If you thought the scene in Spider-Man 2 where the hero stops a moving train with his web was unrealistic, there are a couple of budding physicists who would like to set you straight.
If Spider-Man's web had the proportional strength of a spider's, stopping a train would be no problem, according to a study out of England's University of Leicester.
Students James Forster, Mark Bryan and Alex Stone concluded Spider-Man could stop four New York City subway trains if his web had the proportional thickness of Darwin's bark spider and the stiffness of an orb-weaver spider.
"It is often quoted that spider webs are stronger than steel, so we thought it would be interesting to see whether this held true for Spider-Man's scaled-up version," said Stone, 21. "We were surprised to find out that the webbing was portrayed accurately."
The study was published in the university's own Journal of Physics Special Topics, known for exploring wacky topics.