Thread by @BlakeOf616

The science of the F4 explained by a physics major

I just wanted to say how awesome it is that the 4 all have abilities based around innate properties of physics. Force (Ben), Motion (Reed), Thermodynamics (Johnny), and Electromagnetism (Sue).

To start this very long thread I guess there is no better place to start than the beginning. Cosmic radiation. How they all get their powers. I'll explain this and then break down each character. In the order of Ben, Johnny, Sue, and Reed.

What is cosmic radiation? Well it's not fictional it's completely real. Cosmic radiation is referring to high energy particles that come from inside and outside our solar system. These particles are traveling at near the speed of light.

It can be created by many things. Our sun produces it and so does high energy phenomena in the universe like supernovas and black holes. These particles are a real issue in high doses for astronautics/aerospace and can cause death as they are more intense in space.

I say in high doses because in low doses it is not as harmful and can be beneficial as it is used for things like cancer treatment. The Fantastic Four got blasted with these in space so let's break them down now.

The science of Ben Grimm

Ben was exposed to deadly amounts of cosmic radiation that altered all of his physiology. Including his muscle density and organs. His "crystalline skin" as they call it is a mix of both organic and inorganic material.

So his rocks are alive? Weird. Anyways Ben has gone through many mutations in the comics. His appearance has altered to more rock like before. He has been able to revert temporarily at points.

Ben is the physically strongest of the 4 and stupidly strong. But how strong? To use as an example I'll use him lifting 150 tons effortlessly. This would translate to roughly 1470997.5 newtons.

If we assume that his strength in lifting is equal to force exerted from punching. That effortless feat is crazy. 800-1200 newtons is the average force exerted by a person punching with no training. Heavyweight boxers can get up to 5000 which is the force of sledgehammers.

Ben is already in his human condition a heavy weight boxer fit to be champion. And I'm pretty sure he caught this from falling which would make him way stronger but let's low ball it.

Now let's assume his big ass hands are around 20 square inches for the impact spot. Just exerting 1 million newtons he would be exerting around 50k newtons of pressure per square inch. This is low balling his strength.

Ben holds an advanced mechanical engineering degree and is incredibly intelligent. Working and helping make a lot of the F4 technology. He was instrumental in the creation of the fantasticar.

He is no slouch when it comes to speed as many think he is. His expertise in hand to hand makes him incredibly fast when it comes to fighting and dodging. Ben is a gifted boxer and judo expert.

For traveling speed he is also incredible being able to dodge objects at the speed of sound, skrull missiles, catch silver surfer on his board, and jump in front of Reed before a bullet hits him. Which means Ben is hypersonic at least when he needs to be.

This is Namor not even flinching to Carol fully punching him underwater

This is how Ben left Namor in his own kingdom

His most impressive ability being his durability mixed with willpower. Ben while he is incredibly strong is most notable for never giving up. He can take blow's repeatedly from characters like gladiator who has insane feats.

The rocks have given him much more heightened awareness at the cost of his sense of touch. Covered in nerve endings throughout it. Much he can only feel is pain now.

Interestingly enough though those nerve endings do mean he feels more pain as well. Although he's not physically harmed. It probably pisses him off and makes him stronger like Wolvie.

His crystalline skin is said to be harder than diamonds. To crush a diamond you need around 6000 tonnes. Equivalent to 100 trucks. When broken these rocks will regenerate. Possibly meaning Ben has an enhanced healing factor.

The science of Johnny Storm

Johnny Storm. He has the ability after being hit with cosmic radiation to manipulate the existing cosmic energy around him to create plasma fire. These flames he can control to molecular levels.

You always hear that he can go supernova. This makes Johnny look like a whimp compared to how he actually is. Supernovas can reach 1,000,000,000°C. Johnny can reach Planck level heat which would destroy the multiverse.

His flames are also not normal flames as it is plasma flames. Which are much hotter than normal fire and the flames that stars give off.

His ability to fly is based on the concept of thermodynamics which is the study of heat and its transfer. Johnny can use his control over heat to create hot air currents that allow him to rise and control his direction and speed while in the air.

Johnny can absorb heat. His DNA was altered genetically which specialized his cells (all 4 have this). His cells have the ability to conduct thermal energy replenishing his power and making him stronger.

He can absorb various types of energy that produce any type of heat like electricity and absorb it turning it into power for himself like a generator.

The more energy there is the more Johnny is going to be able to have higher durability and strength. He's not only a manipulator of thermal energy he's a thermal energy battery.

He has the ability of thermography. Technique that is used to track various temperatures. Police helicopters use these to find people from above same as military for drones.

The cells in his eyes give him the ability to seek heat signatures and thermal energy. Which he can use to track people through objects. Essentially you cannot hide from him.

He is also incredibly natural gifted at mechanical engineering without ever have going to school for it. Every member of the 4 is by definition a genius.

The science of Sue Storm

Sue Storm the strongest overall of the 4. Sue has specialized cells affected by the cosmic radiation giving her abilities harnessing the electromagnetic spectrum with nearly zero limits.

She can bend photons in order to become invisible to the eye. She can bend these photos anywhere and make any individual, group of people, or objects invisible.

Her force fields are the harder part it's referred to as a "psionic force" which doesn't tell us much. It could be gravitons pushed together very tightly making some sort of anti-gravity field.

It could also be a really strong magnetic repulsion. Either way she can shape it to her liking and create it wherever. Including peoples body like their heart or brain to crush them.

She can use them defensively or offensively.
With massive destructive potential. These force fields are invisible as well. I would calculate this but I really don't know how to calc blasting through a celestial lmfao sorry.

Gravitons (haven't been proven irl) are used a lot for in canon explanations in comics like Kryptonians. I think Sue though is using electromagnetic repulsion not only is it cooler but can be explained. There are some other reasons why as well.

You might remember that Spider-Man uses electrostatic dipoles to attract. We are going in the opposite direction here Sue can use this in a much stronger way with repulsive force.

Coulomb's Law is a fundamental principle in electrostatics that describes the interaction between electric charges. The law in simple terms states that the proportional distance between charged particles strengthens or weakens the repulsive or attractive force.

Sue with her complete control over the electrostatics on the molecular level. She would be taking electrostatic forces and creating a repulsive force between particles stronger than replicated with technology.

The reason I believe it is this over gravitons is because she can use her forcefields to block telepathy in her brain. This has to be done with a repulsion of the psionic energy with her own electromagnetic repulsion gravity couldn't do this.

The science of Reed Richards

Reed and his elastic powers revolve around being able to convert his mass into a malleable state. This doesn't seem to just be one state of change but instead many he can choose from.

What I mean by this is he can be elastic or he can make his body more like steel. We see him do this when he makes weapons like hammers out of his body.

I talked about in my Spider-Man thread how proteins in spider silk works. They are purely constructed out of proteins. Allowing them to be malleable.

I think Reed has the ability to manipulate the proteins in his body to make himself more elastic. Allowing his cells to glide over each other and stretch like a web.

This also would explain his ability to increase his muscle mass. He can manipulate the proteins in his body to enhance his strength.

He can control his entire body at nearly the cellular level granting him access to whatever density, shape, texture, to almost any physical property of his body.

He's able to pull off some really impressive feats like containing large explosions and restraining big hitters like The Thing. Being able to restrain and hold millions of newtons of force.

Besides being practically invincible and super strong. He's incredibly fast as well being able to punch and react to Sue who was empowered with the soul stone.

But we all know his real ability comes from being the smartest person alive in the marvel universe. The way he is able to use these skills to aid him makes him much more formidable.

While Sue was blasting through celestial with her powers Reed just decided to make a gun that would kill a celestial. Given prep time he can achieve anything and with those abilities he is near unstoppable.

The Maker is this concept embodied of Reed losing all his limits

That's going to be it for the thread let me know who you would like me to cover next

This one was so much work but they are my favorite superhero group so it was pretty fun