the same as the inputs), and I will talk through them individually.

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NOT

The NOT Gate (or sometimes known as

an Inverter) inverts the input value.

When there is no voltage supplied from

input, the transistor is switched off, so

current cannot flow to the ground

through the transistor and will flow to the output.

Conversely, when there is a voltage supplied to the base of

the transistor, the transistor is switched on, so current will

flow through the transistor towards ground instead of

flowing to the output, so there will be no output.

AND

The AND Gate only switches on

when both inputs are 1.

When there is a voltage supplied

to both transistors, both

transistors are switched on, and

so current will flow through to

the output. If there is no voltage supplied to either or

both of the transistors, then current cannot flow through the transistors, so the output will be none.

NAND

The NAND gate only switches off

when both inputs are 1.

When there is a voltage supplied

to both transistors, both

transistors are switched on, and

so current will flow through to

ground instead of through the

output. If there is no voltage supplied to either or both of

the transistors, then current cannot flow through the transistors, so the output will be on. Another

arrangement for this is having a NOT gate behing an AND

gate.

OR

The OR gate only switches on

when either or both inputs are 1.

When there is a voltage supplied

to either of the transistors, the

electrons will flow through the

output, causing it to be switched

on. Only when both inputs are 0,

both transistors will be switched off, and so there will be no output.

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NOR

The OR gate only switches off

when either or both inputs are 1.

The circuit for this gate is simple;

have a NOT gate behind the OR

gate, literally expressing the

Boolean algebra.

The NAND and NOR gates are “universal gates”, as all

logic gates can be constructed using either one alone.

XOR

The XOR (exclusive OR) gate only switches on only

when one of the inputs is 1. It switches off when

both are the same.

We can construct this gate literally, where we use

AND, NOT and OR gates.

The gate can also be built using NAND logic, where it only uses NAND gates to build it. The truth table and

Boolean algebra proof (using De Morgan’s Law) is shown below.

~{~[𝐴 ∧ ~(𝐴 ∧ 𝐵) ∧ ~[𝐵 ∧ ~(𝐴 ∧ 𝐵)]}

⟺ ~{~[𝐴 ∧ (~𝐴 ∨ ~𝐵)] ∧ ~[𝐵 ∧ (~𝐴 ∨ ~𝐵)]}

⟺ ~{~[(𝐴 ∧ ~𝐴) ∨ (𝐴 ∧ ~𝐵)] ∧ ~[(𝐵 ∧ ~𝐴) ∨ (𝐵 ∧ ~𝐵)]}

⟺ ~{~[0 ∨ (𝐴 ∧ ~𝐵)] ∧ ~[(𝐵 ∧ ~𝐴) ∨ 0]}

⟺ ~[~(𝐴 ∧ ~𝐵) ∧ ~(𝐵 ∧ ~𝐴)]

⟺ ~[(~𝐴 ∨ 𝐵) ∧ (~𝐵 ∨ 𝐴)]

⟺ ~(~𝐴 ∨ 𝐵) ∨ ~(~𝐵 ∨ 𝐴)

⟺ (𝐴 ∧ ~𝐵) ∨ (𝐵 ∧ ~𝐴)

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XNOR

The XNOR (exclusive NOR) gate only switches on only

when both inputs are the same.

The simplest circuit arrangement is to put a NOT

after the XOR gate.

Half Adder

The half adder is a combination of logic gates, which leads to the

sum of two 1 bit numbers. Half adders are what made up of the

basic summation Integrated circuit. A half adder is made of an XOR

and an AND gate. The output of an AND gate is called the Carry,

whilst for XOR gate is the Sum. The Carry is the 2nd

digit and Sum is

the 1st

digit.

Reality

If we use TTL to make a 1 bit adder, there will be 34 transistors. There are 8 transistors in a NAND gate, each

XOR gate has 4 NAND gate, in addition to the 2 transistors in the AND gate. A normal human brain has about

86 billion neuronsxxxiii

, each connected to up to 10,000 other neurons via about 1000 trillion synapses. Why am

I telling you this? Because as a very very very… crude calculation, we can assume that each neuron and

synapses are replaced by a half adder. This is almost a wrong representation of what actually goes on in our

brain, as neurons and synapses are not really used for adding up numbers. However, this gives a very rough

idea of how big a super computer needs to be if it were to be as intelligent as humans. I have tried to calculate

how many SOC will be needed for this approximation

86 × 1010 + 1000 × 1014 = 1017

1017 ÷ 5 × 1010 = 2 × 1016

2 × 1016 × 363 × 10−6 = 726𝑚2

With this calculation, we will need 726 m2 of land to make a giant SOC that can be like the brain, a sheet of

SOC that can cover half of an Olympic-size swimming pool. Of course the sheet can be folded and compacted,

which means there is a possibility that Jarvis may not even be that big.

However, it should be remembered that with a machine that big, a huge amount of heat is generated (laws of

thermodynamics –even Tony Stark cannot make something that is 100% efficient). So a large cooling system is

essential for this to function properly. And cooling systems are giant pieces of machinery, as we are not talking

about the tiny little fans fitted at the back of your computer which makes strange noises. The cooling system

required for this will be massive, like the one mentioned in the Arc Reactor section in ITER.

Just like humans, computers can’t just blab out answers. Many steps and calculations are required before

reaching a certain solution, which is why the Random Access Memory and memory are there. My guess is

again, they will have to be enormous. In addition, not only its RAM has to be big, but also its external memory.

Just like an academic’s brain –it has to have all sorts of stuff, equations and facts remembered in his head,

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ready to be used in anytime. Jarvis must have all sorts of data stored with him, from how fast should a missile

to be shot to successfully kill the enemy, to what colour does Tony like Quite frankly, there is no way the

storage memory of Jarvis will be small enough to be fitted in one’s bedroom.

So at the moment we cannot build Jarvis. We have not got the intelligence to programme something as

humane as Jarvis and we have not got transistors that are small enough to be fitted in our house. But can we

possibly build super computer with the computing power of Jarvis? I think we can. I believe the mechanism to

build a supercomputer like Jarvis is there, exemplified by the fact that IBM has already successfully built

Watson the supercomputer, which is currently the world champion of Jeopardy, a game that is quite humane.

No one can rightly predict where the future is going, but we can tell by trends. With the help of Moore’s Law

and many bright programmers’ brain power, I am confident that we too, in our lifetime will be able to be like

Tony Stark, have a super intelligent butler just like Jarvis… But maybe not used to design weapons, perhaps.

MORAVEC’S PARADOX

Background

An average chess game app in your smart phone can easily beat a world class chess master. But I can bet you a

nickel that an average eight years old boy can play better football than the best football playing robot in the

world. Why does this phenomenon happen? This is all due to Moravec’s paradox.

“The main lesson of thirty-five years of AI research is that hard problems are easy and the easy problems are

hard”xxxiv

–Steven Pinker wrote in his book The Language Instinct. And this is the basic principle of the

Moravec’s paradox. Skills which human children take for granted such as face recognition or climbing up the

stairs are extremely difficult tasks for computers.

Development

Computers are getting better and better. I can name three very obvious examples.

In 2011, IBM designed the super computer, Watson to do nothing, but play Jeopardy! Jeopardy is quite a

humane game, as it involves not only a vast knowledge of all sorts of random stuff, but the ability to see

through the wording of the riddle. Watson won against the world champion Ken Jennings with ease. What

does this mean? Well, we already know that it’s quite straight forward for an algorithm to beat a human at

chess, as it is a game involving complex probabilities. What we know as strategies and moves are based on

probabilities calculations –we hope or guess that our opponent will move his pawn there, so that we can

capture his knight etc. Now computers can decipher humane codes and riddles, and using its huge database, it

can give out a very good answer. This is not only useful in Jeopardy, but in other situations, like a doctor

diagnosing cases. In terms of gaming, in the near future, we might even be able to play against bots with

emotions, making them more unpredictable and more challenging for the gamers.xxxv

The second one is the development of the Google car, the Google driverless car. Using a bunch of sensors and

an on board computer, it is able to compute and drive safely. Nowadays driving is one of the essential skills of

a human being in the modernised world, and is quite a hard skill to master (well… this differs across people).

Now a robot can drive our car like a real person without his human error, exemplifying that computers are

getting better, getting more human.

The last one is the recent development of robotic arm, not arms used in factories, but arms that are connected

to paralysis patients or amputees. In December 2012, Jan Scheuermann paralyzed neck down was able to feed

herself chocolate, using a robotic arm. All the movement is controlled by her thought, which is picked up by

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sensors implanted into her brain.xxxvi

By then this technology was the first of its kind, but was far too bulky and

large for it to be practical outside of the hospital. What about now? Two years later, scientists have

successfully implanted an arm onto an amputee, a fully functional arm that can be controlled using the mind.

The patient can now use it just like he had before.

DISCUSSION

What has all of this got to do with the Iron Man? Everything. Almost every single electrical appliance we use

today has a transistor or an integrated circuit in some form. That includes exoskeletons, a suit that enhances

human power, like the Iron Man suit. Current exoskeletons in reality consist of many sensors in order for the

user to move each joint smoothly. A machine like the Iron Man suit must consist of million sensors, all ranging

from the altitude to Tony’s heart rate. All of this information cannot be stored instantaneously, the suit will not

have a big enough memory and a fast enough CPU to process all the data. This is where Jarvis comes in. I think

all the information from all these sensors must have been transmitted back to Tony’s factory, where the heart

of Jarvis lies. There calculations are done rapidly and fed back to the suit using some secure communication

technology. This is the easy part of the super computer –doing maths. What about interacting with Tony?

Using sarcastic tones and humourous lines?

Looking into Moravec’s paradox and Moore’s law is quite interesting because it makes you wonder where the

computing industry is going to take us in the future. I would like to believe that it is very possible to build a

humane computer like Jarvis in the near future. In fact Moravec predicted in 1999 that computers will reach

the same computing power as a human in 2020.

I think the important message to take away from this chapter is not whether we can build a super computer

with the same computing power as Jarvis. The answer is always yes. Moore’s law may come to an end in the

near future, but we will find another way around it, such as quantum entanglement and Qubits etc. That is not

the question. The question to ask is what can we do with such a great computer? Can we make a humanoid?

Can we make it have emotions? Jarvis calculates at an amazing speed, and so does Watson. But Jarvis interacts

with Tony. Can we also upgrade Watson to this level? This is a question I do not have an answer for.

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CONCLUSION

Well… I think it has been a bit of a let down. In the aspects which I have looked at, it is simply not possible to

have an Iron Man suit made in reality. The suit isn’t just an exoskeleton that has weapons on it. This has been

done in real life. To me Iron Man is composed of these three things: a flying exoskeleton powered by an

extremely powerful fusion reactor guided by an emotional super computer. Now fusion reactor on Tony’s

chest is definitely out of the question. It simply cannot be done. Vertical rocket motion is again quite

impossible due to the lack of fuel supply. However, we should be able to achieve staying afloat in the air by

having very powerful fans, with energy supplied by the arc reactor. Finally, an emotional super computer. We

have not quite achieved that yet, but I think we are on the edge of this technology, and sooner or later it

should happen. With a genius brain, I am certain that Tony is able to construct such machine.

I have discussed this issue with some other people, and many have agreed with me. However, one of my friend

said this “200 years ago, they would not have dreamed to be landing on the Moon. It is only impossible for the

technology we know today”. This is very true. With the laws of physics known till today, this is indeed

impossible. However, as Intel executive Mike Mayberry says, “If you’re only using the same technology, then in

principle you run into limits.” I think this is a very important message for you to take away.

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