FanPost

The Science of Wrestling: The (Molecular) Chains are Off




(Reference here for the original discussion; what would happen if someone was powerbombed so hard out of the Royal Rumble that their molecular bonds broke on impact? Are they still in the match since their feet, technically, did not touch the floor? Why does this matter? It doesn't, but in the spirit of scientific inquiry and more than a little satire, I'm tackling this.)

The Question:

If Curtis Axel was powerbombed to the floor during the Royal Rumble match with such force that his molecular bonds all simultaneously broke on impact, would he still be in the match since his feet did not touch the floor?

Short Answer:

No. There is no longer a Curtis Axel to compete.

Longer Answer:

The longer answer is this - there is no longer a Curtis Axel to compete. That is irrelevant as there may well no longer be a ring or surrounding area to compete in. In my initial answer, I said it was due to the exothermic release of energy from the molecular bonds being broken. However, I was wrong. In general, breaking molecular bonds is an endothermic reaction.

However, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to break those bonds. A really tremendous amount. As the human body is approximately 70% water, we'll use that as our reference point. It takes roughly 118kCal to break H2O molecules into H2 and O2 molecules.

Axel weighs in at 103kg. Approximately 72.1kg of that are water, which at an ideal temperature and pressure equal to 72.1L of water. To break all of Axel's water into hydrogen and oxygen, we would thus have to introduce roughly 8507.8kCal of energy to his system very, very suddenly. As we're not in a vacuum, the act of powerbombing him to create an impact that would introduce a minimum of 8507.8kCal uniformly distributed through his body would create a hellish amount of friction. For the sake of argument, we are putting a heat-resistant turtle shell on Axel's back that will shatter on impact while transmitting the energy perfectly so he doesn't burn up prior to landing.

Please, pause and envision TurtleAxel.

On impact, we release oxygen and hydrogen into the atmosphere as Axel's water is broken. Each gram of water contains by mass one part hydrogen to eight parts oxygen. So, to find the oxygen content of Axel's water:

72,100g * 8/9 = 64,088.88...g, or roughly 64.1kg of oxygen.

That also gives us 8kg of hydrogen.

The autoignition temperature of hydrogen is 536*C, and for oxygen approximately 570*C.

Not that that matters at all, because we broke the bonds via impact pressure, using a ridiculous method of powerbomb and introduced 8507.8kCal of energy to the system, or 35,593,000 joules, which is equivalent to roughly 8365 tons of explosives.

Needless to say, there is no winner in the Royal Rumble. Or the building. Or a considerable radius around it.

Technically, though, Axel's feet never touched the floor, or where the floor was previously. So he remains in the Rumble, posthumously.

(Note: I'm an artist, not a scientist. Do not take anything here as being actually valid.)

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