So Spider-Man has as part of his super powers the ability to stick to walls, ceilings, buildings, etc. since that's what a spider can do.   Radioactive spiders biting you could cause that in someone, I get that.  But how can Spider-Man cling to walls when he is wearing a costume?  Wouldn't his "sticky parts" (hands and feet) just stick to the inside of the costume?  If I put a spider on a piece of cloth and put the cloth on the wall, the Spider wouldn't stick to the wall!

And the other day, my kids were watching the Spider-Man cartoon, and Venom attacked Peter Parker -and Peter proceeded to leap onto the ceiling and stick with his hands and feet, with his shoes still on! 

How can Spidey stick to things when his hands/feet are covered up?

 "The Spider-Man entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe states that Spider-Man is able to enhance the flux of inter-atomic attractive forces on surfaces he touches, increasing the coefficient of friction between that surface and himself."  Presumably that power has a limited range.

I did not check the source of the quote, but its a good start for the discussion.

SquintGnome wrote:

 "... enhance the flux of inter-atomic attractive forces on surfaces he touches, increasing the coefficient of friction between that surface and himself." 

In even hypothetical circumstances is that possible?  Does that go against the laws of nature (please ignore the rest of the half spider half man laws :) )?

Is not it easier to have small holes on the arms and legs through which he can excrete sticky substance?

and how he breathe when there is no opening on the costume?

Prepare for some serious talking out of my ass.

I assume by inter-atomic forces they are talking about Van der Waal forces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_force

From wikipedia page:

Intermolecular forces have four major contributions:

1. A repulsive component resulting from the Pauli exclusion principle that prevents the collapse of molecules.
2. Attractive or repulsive electrostatic interactions between permanent charges (in the case of molecular ions), dipoles (in the case of molecules without inversion center), quadrupoles (all molecules with symmetry lower than cubic), and in general between permanent multipoles. The electrostatic interaction is sometimes called the Keesom interaction or Keesom force after Willem Hendrik Keesom.
3. Induction (also known as polarization), which is the attractive interaction between a permanent multipole on one molecule with an induced multipole on another. This interaction is sometimes called Debye force after Peter J.W. Debye.
4. Dispersion (usually named after Fritz London), which is the attractive interaction between any pair of molecules, including non-polar atoms, arising from the interactions of instantaneous multipoles.

The 1st example is within a molecule, so that is out.  2 & 3 seem to depend on the type of matter, and spidey can stick to just about anything, so that leaves 'Dispersion' as the force that he can control to make himself stick.

Reading the wikipage on those (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_dispersion_force), it seems like if we assume Spidey can manipulate the position of electrons in their cloud, he could manipulate this force to help himself stick to stuff.    Only problem with this is it looks like this force is inversely proportional to the sixth power of the distance, which means it would fall off very quickly.  Maybe his spidey suit (& boots?) is super thin.

More information from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man%27s_powers_and_equipment#Wall-crawling)

The ability works through thin layers of cloth, such as the fabric of his costume, but not through materials such as the soles of shoes. When Peter Parker needs to crawl without changing into the costume, he removes his shoes first.^[8]

Here's an interesting aside:

Kaine, the villainous clone of Spider-Man, has shown the ability to use his wall-crawling abilities in a more offensive manner, burning distinctive scars, known as the Mark of Kaine in the face of his victims. Later Spider-Man himself uses a variation of the same ability to escape from The Green Goblin by making his fingertips cling to his face and tearing them away, digging five deep wounds in Norman's face. Despite the obvious offensive potential of such an ability, Peter claims that it is unlikely he will use it again, as it was a move born out of anger and desperation.^[10] In later events during the Grim Hunt arc, due to Peter's rage at Sasha Kravinoff over everything she put him and his 'spider family' through, he uses his version of the Mark of Kaine on her, ripping the skin off her face in the shape of a hand print, proclaiming "This is from my brother."^[11]

I don't buy that Spider-Man is manipulating forces.

I think I'm sensing some turtle/spider rivalry here.

See the "adhesion ability" entry for geckos on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko#Adhesion_ability

I always thought it was just technology.  The web canisters he has to make, so I figured it was similar.

why not let it be simple.

spiders use the little hairy projections that cling at a microscopic level, right? so scale that up with Parker's relative size...they stick out further (still obviously tapering to a microscopic level at the tip).

Think of Nettle plant (some may call it itch-weed). those little protrusions from the stalk? yeah like those, they go thru clothing.

As for the example where he jumped to the ceiling with his shoes on - all his weight was supported by his upper body.

Cona Chris wrote:

So Spider-Man has as part of his super powers the ability to stick to walls, ceilings, buildings, etc. since that's what a spider can do.   Radioactive spiders biting you could cause that in someone, I get that.  But how can Spider-Man cling to walls when he is wearing a costume?  Wouldn't his "sticky parts" (hands and feet) just stick to the inside of the costume?  If I put a spider on a piece of cloth and put the cloth on the wall, the Spider wouldn't stick to the wall!

And the other day, my kids were watching the Spider-Man cartoon, and Venom attacked Peter Parker -and Peter proceeded to leap onto the ceiling and stick with his hands and feet, with his shoes still on! 

How can Spidey stick to things when his hands/feet are covered up?

Allow me to *cough* nerd out for a bit:

According to the general Spiderman entry Ozyman posted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man%27s_powers_and_equipment#Wall-crawling) we know a couple things:

• Spidey is super strong
• Spidey can stick to things via bare skin or thin material (costume) but not through shoe soles
• Spidey can "lose control" of his ability when startled or when facing certain enemies such as Electro

So from this I believe that in the scene when Parker leaps up to the ceiling, he is in fact sticking with just his hands but due to his superhuman strength he's keeping his entire body up against the ceiling.  His shoes provide a minimal amount of friction but otherwise do not "stick" to the ceiling.  There's another scene in one of the movies (I believe the scene where he first realizes he can wall crawl) where he climbs up the side of a building with shoes on and it's more evident he's using mainly his hands to stick with his shoes providing only minimal assistance due to his strength.  Rock climbing shoes allow you to do this as well...recommend you try it!

Now, per some of the others comments in the thread there's some debate on what allows Spidey to actually stick using his hands/skin.  If Spidey can stick to things voluntarily and when removed by force he still is attached to those things (i.e. pieces of a wall) but when shocked/startled he loses that ability, this suggests his ability is either a) directly impacted by his mental focus or b) indirectly impacted by his mental focus.  

If Spidey was altering the interatomic flux of atomic forces (which if possible could certainly explain his ability to stick to almost anything via altering the electrostatic force inherent in all matter) then I think you'd see a couple things that don't correspond to his story.  For one, I think he'd be able to stick with his feet since the soles of his shoes probably wouldn't diminish the flux (even if related to the 6th power of distance).  For another thing, this supreme mental focus would allow him to have some other mental abilities with regards to extending his flux into different objects (i.e. he should be able to have two non-stickable things stick together without him touching them).

So, as Yertle said, I don't buy it that he's somehow altering intermolecular forces on purpose via some mental ability.  But then, how is it that Electro and other things can cause him to lose ability? (Implying mental control over the ability?)

I believe that Spidey uses Van der Waals forces to stick (such as with spider scopulae or Gecko setae [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopulae; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko]) to surfaces but that when startled or otherwise mentally unfocused it causes his body to involuntarily separate from the surface via microscopic muscle contractions or relaxations.  These muscle contractions/relaxations cause his scopulae/setae to lose adhesion to the surface and therefore he loses his ability to cling.  This is why he can't stick while unconscious.

As for Electro's ability to unseat Spidey, I believe that Electro keyed in on the fundamental force that Spidey uses (i.e. Van der Waals forces).  Since Electro can manipulate electricity, it would follow that he could control the attractive/repulsive electrostatic force between atoms.  By altering this effect, he could thus nullify Spidey's clinging ability.

As an interesting sidenote, boots/shoes made of synthetic setae could theoretically stick to any surface just as Spidey's skin does.  However, since in the comics he removes his shoes and in the movie the sneakers are normal, I prefer my first explanation (superhuman strength) to explain that bit.

TL;DR - Spidey sticks using scopulae/setae and involuntary muscle contractions/relaxations cause him to temporarily lose ability.  He does not stick through his shoes.

AttilaTheHun wrote:

blah blah blah

TL;DR - Spidey sticks using scopulae/setae and involuntary muscle contractions/relaxations cause him to temporarily lose ability.  He does not stick through his shoes.

So we said the same thing with the one exception. i said hairs like a spider you said suction like a gecko. tho i took the ultimate nerd approach. the simplest answer is usually the right one.

weathertop wrote:

AttilaTheHun wrote:

blah blah blah

TL;DR - Spidey sticks using scopulae/setae and involuntary muscle contractions/relaxations cause him to temporarily lose ability.  He does not stick through his shoes.

 

So we said the same thing with the one exception. i said hairs like a spider you said suction like a gecko. tho i took the ultimate nerd approach. the simplest answer is usually the right one.

The scopulae of a spider and setae of a gecko are essentially the same thing - small hair-like structures that allow for van der waals attraction.  I think the gecko's are more numerous so allow a much larger surface area....but yes, basically the same thing :)

Excellent work!  I can sleep at night now with a full understanding of how Spidey can do it.  Whew!

However, my thirst for knowledge does not end there.  My kids have been into super heros lately, and so my mind has found myself wondering something else.  As a child, I loved the Challenge of the Super Friends, which had the Justice League fighting against the Legion of Doom.  One of the members of the LOD was Sinestro, who of course sparred often with the Green Lantern.

Now, Green Lantern's ring can work on all things "except that which is yellow".  So naturally, Sinestro wears an entire costume made up of what color?  Blue!  C'mon, man!  This really isn't that difficult is it?  Why wouldn't Sinestro be wearing yellow 100% of the time?  Laker jerseys, Lance Armstrong's Tour de France apparel and Bumblebee costumes should just take up all the space in his closet... but no, he goes with blue... why?

Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?

Wagon Train's a really cool show, but did you notice they never get anywhere? They just keep wagon training.

Cona Chris wrote:

Now, Green Lantern's ring can work on all things "except that which is yellow".  So naturally, Sinestro wears an entire costume made up of what color?  Blue!  C'mon, man!  This really isn't that difficult is it?  Why wouldn't Sinestro be wearing yellow 100% of the time?  Laker jerseys, Lance Armstrong's Tour de France apparel and Bumblebee costumes should just take up all the space in his closet... but no, he goes with blue... why?

 

Because Sinestro is an idiot.

(either that or he wants a challenge.... or blue is what his wife made for him)

Jigler wrote:

 or blue is what his wife made for him)

Sinny, you're not going to wear that horrible yellow thing to work today, are you?  I'm sorry honey, but it accentuates your receding hair-line.  Besides, what will the neighbors think? Here, how about this nice blue top with these matching tights? There, now doesn't that look much better?

Maybe he's color blind

Ozyman wrote:

 

Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?

Goofy is a dog too.  With those giant ears, definitely a dog.
Pluto is a pet, which happens to be a dog (has a collar, and acts like a dog).
Goofy is a friend, who happens to be a dog (hence why he wears a turtleneck and pants).

Why wouldn't Sinestro be wearing yellow 100% of the time?

Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't have any idea who Sinestro was by name.
So I did a quick google image search and....umm....he's wearing yellow in probably 90% of the image returns.
Just sayin'.