12 Superheroes Ranked By Science (From Lame To Awesome)

9. Iron Man

Although Iron Man is essentially on a par with Batman in terms of actual superpowers, his technological aids are sufficiently advanced so as to save him from the Bat's fate in last place.

The students at Leicester focus on two major elements of Iron Man: His suit and his arc reactor.

As it is suggested that the arc reactor could be powered with Vibranium (which was unhelpfully retconned by Captain America, but we'll go with it), the students set about trying to figure out its nuclear properties, using the holographic evidence from Iron Man 2. Using a real-world analogue of Hassium as a reference point, they figured out that the half life of the most stable isotope of a Vibranium core would be around 14 seconds, which makes it a less than useless power source.

Presuming Iron Man can stabilize his arc reactor somehow, we then of course have the issue of the impossible shock absorbency of his suit. Although they come to the conclusion that Stark's suit would be unfeasible for protecting a single human (either that or they're just not as smart as Stark), they do find that it could have application in larger military vehicles.

Read more:

Vol 14, No 1 (2015), PST, Iron Armour

Vol 14, No 1 (2015), PST, Inferring the Nuclear Properties of Vibranium