We all want to be a little faster. In fact, super speed shows up time and time again in the list of best superpowers to possess. The Flash is a primary example of a super hero who has super speed. And he can do more than just run really fast; he can also travel through time. Obviously, he is a fictional comic book character, but how would his speed hold up in the real world where the laws of physics exist? As we eagerly await the Flash's return to find out more about Barry Allen's antics, here are some facts that relate the Flash's speed to the real world.

1. Being saved by the Flash may not actually be your best option if you want to continue living.

There was actually a paper published by several students at the University of Leicester in the university's Physics Special Topics journal studying the scene above. According to this paper, the taxi is traveling 30 miles per hour while the Flash is traveling at 182 miles per hour, and both are heading toward the bicyclist. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out which one is the better option. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Flash is slamming into this person's rib cage. If the taxi hit him, the man would probably break a leg. However, the Flash is hitting this guy in the rib cage at 182 miles per hour, which can lead to broken bones that could potentially puncture vital organs in the rib cage such as your heart and lungs. So maybe the Flash isn't necessarily saving the day in the real world.

2. The energy and heat generated from the Flash's speed would result in the formation of a black hole.

The Flash's speed results in a release of a massive amount of heat energy. In fact, he produces so much heat that he could burn his own skin and tissues off when he runs. With the speed that the Flash can travel, he can form a kugelblitz, which is a high concentration of energy. In fact, this concentration of energy is so high that an event horizon, which is a boundary in space-time from which nothing can escape, forms. This event horizon results in the formation of a black hole. Sorry Flash, destroying the entire universe through the formation of a black hole may not necessarily be considered a superhero-like quality.

3. There isn't enough food in the world to keep the Flash sustained.

With great speed comes great...hunger. Food is necessary to maintain your metabolism, and the more energy you expend, the more food you will need to keep you sustained. The Flash can run steadily at very high speeds, and to do this, he needs a lot of food. Exactly how much is a lot? A scientist estimates around 500 million cheeseburgers. Chew on that.

4. Schrödinger's equation can be used to explain how the Flash can pass through solid objects.

Sure we've all heard the Schrödinger's cat analogy, and we still don't know whether it's dead or alive, but what exactly is this equation? Schrödinger's equation describes quantum mechanical behavior. Great, but what does that even mean? Basically, it explains how subatomic particles behave. Part of this equation describes the phenomenon of quantum tunneling, in which a particle tunnels through a barrier that it shouldn't be able to overcome classically. Does your brain hurt yet? In classical physics, if you roll a ball up a hill slowly, then the ball will eventually stop going up and start coming back down because there isn't enough energy for the ball to go over the hill and down the other side. However, Schrödinger's equation predicts that there is a possibility, however small, that the ball can indeed go over the hill even if it doesn't have enough energy to do so. This is the quantum tunneling effect; the ball can be found on one side of the hill, yet it may also be found on the other side of the hill. So how does this all relate to the Flash? Well, this is exactly what is going on when he passes through walls and other solid barriers. Quantum tunneling applies to particles; however, this theory can also be used to describe the Flash's movements through solid objects. The difference is that the Flash is much larger than a particle and, therefore, he needs to increase his speed in order to be able to increase his chances of going through the object. So if it was possible to have super speed, this phenomenon could actually occur, according to the laws of physics.

5. However, it is not actually possible for us to be super fast.

It is not possible for particles to go faster than the speed of light (yet), and heavy objects certainly cannot be accelerated that fast either. With particle accelerators, particles can accelerate close to the speed of light. However, these are particles being accelerated. The human body is not made to sustain such speeds, so if the particles within us started accelerating so fast, we would die. So unfortunately, we'll have to stick to dreaming of having superpowers. But despite our physical limitations, humans are still able to travel at high speeds over long distances. While we ourselves may not be able to run so fast, we have brains and intelligence that allow us to create machines to travel fast regardless. So you could say that we have a superpower too, and it's just as cool as the Flash's powers.