Grrl Power #353 – The handyman’s secret weapon
I’m not sure I’d encourage the duct tape solution if I was Max, but then we didn’t see what happened between this page and the last. It is entirely possible Sydney dropped the ball (so to speak) 5 or 6 more times in the interstitial and arrived at this solution to expedite the actual flying test.
Oh, the last time a made a Street Fighter reference in the comic, quite a few people didn’t get it, so the short version is, there’s a guy named Guile in the game, on of his attacks is the Sonic Boom.
This page colored by Keith.
Whoops, the orbs weren’t arranged correctly originally, and Sydney wasn’t holding the force field orb. She is now. The flight orb gives her a deflector field that helps up to a certain speed, but she needs the force field orb to get over 150-200 mph.
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Hope they aren’t still over the city. Archon might get in trouble for all the windows the ladies may be shattering.
Sonic booms don’t break glass, MythBusters tested, flying waaaaay lower than they are right now.
Oh god, I did it didn’t i?
I became THAT guy!
I am sooo sorry!
It’s okay…if you hadn’t, I would have. I’m always using Mythbusters to disprove stuff like this.
No worries. I’ve cited them here myself. Sonic booms did cause damage though that would annoy the citizenry. They also did shatter windows inasmuch as the window popped out of it’s frame, dropped to the ground and shattered, if I’m remembering correctly.
Yeah, but that was at the lowest possible altitude allowed by aviation law iirc. They practically broke off the satellite dish on the roof with their fuselage. (Im exaggerating for effect, hush.)
A few points on that.
1) The jets on Mythbusters went as low as U.S. law allows and still break the sound barrier, and that was over a military testing range.
2) I have seen footage of a jet about 100 feet off the ground break the sound barrier, and the pressure wave popped most of the windows in a building near the plane. Some people were not pleased. This was a lot lower than allowed in the U.S.A.
I was about to mention that. Mythbusters only busted the myth that ‘any’ sonic boom would shatter ‘any’ type of glass.
Then again, the girls are probably going as high as the super can safely be, which hopefully is high enough to prevent the pressure field from doing any real damage.
Depending on their need for oxygen, that will probably be somewhere under 10 000 feet, probably closer to 3000 to 6000 so it is still warm enough. Well, Max probably doesn’t worry about hypothermia, but Sydney sure would.
Sydney’s shield kept a group of peple safe from Max’ more-or-less-nuclear heatwave. I wouldn’t worry about hypothermia. Rather that she would run out of oxygen.
So they busted a non-myth. *sigh*…
Sometimes their “myth”-busting annoys the heck out of me. Even though the result is correct (as everybody knew before) they are sometimes so much off that one must say that they did not bust the myth in question at all.
So you’re busting a myth about mythbusters? =OP_
They don’t now, but it was something that could be problematic many years before Mythbusters did that episode. Over time, the both the glass and the installation thereof became subject to different standards and construction codes, and so re now immune to da boomz.
Not that it was not more or less immune before.
The dB level is comparable to a large subwoofer if the airplane is a fighter at 3000 feet (1-3 pound/square foot, in your funny measurments).
I doubt all that many windows are pushed out by that, a strong wind will produce substantially more (granted, in one direction and not back and forth in 1:10th of a second).
That’s just it – all the elements must be included in the equation. The back-and-forth is part of that., and again – back when sonic booms were a new thing, the regs limiting the flights that produced them weren’t what they are now. Also, I don’t know what measurements you’re talking about – pounds and square feet are dumb units Yankees use, not sensible Canadian metric ones.
I doubt all that many windows are pushed out by that
Doesn’t have to be a lot of incidents – just enough to garner enough sensationalization from the media to make the idea persistent past its day.
So just FYI, during an airshow in Tucson, AZ several years back, a pilot got a little too throttle happy and broke the sound barrier, causing damage to windows over a large part of downtown.
https://www.azfamily.com/story/28347451/sonic-boom-from-air-show-jets-rattles-tucson-area
Mythbusters has a bad habit of assuming “because we couldn’t do it, nobody can do it.” Doesn’t always follow; their reproduction of the event is always an approximation of the rumor. They’re fun anecdotal evidence, but they aren’t exactly exhaustive proof.
Oh so much of that, indeed! And they’re usually don’t try again when they “bust” some myth because their setup failed in an unexpected way.
Well, it’s fun on an entertainment budget so you get what people are willing to watch them pay for.
You mean like a rocket car that detonated on ignition instead of flying across the desert? I seem to recall they did try that one again; third time’s the charm. Still busted the myth though; that tumble was spectacular!
Boat into the channel marker was retested, the boat busted the channel marker instead. You have got to love the revisit shows.
to be fair, I think when the car blew up, they had run out of time in the episode. Bear in mind that a) Mythbusters is more about entertainment than tetsing the myth completely- the definitions of the categories are:
1.Confirmed- the circumstances of the myth, as described in the show, can occur, or the myth is a reasonable exaggeration of what will actually ahppen. ( to give a (fictitiuos) example, if there was a myth that said a gun was powerful enough to blow your arm off, but it actually just caused sufficient damage to require amputation, they’d probaby call it confirmed, since it’s close enough and the end result ( if you are hit, you lose an arm) is much the same)
2. Plausible: Myth is true in broad strokes, but would require certain circumstances that are reasonably foreseeable to occur. That, or the myth is exaggerated, but not to the point that it becomes unrelaistic
3. Busted- the myth is either impossible, or requires circumstances that are more-or-less perfect. ( that, and in a couple of myths involving the law, I suspect they may well have ensured the myth will be busted ( I suspect, for example, that they exaggerated how effective breathalyzers are, and may have exaggerated the effect of drinking while driving. That, and it’s fairly convenient that anything that could beat a speed camera is always busted. Oh, I doubt they are lying- but I’ve a feeling they arranged the tests to give the biggest chance of busting the myth- and, under the circumstances, I can’t blame them)
Sure, the Mythbusters have openly admitted SEVERAL TIMES that many of their tests are not exhaustive.
It’s one hour per episode. They could theoretically do an entire season of episodes trying to prove / disprove one specific myth, but who the heck would watch it? No one.
Robert Lee (Narrator, not U.S. Civil War General): This week on Mythbusters: The guys have a couple more ideas to try in testing this season’s myth. I wonder if this one will end with explosions.
I used to live in an area where they trained military pilots. The windows do rattle if they are going fast enough past your house. The jets used to fly around the hill next to us.
Some friends of mine grew up on a lonely farmhouse out on the moors in cornwall, fifteen, twenty years ago. Back then the RAF base nearby use the house to practice lining up bombing runs. The middle child was quite arty (still is) and built a lifesize model of an anti-aircraft gun and set it in the garden, with a big sign saying ‘our turn now!’*
* On hindsight, I’m not sure the sign was actually big enough for them to read from the plane, but I’m sure they appreciated it anyway :p
Also, the body positions Max and Sydney have taken largely minimize their frontal surface area, meaning that the amount of energy they have to push into the air to go supersonic is drastically less than even a small fighter plane, though possibly not as low as surface-to-air(craft) missiles.
The energy to create disturbances or damage with sonic effects has to come initially from the objects in motion, and the air is the energy transport medium.
Interestingly, the flight ball has some degree of protection included, since Sydney’s hair and clothing aren’t either streaming behind her or plastered against her body by the force of her passing through the air. This can be seen by the fact that other than the flight ball, all six of the others can be made out orbiting Halo’s head in the last panel.
If you look closerer, you will see that the Florb is providing it’s own wind-shield
Syd’s has to also use the Shield ball when flying at more than maybe 100MPH
Her left hand isn’t very clearly visible, but of the 7 orbs, there are 6 orbiting her head and one in her hand. She’s not using the shield orb now.
Color me surprised… I took it for granted that she would.
Er, strike that: God(= the Author) forgot, as he said below. :p
Energy looses power equal to the square of the distance. All they have to do is fly high enough.
Also notice that Max is the instructor. Don’t you think she knows the save height to break the sound barrier? Considering that hers is “higher then mach 1”?
I wonder how happy the instructor will be if it turns out that Sydney can go much faster than she can and/or maneuver better . . .
Look at the cast page. Maxima has 5 stars in flight power, Hiro (subsonic) has 3 and Sydney has four. I guess that would perhaps mean Mach 2 for Halo and 1.5 times the Earth’s escape velocity for Max.
That could be because Sidney has drawbacks that Maxima doesn’t. She has to shield while flying, which blocks other powers and means her distance is limited by her air supply.
it depends on where, and how fast she is flying, actually. the Florb DOES provide some protection for the user- mainly against the effect of the wind- but at higher speeds, or a situation where oxygen is an issue, she needs the shield. ( I remember the author mentioning it somewhere)
Sydney is unlikely to have better maneuverability. I don’t think her shield gives her any protection against g-forces. Maxima on the other hand has the durability for it.
The human body is so small that the sonic boom produced is almost entirely negligible. The sonic booms depicted so far are, in fact, TOO strong.
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze_uxxFJTvE
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-016-DFRC.html
Maybe I’ll do the math proper later.
If they were already at 100 mph, they’d have been well outside of the city by the time that portion of the conversation/speed test even started. And Max already had their test flight plan laid out, so betting their are somewhere over the ocean and/or far enough up that a sonic boom wont affect anything on the ground level.
Yeah, this sounds about right to me…
I was thinking that the ladies are out over the Gulf of Mexico or something like that. It’s pretty close to Texas.
I think the other thing besides what everyone else is mentioning here is that one of the reasons sonic booms are so loud is that it builds up the pressure wave in front of the object before it crosses the threshold. The more noise the craft makes, the greater the pressure build up, the louder the boom. The size of the object also plays part because the bigger the object, the bigger the pressure wave. A bullet fired from a suppressed weapon makes a crack that is still a sonic boom, (and that is why suppressed weapons usually fire subsonic ammo) and the tip of a bullwhip makes a crack as it breaks the sound barrier. Jets that break the sound barrier usually have their engines cranked to max and then kick in the afterburners to actually break the sound barrier. Needless to say this is pretty loud and builds up a huge pressure wave. Sydney and Max don’t need afterburners (or engines for that matter) to break the sound barrier, so the resulting crack would be caused by them actually breaking the sound barrier. Still loud, but nowhere near as loud as a jet or rocket.
so fast with only a start of the second marker…hmm full on speed must be scary especially in her hand…way more than the PP orb to my point of view at this point
Actually looks like the start of the fourth. The second is covering the outline of the orb, and we can see back of the first. They blend in with the sky.
Using averages for environmental factors, the speed of sound is about 340 m/s, which measures out nicely with the 3.4 (3 & 2/5ths) circles filled. I’m going to guess that Sydney’s theoretical top speed is 500 m/s based on the number of total circle pieces. So top speed of just over 1118 mph. Dayum.
As I see it there are 3 connected cricles.
The first (right of speed o meter) is just full.
The second is the speed o meter.
The third (below speed o meter) looks like another speed o meter.
I think it was just establish that one segment = 1 times speed of sound. Except for the first one, wich appears to be blank/flight is online indicator.
So she can fly either mach 4 or mach 9. Or possibly even more.
There are actually four connected circles: in panel four the first circle is starting to fill up (indicated by the ‘ZMM’), in panel six the first circle is full and second circle is starting to fill, and then in panel nine we see the third circle starting to fill
The short way to describe all of this is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qk-i2E1IjY
‘Nuff said.
DaveB said HERE that it’s a string of 5 with the 5 greyed out.
*5th greyed out.
Interesting. And if you look at her skill point chart, there is a string of 4 glowy things, with an open socket for a 5th glowy thing, perhaps this is what’s needed to de-grey the 5th circle..
And when they are all unlocked, it looks like you can stat into a NEW speed chart (cause you have to have max base speed to start it?) so maybe that starts increasing each of the speedometers chunks…
Yeah, hadn’t noticed the one sneaking over the rim of the ball when posted that
It has to be logarithmic, because we know that the start of the first of the five speed-meters is 0, we know where 250 mph is, (segment 4 filled on second S-M) and we know where mach 1 is, or 761 mph, which is 1 segment filled on the fourth.
If it were linear, the fourth segment would be 180 m/s, not 111 m/s, which is what 250 mph is.
im not trained enough to be able to figure out this logarithmic scale, but we know its in base 5, and we know where three points on it are.
We also know that there is a fifth S-M not lit up (probably have to buy it with a skill point) that should logically be an order of magnitude greater than mach 4 or 9 or whatever the fourth S-M goes to, so that implies multiple thousand miles an hour, so orbital speeds.
The reason i think it is logarithmic and not linear, is the first segment of five is filled, and that represents the full previous dial, so a full fourth dial is five times greater than a full third dial.
We can also see a 3D wedge shape next to the speed-o-meters, so im betting thats her aerodynamic profile, and with upgrades she can change that.
You will need to remath. Mach 1 is achieved on Circle 3, Segment 1. There are also only 4 speed Circles.
Maybe whatever owned the Orbs before halo went a little too fast and stress tested (and failed said test) its Shield Orb against an impact at speed with The Earth.
Assuming I didn’t mess up the math (big assumption) Halo is flying on exponential curve of approximately y = 132.338 * 1.172^x .
Which when the 4th and final circle is filed (total of 20 segments) should have her boosting along at 3183.877 mph. Or just under Hyper Sonic speeds. She flys like a SR-71 Blackbird or Concorde.
Which assumes the little circles are measuring velocity and not acceleration factor. Also should we be afraid that Sydney can solve non-integer expositional math equations in her head?
And see this is why i left the math to the experts, i knew youd come up with the proper curve.
There is 5 circles, when you zoom in on the comic the first is way off to the left around the orb, but you can see it by its lit up edges. so four lit circles, and one unlit, presumably locked.
And she has ADHD, she can probably solve harder in her head no problem, especially when she really only actually figured out that the lines are special marks, and Max told her they were nearing mach 1, so she made the presumption that that line would be mach 1.
Five speed circles (we can cleanly see four, but the first one is just one the ‘horizon’ of the ball)
Sydney is not going to make it three times in a row, not if she can help it :D
Well, she IS going faster than 88 MPH at the moment…
Moot point. Sydney has no flux capacitor
That we know of >.>
<.<
“Innocently walks up behind Sydney , and pats her on the back.”
Looks like the flight orb can create it’s own shield. Is this subtle new secondary power?
We already knew.
The flight orb can create a weak shield to ensure safety while flying at low altitude/low speeds, by Word of God (author).
However for high speeds, she’s using her actual force field orb. Or atleast she should be. Either DaveB forgot to do that (the Forb is still around her head), or this is indeed a hint that the native flying shield is more powerfull
I’m thinking its one of the six secondary powers activated for the flight orb. One more secondary power on it and I think she opens up a whole new string of sub powers, as shown by her skill tree.
Based on the diagram, which is now my wallpaper, I’d say she’s probably got either 2 in shield and 4 in speed (more likely) or 2 in speed and 4 in shield (less likely, and that means she can go holy carp fast if she puts more in it).
Bet higher ranks on it’s upgrade grid probably include ftl.
She’s holding the Force Field orb in her hand, it slipped in over her head too by accident, I’ll get that fixed.
Aww, rats! You mean all of our speculation about a windshield effect from the flight orb was a waste of time? You mean the shield orb actually is in the hand partly hidden by the boom?
Drat.
So the Forb give an automatic mini-shield to protect from wind? (A “wind-shield” as it were?) She only seems to be holding one orb in that last panel.
It does sort of make sense that it would provide it’s user with something of the sort. Presumably, it didn’t appear the last time Syd and Max went flying because it didn’t need to – Sydney had her force field up. I doubt it could be used to block incoming attacks like her shield though.
As long as it can block incoming insects :P
Versus an aerokinetic, she can shield, fly and PPO all at once :D
A windshield (at least a full-face cover) is just what this guy needed, at about the 30-second mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5v2qBBD-gE
So clearly, I was not the only who noticed that the force orb was not deployed this time. I hope Sydney’s hearing is okay.
Wait, the Florb provides it’s own windshield? o_O
Thought she needed the Bubble to do that O_o
I recall a filled-dot-connection between those two.
You may be on to something there.
Good guess, but no.
Here’s the strip with the skill tree.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the flight orb could tap into the shield orb’s power if they were connected.
I did notice that the shield and PPO orbs do have their connecting line filled. Wonder what that could do to the two orbs.
maybe she can use the shield orb to absorb a shot and the PPO to return it with interest?
More likely, I expect it allows for a combination where the ppo makes the shield not only prevent things from passing through, it actively destroys anything that comes into contact (from the outside only, probably).
Just imagine sydney flying into someone like a wrecking ball, but instead doing to Everything in her path what the ppo beam did to the tank in a thin slice?
I think the more logical assumption is that it allows the PPO to fire through the shield. In other words, it allows her to attack and defend at the same time.
Back when the skill tree was revealed, that possibility was suggested by various commenters. Dave basically nixed the idea by outright saying that it wasn’t a complication that needed to be bought-off as the orbs are made to work together. And we’ve seen the com-ball and lighthook project through the shield (though Sydney said she didn’t know how to make the ‘hook work inside the shield).
Wrong.
Flight is blue. Shield is purple. It’s the flight and Pew Pew Orb (no, I’m not hip) that are connected. And it’s the flight and shield orbs that have their center ones filled. It’ll be interesting to see the full labeled diagram once Dave finally reveals it.
Oops…
She’s taped the wrong one!
The one she must not drop is FORCEFIELD!!!
She can regrab flight if needed, but unprotected above 100mph sounds unhealthy.
Terminal velocity for a human being in a streamlined position is like 200 mph if i remember correctly and there’s plenty of videos of people doing that just fine. But at a certain point the drag experienced could be bad. Also, has it been covered how altitude and breathing factor in for her and her tendency to hyperventilate?
A bigger problem is the bugs and birds that you fly into
Q: How do you recognize a happy wing-walker?
A: By the bugs in his teeth.
I was thinking open cockpit biplane was the maximum allowable, but 200mph
works also.
I have been thinking that the limiting factor without the force-field is how can Sydeny breathe? Especially with a sonic boom in her face/throat? Have you ever tried to breathe when driving down the highway with the window open. Now do that 5 times faster (and more).
Skydivers reach the terminal speed slowly as they fall. If Sydney drops the force field orb she will suddenly hit the static air in front of her at high speed. As in a fall the key word is “suddenly”. It would be similar to be hit by the shock wave of an explosion.
How on earth does Max’s hat stay on at that speed? It has a brim and … I’m confused.
Probably the same way that her clothes stay intact during an explosion. Her powers extending to things she touches
Reminds me of what seems to be the case with most Devil Fruit powers in One Piece. In that we have powers like elemental transformation (such as fire, sand, electricity) and animal shapeshifting yet most of the time their own clothing and such on their person seems to just adapt right on em.
Except there was the ‘no localised gravity field’ joke a couple of pages back. Unless it’s dependent on whether she puts a few points/ergs/units into shielding?
Ya, it’s been covered. Max passively emits a point blank forcefield that protects her clothing (and makes makeup a pain to apply).
No, her ‘skin’ (or whatever her new skin is made from) is what makes makeup nigh impossible to apply
It also extends to her clothes
WHich is how she can stand inside fiery death explosion without her clothes burning off
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1142
unfortunately.
There is still hope, Atomic Bombshell showed us the ray of light :D
That was my first thought too. That is one magic hat right there.
If I was her I’d have duct-taped the forcefield orb to the other hand. Because when something goes wrong at what’s probably going to be a sub-orbital trajectory I’d really want that forcefield to deal with the bow shock and compressive heating. Getting vaporized and ripped into tiny pieces at the same time doesn’t sound like fun.
She needs gloves with Orb Pockets.
Would an Orb activate touching the back of her hard?
(Freeing up the fingers)
We already know armpits and feet don’t work.
She tried holding the orbs against herself and see if she could activate, and could not. (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589)
Though she hadn’t tried the back of her hand as far as we know
Gloves? If, as she once said, mittens are her kryptonite, I don’t think gloves would be any better. Obviously only DaveB knows for sure, but something tells me that the orbs insist on palm and fingertip contact to work.
No, special gloves with pockets in them for the orbs. In such a way that they hold the orb against her hand.
So a glove over both hand and orb
as we’ve seen when she switched the truesight/com orb into detect magic aura mode, when embiggening the force field and now here with the flight orb using the powers is not simply an act of will, there appear to be a tactile interface where she has to push certain parts or icons being projected, at least to activate certain sub-functions or modes, so the reason why they dont work on the back of her hand or other areas is probably simply because those parts of her lack the requisite digits to push the buttons.
the orbs also probably have a safety measure that does not allow those interface buttons to be projected and/or pushed unless in the users hand, to prevent unauthorised or accidental usage. Way back she did mention that mittens are her kryptonite, I wonder if she meant full blown mono-finger mittens, or if any syntetic cover between hand/palm and orb would prevent usage.
I’ve always assumed that absolutely anything that came between the bare skin of her hands and the orbs would keep her from using them, but that’s all it is – an assumption. That would include everything from thin rubber surgical gloves to thick cold weather gloves.
check the tests she has a latex surgical glove on one hand holding an orb to a part of her and stopping the activation.
Hmmm, I wonder if the orbs are ‘handed’? Can she use any orb fully in either hand (presumably with the interface reversed), or is she stuck with only non-ui functions if she has to off-hand one?
Wonder if Maxi knows who Guile and Ryu are :D
The little laugh “Aheh” suggests to me that she does – she once said that she used to be kind of a geek, after all. I think she just decided to humor Sydney and let her have some fun.
Or, maybe, just realised it was a setup for a joke without really knowing what it was (she wasn’t expecting a modified ‘knock-knock’ joke at MACH 1, but realised what it was quickly)
She more or less figures it out on panel 8.
Most likely. Shes used to be kinda a nerd (remember her ioun stones comment?)
Yes, but there are levels and categories of Nerdism, Maxi may not know much about vidya-games
Pretty sure she knows what Street Fighter is.
Hope no one is beneath Sydney, just nonchalantly tossing the tape roll from a couple hundred feet in the air…
The real question is where did she get it?
(Home Depot?)
They are a military installation. Those can’t operate without ducttape on this planet.
Wanted to link Wikipedia article on Duct tape, but apparently faild a bit.
It was onboard of any manned NASA mission since Gemini. It was used to jury-rig th air supply of apollo 13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#Common_uses
She pulled it from Comic Hammerspace, to which it most likely teleported back after she disposed of it, thus preventing any loss of life/limb to those souls beneath her
The terminal velocity of a roll of ducttape is rather low. So, it’s rather unlikely to hurt anyone. Also, it’s really unlikely to hit anyone, most of the ground is not covered with people or pets. :)
Also, it appears she’s tossing it onto the Archon roof.
Yup, was going to mention that, and that was most likely where she got it from as well (not the roof, but Arc-supplies)
Hope she didn’t miss the roof and hit the skylight. Even if it miraculously managed to drop through an open one and not shatter glass, she still risked bopping a teammate in the head.
The duct tape probably bopped Harem.
That is five times more likely than hitting anybody else.
:D
I challenge you to find the skylight in an office-complex style building that breaks from having a roll of ducttape dropped on it. :)
Oh, come on! It’s the military, after all. I’m sure the tape has been extensively toughened to stand up to combat conditions and the spool at the center is made of adamantium! :D
Man, Sydney must have some super strong teeth . . .
It just me or does it seem that the measurement on the orb increases where one segment is substantially larger portions? maybe even logarithmic?
May just be the angle, or the fact DaveB drew it by hand
I think it looks that way because it’s on an angle. Anyway, I note there’s an entire extra segment to fill up and the point of super-sonic look to be about half way.
The angle is a little funky yes.
I demand a closeup of the speedometer!
what makes you think it’s a speedometer? it could be a indicator of the charge remaining
I think it’s a power output (as Sydney guessed) and she just moved into the 40% range. My advice, leave that third one alone (100% available), I don’t think it’s safe to use in-atmosphere.
No, she has already moved into the third circle: panels four and six shows that there are at least four circles (possibly a fifth just sneaking around the edge of the Florb) with five wedges each, each circle has one wedge already filled
Somehow, Sydney has been able to figure out how to read the things so she knew exactly when she was about to go Sonic Boom-boom
Well she does have an actual speedometer on her wrist
On her other wrist
So what’s a Sonic Woob?
Seriously, I didn’t notice that she didn’t use her shield orb at first. I assumed that she held it in her left had that was mostly obscured by the Woob…. I mean Boom sound effect. But now I see that it’s there orbiting her head along with the five other unused orbs. I guess maybe the orbs have some safety feature that prevents Sydney from harming herself with them.
I guess it’s to Keith’s credit that I can’t tell the difference. Good work.
take a look at the flat side to the letter “B”… it’s on the left/bottom, therefore It’s the word “boom” starting from the bottom of the panel and ending on the right/top of the panel…
I was kidding, of course, but when I start reading “Sonic” from the left, it seems to me that the more natural way to continue reading would be from where the “M” is.
Yeah, I was going to comment on the “Sonic Woob” too, but I think it’s actually a good sound effect, and I propose keeping it. It can be an “in-joke” that non-readers won’t get, keeping us readers in the well-deserved “cool kids club”…
Ironically, I knew that one of Sagat’s moves was “Tiger! UPPERCUT!” But I’m not at all familiar with Guile’s moves at all.
The two most people know are Sonic Boom (projectile) and Flash Kick (rising flip kick).
Though personally, I’m a Ken user. Mastering the cross-screen Shouryuken is a proud achievement of mine.
Oh yeah! Th Shouryuken and the Hadoken are video game staples! But me? I really like Blanka :D
Flying down is not officially what a gravity assist is, though it’s not wrong.
The regular definition of a gravity assist is when a spaceship uses the gravity of a body(planet or star) to gain speed, by being pulled into the body’s gravity well (sortoff flying down), and than being slingshotted out of the gravity well again, with extra speed.
Flying down is more like riding your bike down a hill vs up a hill
Yeah, that is what Gravity Assist is: you are getting assistance from gravity because you are adding the effects of gravity onto your normal speed output by, well, flying down (as opposed to falling which is simply Gravity Affect)
In DCUO, fliers can get a boost of speed by, again, flying down, usually used to help set up an extra attack by knocking down your opponent
While that may be the technical definition, it’s not uncommon for people to use minor forms of gravity assistance to increase speed and energy efficiency. For instance, rolling down a hill with a sharp curve to horizontal is very similar to a sub-orbital gravity assist in that you can efficiently gain a large boost in speed quickly that wouldn’t be possible attempting from a horizontal start.
A great, and practical use of this is actually in half-pipe skateboarding, BMX, and inline skating. The athletes use gravity along with pumping their legs to gain more speed so they can go up the other side of the pipe and launch higher than you started at. If you watch guys who have fallen and try to use that technique to regain their height on the ramp, you can see that it only takes them a few times across to get back up to the lip with almost minimal effort.
I know it can be called one, but it’d compare like riding a bike down a hill to an actual rocket in terms of results
Let’s see… Mach1 at the beginning of the second sector on the holo control… If Max really wants to know how Sidney she can go, she’s going to need to be able to go a lot faster than “Well over Mach 1”, and do it in space (’cause I don’t think the next three sector should be used inside an atmosphere.
Well. As long as the shield orb is at least as strong as a thin sheet of aluminium she can do mach 4… (SR-71). Also, remember the space shuttle? It went .. rather fast both entering and leaving.
SR-71 is made of titanium on the leading edges. Also, it flew much higher than commercial jet liners.
SR-71 had titanium. Shuttle had tiles.
If the Forb’s speedometer is really representative of Mach 1, then it would be entirely dependent upon the density & pressure of her environment. At higher altitudes, the air becomes thinner, and the speed of sound (the very definition of Mach 1) becomes less. In water, the speed of sound is a lot greater than in air, so Mach 1 is a lot greater than in air. In space, there is no speed of sound, as sound cannot travel through a vacuum, so Mach numbers become meaningless.
Sorry. I meant the “density, pressure & temperature” of her environment.
If Halo goes past the speed of sound, thats… sonic rainboom ;P
Hmmm, I wonder what theme tune would go best with this flight test?
The local airline jingle? :)
My preference Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wilde”
+1
…. Or, possibly, ‘Magic Carpet Ride’.
If it’s good enough to get Zefrem Cochrane into space, it’s certainly good enough to get Sydney past the sound barrier.
I’d also add Kenny Loggins’ song, “Danger Zone”, from the Tom Cruise film “Top Gun”.
Perhaps:
Sigue Sigue Sputnik – “Love Missile F1-11”
10cc – “I’m Mandy, Fly Me”
Black Lace – “Superman”
Queen – “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
Well, Sydney has a bit of negative serendipity when it comes to experimenting with those orbs; remember her first testing of the PPO & a nearby stand of trees? Right now, she’s experimenting…I think Meatloaf’s “Highway to Hell” might be appropriate.
Pretty sure it’s:
“Highway to Hell”, by AC/DC
“Bat Out Of Hell”, by Meatloaf
Whenever I have a character that can fly, I find myself singing “Believe it or Not” from the Greatest American Hero.
Do they land as well as he does though? :D
I dunno about Max, but I can certainly see Sydney come down like he did.
Ouch!! :(
The correct answer, is of course, Guiles theme, as Guiles theme goes with everything, I’m sure some of you were being smart with your answers, but as DaveB has noted, not everyone is familiar with StreetFighter, let alone associated memes.
daft punk “harder,faster,better,stronger”
minmie “ride (in my) Valkyrie”
phill harmonics “the butterfly that thought it was a bumblebee”
Waiting for an excuse to use ‘Rules of Nature’, even if that one will go over even more heads. :p
Hmmm… If the sound barrier is reached when an object moves at a speed of 343 metres per second (about 767 mph, 1234 km/h or 1,125 ft/s) and the orb show two of five parts to reach the enough speed to break the sonic barrier, we have an idea of the possible maximum speed of the flying orb, without upgrade.
Unless the marks are not linear.
True, but at least we have a good hint about the limits of the flying orb
Mach speed changes with altitude. Sea level mach 1 is around 660 mph (1100 kph?). Go up a few thousand feet and the sonic speed goes up over 700 mph. Something like that. Anyway, it’s not a constant.
Mach
sea level 761 mph
11k-20k meters 660mph
29k meters 673 mph
strange how it drops sharply then goes back up a little.
The ambiguity regarding the shield orb is kinda bothering me.
Sorry the page originally had an error with the orb placement. (It was Keith’s first time doing the orbs and I didn’t catch it) She’s now correctly holding the flight orb in one hand and the shield orb in the other.
That’s funny, I’m hearing some kind of music suddenly.
16bit. And it goes with anything.
So when does sidney start going sub-orbital? She could theoretically fly to the moon and back in a day trip using flight and shield with an O2 supply (Anyone remember the 80’s movie “Explorers”?)
Sleep deprived, so it’s weird questions day for me. Wonder if Sydney and/or Max have ever tried flying in reverse. That is, same flying pose, but going in the other direction feet first. Like if you played a movie backwards.
I should have made a new reply… These comment boxes are playing tricks on me.
There’s already been a Powdered Toast Man reference, so why not…
OK, continuing the “Weird Questions”-thread:
– What does it feel like to be lifted by the Lighthook?
– Does it have a temperature?
– Does it have a length-limit?
– Is the thickness of the energy-tentacle adjustable?
– We saw Sydney use it to spank Jiggawatt, can the tip be used as a battering-ram?
– How heavy a shield can the tip of the tentacle poke through? (I’m picturing this maneuver as something resembling a striking cobra!)
– Does the Lighthook have any degree of traction/dexterity? A friction-less tentacle would make some things hard to lift (for example, a single dime)
– Can a shorter tentacle lift heavier loads than a longer one?
Also:
– Based on the Author’s comment (just below the page) about a limit to the Flight-Orb’s unshielded speed, What are the odds that her releasing the Shield-Orb during a “high Mach” flight would auto-activate a safety-feature, such as “safety-braking” down to some safer, unshielded upper-limit?
(performed during the time it takes the Shield to shut-down, of course).
Based on the performance at the press-conference, it appears that any impact against the Shield during a “shut-down” will cause that portion of Shield to shut-down last. This (hopefully) means that the leading-edge of a supersonic Shield would disappear last, *NOT* first…?
And Sydney should also consider bringing an extended supply of her ADHD meds & water to wash them down…A trip to the moon is no time to be also mentally “spacing out.”
I wanted to have my own tilt a whirl car for so long. Also dream flying over circuits that you later build to do useful things.
Their shield orb was really dangerously durable as well as airtight too. If I remember right it burned holes in objects it intersected with, not just smashed them off like Sydney did to the billboard. The Explorer’s Shield also caused whatever was in it to be centered, where Sydney can be anywhere within the sphere.
I just had an interesting thought. We know from the last panel of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1088 that while flying the shield can hold material — the ground in this case. What I wonder, can she transport say a tank or other materiel inside the shield. Presumably, just like the Explorer’s shield anything intersecting the shield when its formed is bisectedIf you put it on blocks or had Hiro lift it when the bubble was formed, how much is her heavy lift capacity? We know Harem can lounge on the inside surface without damage. so presumably a tank on a pedestal support would be fine, The tank would be level and when you arrive at the destination the now curved bottom of the support would let the tank roll off easily.
O2 Check, the shield Syd is sporting is very small. how quick will she run out of air?
Getting to the moon and back in one day requires a speed of at least 32km/sec (if you aim correctly slightly in front of the moon, faster if you try to just fly stragith at it. :)). Compared to mach speed it’s fairly, er, fast.
Then again, if the orbs are actually putting out a force (either neutrino/dark matter rocket, basically, or an reactionless drive), once she stops having to push air out of the way the flight orb should convert to a constant acceleration space engine. Just remember to turn around and start braking halfway there.
If it is, and if it can do 10g:s she can to the moon and back in about 1h8m. Or mars in 17 hours (and the same time back). Or the edge of the visible universe in about 5 years (subjective time, and not back.) :)
How does Maxima know how fast they’re flying? Some innate sense or external technology?
Probably her GPS
… And, possibly, personal experience.
Mostly the GPS though, I’d say. One thing drummed into pilots VERY early on is to trust instruments over what they THINK their senses tell them.
I like that title of ‘The Handyman’s secret weapon’ cuz that reminded me of a Canadian TV show that ran on PBS a number of years ago called The Red Green Show.
There was a segment called Handyman Corner where Red uses duct tape for his projects.
“Remember – If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
“We’re all in this together.”
…From Terry Gilliam’s film, “Brazil”, yes…?
I’m a bit confused by the readouts to be honest. And what does ZMM mean?!
We have a circle with 5 segments, one is solid, one is strangely white, and the rest blue.
Maybe her speed can only go up to the end of the white section until she puts more points into flight?!
The ZMM was just a sound effect, methinks. The two colored segments presumably indicate the speed – one being the current speed and the other being the one she was about to achieve as she broke the sound barrier.
Indeed so – kinda like “Zoom” but faster or more deeper in pitch I think.
Ignore my above comment… didn’t realise we were talking about the speed dials instead of the sound effect.
I can’t get much of this confirmed, from the mere three frames we see, and the limited view (speech-bubbles). But I think it works something like this:
4 circles parted into 5 segments. One in each, already filled light blue (bottom one, a sort of “zero” indication). And as she goes faster, the empty ones fill with white light, and the little “pearl” lights up too.
A sort of pyramid shaped indicator above, showing the speed increase. When it fills, another segment below lights up, and it starts over empty.
If this is true it would indicate that mach one, is two circles and one segment (9 segments). Leaving only 7 segments left to be filled.
My imagination goes wild.
Sydney the supersonic transporter. How much can her Shield carry? At least one harem. Maybe a tank or an entire destroyer. Flying Navy destroyer to the rescue
She already dropped a literal anvil already so …
great now I am thinking space battleship yamato with an actual battleship syd drags into space. (how fast does the shield resize? would she lose a lot of air switching from carry to personal survival?)
Good page. Little feedback. The things on the orb are a bit hard to see. This might be just me, or the monitor, but maybe try to fiddle a bit with the coloring??? Not too much of a deal though.
And thanks for explaining the reference, I wouldn’t have understood it otherwise.
Same here – can’t see much except for a circle with four quadrants. Pictures appear much better on my mobile (but can’t load the comic).
I think it’s hard to see on my desktop, because I fiddled around with the brightness and gamma values before.
Five wedges, with one wedge in each circle already filled in
Loved this page…
Recently I got my PPL, the first time I flew alone my grin was bigger than Sydney’s…
My jaw hurt next day…and this was inside a plane…a slow,slow plane…
Listening to Guile’s Theme while reading this comic is mandatory.
Especially the last panel. Totally agree.
Have to wonder what happens if Sydney flies right into a bird…
depends, which way is the bird facing?
Now to find out if Sidney can go into space.
…Sydney should take some classes in astrogation first…
Does the show Lost in Space (TV series and/or movie) mean anything to you?
“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”
If the duct tape is going be a recurring theme Sydney may want to get something a little more geeky.
https://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape/printed-duck-tape/1369
Wait… so Max doesn’t have a localized gravity field. How can she actually fly without losing her cap?
A) required Secondary power. or more likely: B) her Zero-distance Telekinesis… the same thing that normally protects her clothing from explosions and stuff. The reason i say “normally” is due to the fact that wazzer-name with that energy bolo thing DID damage her clothes, even Max was surprised at that…
Atomic Bombshell was her name.
Is it just me that when I read ZMM I always hear the door open/close sound effect from Chrono Trigger?
Those are unusually user-friendly maguffins.
Except for perhaps the “safety” for firing the PPO, I’d say these orbs might be a little too user-friendly for Sydney’s health & well-being…
Shript?
Love the sound effects. Thanks, Dave. : )
Whenever sonic booms come up in any visual form, I can’t help but giggle a little at the fact that Cherenkov radiation is the same thing for light… :)
MIND. BLOWN.
sonic boom, sonic boom, Sonic boom, save the world from disaster, and shes still flying faster!
i think maybe 5 is her limit, if im reading it right.
Well she just started the 3rd of 4 circles when she hit mach 1 so I’m guessing mach 3 is her limit (currently) or maybe 2.9999
If we pretend physics are actually being followed, the circles should not indicate speed directly, but the force being applied to push her forward (through the air, and to counteract gravity).
It is somewhat hard to imagine a drive that allows a certain speed, not force, to be applied to an object. Except as a safety feature.
You have a speedometer in your car, saying how fast you are going? It might not be a limit to speed, just how fast it’s CAPABLE of going. It can’t go faster, because it knows you can’t exert enough force. But it still shows you how fast you are going at the moment.
Im having a hard time telling, but is the inference on the flight orb that sydney is nowheres near her top speed potential yet? I wonder if she can push maxima hard enough to have to expose her classified level of flight speed just to find sydneys limit. God, there is just so MUCH I want to test right now just with the flight orb and related feats. Transport for one. We know she can carry at least one person in her shield while flying and not seem to feel any strain, so how much can she carry in her shield, and how does it effect her flight speed? Because if mach 1 isnt her limit, and she is able to carry people at high speeds without them being effected by the wind, that could come in super handy in an emergency. Quick evac of civilians, medical response ramped up to 11. Not too mention if there is a real need to hurry, she may be able to outrun that company jet of ARCHON’s with a group of supers who cant fly themselves. Max and Hiro cant do it without something like a bus to carry with them to protect from the problems of air speed.
Baby steps, dude.
Okay, who can get a GOOD look at the ball.
I’m seeing what’s probably 4 in a chain of 5. It’s lit up in 3 of the 5 segments.
Back in the big chart the 2 arms with 5 are powered up to 2 points and 4 points.
I’m going to assume that a 2 point arm wouldn’t have power enough to fill the speed bar with a 3rd segment worth of speed. So, lets call the arm with 4 dots the speed arm on the big chart. This can also explain why the 5th speed gage circle looks not quite like the others.
I will point out that thus the “speed” length on the main chart is linked to one with no points in it.
Anybody care to either counter theorise or confirm?
It’s a chain of 5 circles, the 5th one is grayed out.
Word of god here “5th one grey’d out”
That makes it match the 4 out of 5 line in the big skill chart perfectly.
It looks like you can’t start the empty chain without max speed. Perhaps it’s further speed boosting (not unlocking more notches, just making each notch worth more speed?) Or, it’s an interstellar thing. Let’s you go so fast OUTSIDE an atmosphere.
Could be a second tier of speed, but … that could have been one long chain.
It didn’t register to me that it could require ALL of those as pre-req, good idea.
So, that chain could be something flight related, that takes LOTS of power. It is not one, but TWO dings into the future, so I won’t speculate.
I just really like that we have confirmation that the speed bar 4/5 relates to the 4/5 line on the power grid.
Just that, really feels like an accomplishment.
It’s valid speculation, if you think of the orbs as being the aspects of a starship. Weapons, shields, tractor beam, communications/sensors and propulsion. That leaves red and green as likely power generation and environmental systems/life support (The active nodes on Greenie giving Sydney some passive immunity to environmental hazards, like disease, toxins… and pepper sauce.)