Superboy's Math Problem

[maxstuf]

I was reading Adventure Comics # 329 which has a Superboy back-up story. In it Superboy was busy accomplishing 100 new feats, for some insane reason. For one of them he decides to "endure the sun's heat." Not just the heat of our sun but the heat of the hottest sun in the universe. All fine and dandy except the heat must have gotten to him, for as according to Superboy, the heat from the hottest sun in the universe is only half that of our own sun.

Here is the panel.

[Tabasco Joe]

Well he does say its "over 10 billion degrees" He just doesnt say how much over 10 billion it is. It could be 100 billion degrees over 10 billion making it the hottest star in the universe or somethin' I got nothin'

[chromium]

He's mixing his millions and billions..

 

At the core our sun is 15 million degrees Celsius or 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Million not billion.

 

10 billion degrees is possible (again at the core) but only when a giant sun reaches supernova

[bUff_mOnkEy]

He's mixing his millions and billions..

 

At the core our sun is 15 million degrees Celsius or 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Million not billion.

 

10 billion degrees is possible (again at the core) but only when a giant sun reaches supernova

 

I don't have any doubt that chromium's got it right. Someone didn't proofread the captions in the panels well enough before it went to press.

[Silver]

If this is one of the biggest inconsistancies you have found in a Superboy story...you haven't read very many

[Aman619]

whats worse perhaps is that it appears those billions refernces were both RE-LETTERED! They received editing attention and STILL ended up messed up.

[AtlasFan]

I believe that Superboy was using the Kryptonian scale to measure degrees. Discovered and standardized on Krypton by Jor-El, or course!

Bill

[Allen Ross-migration]

Well, there's a reason the lettering looks like it was modified, because it was! Here's the original printing, from Superboy #58. Note that the science was even further off in the original; I guess they got complaints, and thus modified it when they reprinted it, but then messed up and had a typo in the lettering (should be million for the first one as noted).

[mica]

Well, there's a reason the lettering looks like it was modified, because it was! Here's the original printing, from Superboy #58. Note that the science was even further off in the original; I guess they got complaints, and thus modified it when they reprinted it, but then messed up and had a typo in the lettering (should be million for the first one as noted).

Good research.

[maxstuf]

Well, there's a reason the lettering looks like it was modified, because it was! Here's the original printing, from Superboy #58. Note that the science was even further off in the original; I guess they got complaints, and thus modified it when they reprinted it, but then messed up and had a typo in the lettering (should be million for the first one as noted).

 

 

Great work.

 

And the change from a "Red Sun" in the original, to a "Yellow Sun" in the reprint, most likely was also a result of the feedback received at the time.

[Zonker]

And the change from a "Red Sun" in the original, to a "Yellow Sun" in the reprint, most likely was also a result of the feedback received at the time.

 

Perhaps, but I thought the Red Sun thing was a latter-day ret-con explanation for some of Supes' powers. I don't know when this occured however. Certainly before they made Luthor the hero of that planet (Lexor?) orbiting a Red Sun in Superman during the early 1960s (Superman #164, #167, for example). Superboy #58 was 1957, and Adventure #329 was mid-1960s, so maybe that's responsible for the revision of the sun's color.

[Silver]

 

A really great era of Superboy Stories overall. Nice detective wrok!

[mica]

That guy in the pink suit was stylin'

[Aman619]

he's reet, neat, and petite!