Is Sheldon right that Superman would have killed Lois when he caught her? [closed]

Question

Quoted from The Big Bang Theory:

Penny: Yeah, I do like the one where Lois Lane falls from the helicopter and Superman swooshes down and catches her, which one was that?

Leonard, Sheldon and Howard together: One. (Raj raises one finger).

Sheldon: You realise that scene was rife with scientific inaccuracy.

Penny: Yes, I know, men can’t fly.

Sheldon: Oh no, let’s assume that they can. Lois Lane is falling, accelerating at an initial rate of 32 feet per second per second. Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel. Miss Lane, who is now travelling at approximately 120 miles per hour, hits them, and is immediately sliced into three equal pieces.

Leonard: Unless, Superman matches her speed and decelerates.

Sheldon: In what space, sir, in what space? She’s two feet above the ground. Frankly, if he really loved her, he’d let her hit the pavement. It would be a more merciful death.

Is Sheldon's argument correct?

Answer 1

Sheldon's wrong and Leonard is right (Superman matches her speed).

Lois was not two feet above the ground. Superman catches her about half way (approximately) down the building and he slows to a stop then proceeds. So he was matching her speed and slowing so she didn't get hurt.

He does the same thing when the helicopter falls: he catches it and slows to a stop and then places her and the helicopter on the roof.

For additional info see this question on how Superman fails to cause injury.

Answer 2

Most likely, yes.

For someone to slow without injury from a fall of that height would require more space than was available to Superman/Lois between where he caught her and the ground.

It would have been like when Spider-man caught Gwen Stacey when she was thrown off of the bridge - the fall doesn't kill you, it's the sudden stop. It doesn't matter if that stop is derived from Superman's arms, Spidey's webs, or a facefull of concrete or river - stopping that fast will likely be fatal.

That said, we don't see Superman kill her. She's fine. She survived the fall without injury.

The only explanation that makes any sort of sense is that Superman has a malleable field of force around him into which he dumped the kinetic energy Lois was carrying. This field of energy isn't a new theory - it was the official rationale behind most of Superman's physical powers for a while in the 90s, and it was used to explain how he could lift things like battleships (which would be crushed under the own weight if supported by a human-sized object outside of water).

Flash has a similar energy field around him, which is what lets him avoid friction and not cause sonic booms everywhere he goes. It's a common thing in DC comics, and the only explanation which permits a living Lois at the end of that scene in Superman 1.

Answer 3

This idea is so common it has a page on tvtropes. But in that same film is a scene of the two of them flying together that clearly establishes the rule (for some reason I can't find a YouTube clip that shows it). He's not carrying her, they're flying together; as long as they're touching, even just their fingertips, she's as immune to gravity as he is, and whatever acceleration he imposes doesn't strain her at all.

That's how he can catch her without so much as a bruise, and catch a helicopter in a way that "should" tear it to pieces. Presumably he could have done the same thing two feet above the pavement, but that would have looked so weird it would have jarred the viewers right out of the scene.

Answer 4

The way that Superman flies is that he decreases his mass by using an organ people from Krypton have developed to conteract the enormous force of Krypton gravity so for Superman to fly up he has to lower his mass to less than air making the force of Superman hitting Lois is much less than Lois hitting the pavement, it is more like Lois landing on a giant soft pillow, therefore he decelerates her enough for her to survive.