Interesting discovery behind the snap

Research reveals why Thanos' famous snap was impossible.

In Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War," super-villain Thanos uses a snap of his fingers to destroy half of all life in the universe. However, according to scientific analysis, he wouldn't even be able to snap his fingers.

Thanos in a scene from the movie "Avengers: Infinity War"

The fastest accelerating motion of man

Using modern accelerometers and force sensors, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) have discovered new and surprising things about the snap.

Accordingly, this seemingly simple movement possesses a complex mechanism, and is the fastest human body acceleration ever recorded.

The snap of a finger is possibly the fastest accelerating human movement.

According to a result published November 17 in the journal Royal Society, the maximum angular velocity of a finger snap can reach 7,800 rad/s, while the angular acceleration reaches 1.6 million rad/s2 - which is 3 times the acceleration produced by the arm of a professional baseball player.

"When I saw the statistical data, I was really surprised," Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "The snap happens in 7 milliseconds, 20 times faster than the blink of an eye - it's about 150 milliseconds."

According to research, the flick works by using the muscles in the finger like a spring to be compressed to create elastic potential energy, which is then released rapidly to create incredible acceleration.

In it, the friction between the thumb and middle finger plays an important role by clamping it and preventing it from moving.

When enough energy is stored, friction is released, causing the thumb and middle finger to slide past each other, creating a collision.

Is Thanos' Snap Impossible?

This seemingly simple move possesses a complex mechanism. (Illustration).

Saad Bhamla said the inspiration for the study came from a controversy about the snap of villain Thanos in the movie "Avengers: Infinity War".

For scientists, performing a snap while wearing metal gloves is an impossibility, too far from reality.

"We got into this heated debate, trying to figure out if it was doable," Saad said. "We then wanted to figure out the key ingredients needed to perform a snap."

Because there is no "Infinity Gauntlet" - Thanos' equipment, the researchers tried to make a metal gauntlet with a similar structure.

They found that performing the snap on this glove, like a rubber glove, was impossible.

The reason is because the glove creates too much friction, causing it to convert all of its energy into heat, and thus not accumulating enough energy in the early stages of a snap.

Besides, the metal layer around the finger cannot be compressed like human skin, making its contact area significantly smaller.

It's impossible to snap your fingers with a metal glove. (Illustration)

Raghav Acharya, a co-author of the study, concluded that Thanos' snap appears to be an exaggerated detail in a way typical of Hollywood movies, rather than a manipulation of basic physical theories.

Ancient Greek art from 300 BC reveals that humans may have been able to snap their fingers hundreds of thousands of years earlier.

But until now, we have only taken the first steps in seriously studying this unique gesture.