How fast does the Hulk travel when leaping?

This came up in a recent campaign adventure.

How fast does the Hulk travel when he leaps? I mean, we all know the Hulk can cover several miles with a single leap, but the question is, how fast does he travel while doing it? The player, of course, claimed the Hulk can cover the distance in a single turn. A turn is about 6 seconds. If the Hulk can leap 3 miles in 6 seconds, that would mean he is traveling 10,800 miles per hour (there are 3,600 seconds in an hour). That's Mach 14. Uh, I don't think so. Has anyone looked into this? What is a fair assessment of the Hulk's speed when he leaps?

At the spur of the moment, I ruled that when the Hulk leaps, he can cover as many feet per turn as his current strength rank (this is based on the general rule for leaping, which says a character can cover as many feet as his current strength rank). But I promised the player I would look into this further. Any thoughts?

The comics have said for years he can clear 3 miles in one jump. However, they've never said how long the jump last, how long his 'air-time' is. He could well be up in the air for much more than six seconds.

According to the Hulk's write up at Marvel.com he has ALMOST jumped into orbit, which could very well place his leapig speed somewhere around that Mach number you came up with Epyon.

Of course, I don't buy that. And I think we have seen occasions when fighter planes (Shift Y speeds?) have easily overtaken the Hulk in mid-leap.

I think that your Strength system is probably he best way to guesstimate the matter. It allows the Hulk to leap far faster than any non-super human being could ever imagine running... and in a straight line unimpeded by terrain at that.

I would agree with Powersurge's assessment on this. To be honest, my favorite super-strength character has always been the Thing. Good ol' Benjay Grimm.

There is an easy formila for this. V2=2GH acceleration. Wind is tough to figure out but can be estimated. If the Hulk is as strong as we know him to be he could easily break the speed of sound.

Good question. Several hundred miles per hour would be my guess.

Of course the rate of speed would change greatly though out the leap. His speed as he left the ground would be really fast. His speed at zenith of leap and down would be much slower.

I think that it would be fair to say that his leaping speed really shouldn't surpass his running speed ... and especially not the average velocity of the leap.

Then again, comicbooks and physics don't mix well.

Powersurge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think that it would be fair to say that his
> leaping speed really shouldn't surpass his running
> speed ... and especially not the average velocity
> of the leap.
>
> Then again, comicbooks and physics don't mix well.


Well actally this would not really be the case. Physics would state that he would run slower. Much more restance on the ground. Each step he took would act as resistance to his momentium.

Physics and comic books are surpiseingly correct a lot of the time. I have mentioned it before but I encourage everyone to read the book "The physics of Superhereos"

Actually the first chapter of the books discusses this very issue in the instance of superman leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

If you went by some rule I saw in some article or some book (sorry to be so overly specific) then leaping speed over the long-haul is leaping ability -3 column shifts.

If this Mr. Hulk you speak of has Class 1000 leaping ability, and if you used this rule, he would have Shift X leaping speed. That's about Mach One, the speed of sound. I don't remember ever seeing any BOOMS as he passes over head. But that doesn't really mean anything. If he had Amazing leaping ability, he would travel, over a distance, 150 MPH, which is cool, since his take off speed and his coming in for a landing speed would be fairly close. While his velocity would fluctuate, when I say over the long haul, I mean in one hour, he could go a certain distance, like 150 miles.

Feel free to ignore this second part, because this is just whacky thinking: It wouldn't be totally unreasonable to assume The Hulk can launch himself (which is kind of what he's doing) like a bullet. After all, if, for arguments sake, he can leg press, or snap kick, 50 tons, he has to launch only 1 or 2 percent of that.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2006 08:25PM by Mark.

Thats not too bad I would go with that

Not quite. I actually sat and figured it once when I played Doc Samson. You must consider that after his initial takeoff the hulk is not accelerating ... all the speed is in the initial push off. Not including wind resistance, he is leaping high enough to travel 3 miles while overcoming gravity. It's like a mortar shell with a range of 3 miles, initial velocity is over 1000 feet per second.

The Hulk has what Class 5000 Leaping, which is about what 45 areas per turn? Been a while since i looked it up. Just give him an airspeed equal to the whatever rank flying enables you to cover that many areas in a turn. Nice and simple :D



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2008 10:07AM by Nine steps as a giant.

HULK’s movie web site stated Hulk can Run and achieve about 400 MPH for ground mobility… Pretty much able to out run a Top-Fuel Dragster….

I guess he can Jump and reach a max speed of 500 or 600 MPH……

Either way…. The big green Fugger is FAST..



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