Research Reveals Why Thanos’ Famous Snap is Impossible.
In Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War”, the supervillain Thanos uses a snap of his fingers to eliminate half of all life in the universe. However, scientific analysis suggests that he wouldn’t even be able to snap his fingers.
The character Thanos in a scene from “Avengers: Infinity War”
The Fastest Human Acceleration Movement
Using modern accelerometers and force sensors, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have uncovered surprising new insights about the finger snap.
This seemingly simple action possesses a complex mechanism and is the fastest human acceleration movement ever recorded.
The snap could be the fastest acceleration movement of a human.
According to results published on November 17 in the Royal Society journal, the maximum angular velocity of a snap can reach 7,800 rad/s, while the angular acceleration hits 1.6 million rad/s²—three times the acceleration generated by the arm of a professional baseball player.
“When I saw the statistical data, I was truly surprised,” said Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech, in a statement. “The snap occurs in just 7 milliseconds, which is 20 times faster than a blink—about 150 milliseconds.”
The study found that the snapping motion works by using the muscles in the fingers like a compressed spring to create potential energy, which is then quickly released to produce remarkable acceleration.
In this process, the friction between the thumb and the middle finger plays a crucial role by holding it in place and preventing movement.
Once enough energy is stored, the friction is released, allowing the thumb and middle finger to slide past each other, creating the snap.
Is Thanos’ Snap Impossible?
This seemingly simple motion possesses a complex mechanism. (Illustrative image).
Saad Bhamla noted that the inspiration for the research came from a debate about Thanos’ snap in “Avengers: Infinity War.”
For scientists, performing a snap while wearing metal gloves is impossible, straying too far from reality.
“We engaged in this lively debate, trying to figure out whether it was feasible or not,” Saad said. “Then, we wanted to identify the key components necessary to execute a snap.”
Since there is no “Infinity Gauntlet”—Thanos’ iconic accessory—the researchers attempted to create a metal glove with a similar structure.
They discovered that performing a snap with this glove, much like a rubber glove, was impossible.
The reason is that the glove generates too much friction, converting all energy into heat, and thus fails to accumulate enough energy during the initial phase of a snap.
Additionally, the metal surrounding the fingers cannot compress like human skin, significantly reducing its contact area.
Snapping with a metal glove is impossible. (Illustrative image)
Raghav Acharya, a co-author of the study, concluded that Thanos’ snap appears to be an exaggerated detail typical of Hollywood films, rather than an application of basic physical theories.
Ancient Greek artworks from 300 BC suggest that humans may have known about finger snapping hundreds of thousands of years ago.
However, it is only now that we are taking the first serious steps in studying this unique gesture.
