Outline of the First Term Paper

Below is a sample outline for the first term paper (see post above). This outline was written by Corey Tom, with some editorial changes by myself. Note that the term paper does not follow the outline exactly but does not deviate from is wildly.

Physics in "The Incredibles"

I. Introduction – Superheroes in a human world

• a. Laws of gravity are normal by our standard
• b. Incredibly strong cloth
• c. Superheroes are the only ones able to bend the laws of gravity/physics
• d. Thesis statement

II. Laws of gravity - If you can’t fly or float, you still fall at about a “normal” rate

• a. Suicide jumper
• b. Falling out of the plane
• i. law broken for effect – the characters fall to the water way before the plane

• c. objects falling
• i. cup of pencils
• ii. the robot
• iii. Syndrome’s plane

III. Incredibly strong cloth

• a. Original super suit – designed to be strong, but outdated
• b. New super suit – refer to E’s descriptions
• c. The cloth is strong, but there’s still the (super)human factor
• i. Elastigirl is initially unconscious from missile explosions
• ii. Superhero takes a beating, but cloth survives – compare to armor for us
• iii. Invisicloth?

IV. Superheroes vs. gravity and physics

• a. Flight/levitation
• i. Super jump?
• ii. Actual repulsion of gravity?
• b. Strength, speed, stretchiness
• i. Superhero bodies able to do things way beyond human limits
• c. Invisibility and creating force fields
• i. Force fields - Some superheroes (Violet) able to do what takes several high powered machines to attempt for us
• ii. Active camouflage – adjusting colors based on surroundings
• iii. Refer to animal world – chameleons, cuttlefish, octopi, etc

V. Conclusion

• a. Summation of points
• b. Restate thesis