Think of all the crazy,bone crunching crashes of fist and feet that youcan find in the history of Mortal Kombat. You can see just about anything happening in this eternal tournament. But, there's arguably onemove that is the most iconic. An uppercut that sendsan opponent skyward. This incredible powerful punch is a mainstay of modern fighting games and pop culture in general. But, what would it really take, aren't we gonna do likea big thing for this? Or? Alright. Well, what would it really take. Oh, release me. No, no, geez. No, help me.
That was good, okay. Kill for me. Defend my honor. (uptempo music) (choral music) Wow, that was great. You've earned one treat. What would it really taketo do a move like that. This is the science of Mortal Kombat. Welcome to my MortalKombat version of the Void. Complete with a legion of minions ready to do my sciency bidding. An entire areas dedicatedto the over-analysis of kicking and punching. In today's episode we are covering maybe the most famous move inall of Mortal Kombat. The classic uppercut.
You've seen the uppercutin Mortal Kombat games for decades now. And of course, it returnsin the latest entry into the series, Mortal Kombat 11 from Warner Brothersand NetherRealm Studios. It is typified not justby a punch that is strong but a punch that hasso much force behind it that lifts an opponent up into the air and above the puncher's head. Our mission today isto test whether or not a humanoid fighter couldreally punch this hard. But, if one of my minions can't handle it then we'll have to figureout some kind of way to replicate what we see in the game. What? You haven't done anythingyet, you don't get a treat. This isn't how this works. Get out of here. Leave. Go away. You would not believe thetreat budget around here. Look, I'm not gonna pull any punches here. A Mortal Kombat style uppercut does not have physics in its favor.
If you wanted to lift afighter off of the ground with an uppercut alone, you're gonna have tosupply a substantial force to their face with your fist. At minimum that forceyou apply to their face is gonna have to equal their weight which is the mass of the fighter multiplied by theacceleration due to gravity on whatever planet they're on. If there is some force left over, some resultant force afterthese two forces interact then in accordance with smartboy Issac Newton's second law they will accelerate in that direction in accordance with their mass, flawlessly.
But, did not move up in the air. How did that feel. - Felt good, felt solid. Just actually being able tolift the mass off the ground I thinks gonna be impossible. - I think this mightactually be impossible for mere mortals such as we. So, I'm gonna bring in whatI call the Fist of Doom. - Alright, I'm gonna leave for that. - Okay, yeah let's go. Hey, do you think Icould do some MMA stuff? - [CM] You know, if you tryreally hard, probably not. - Oh, thanks. I think we're gonnahave to ramp it way up, so what do you got. - Just the thing, this. - No. - Okay, plan B. - Sure. - The Fist of Doom. (bright angelic music) - That's legitimately impressive. - Thank you. - What is that gonna do. - This is a punching piston. It's running at about 170 PSI and it can punch with aforce of nearly 3000 pounds. - Nearly 3000 pounds.
That's perfect because itfalls right within the range that we previously calculated. So, if the head doesn't comestraight off of this thing it might lift up some amount. - Maybe. - Yeah, okay, well youfinish the Fist of Doom. - Can do. (dramatic music) - Allen our minion punched valiantly but it wasn't quite theclassic Mortal Kombat uppercut. So, how is the Fist ofDoom gonna do better? - Well, we're going to fullpressurize our air tank. And then, after gettinga safe distance away we're gonna activate that punching piston with this switch and this battery. - Yeah, better be safewhen this thing goes off. And we still have ourweighted dummy accurately, 80 kilograms just so we can see what the perfect applicationof force does to it.
But what do you think is gonna happen. - Well, it's a ton of force that we have, but just like a real body, our dummy has a littlebit of a flop to 'em. So, I think there's agood chance that rather than getting punched up, he might just get punched back. - Alright, well you get to a safe distance while I do the same. - [Announcer] Round two. - Okay. Punching machine is armed. Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. (dramatic music) I don't think we got airborne. - Oh really, what gave that away? Yeah, but it does looklike our entire stand shattered in the back. - [Allen] Yeah, we pulled out the wood screws down here, entirely.
Yeah, that's not easy to do. But we still did not get any lift off like we see in Mortal Kombat. - Yeah, you know, I'm noticing now that we put all of the weight that a human body wouldhave, at the bottom here. And that might have created sort of like an artificial pivot point that encouraged him to getknocked back like this, rather than up. - Yeah, my feet don't weigh 80 kilograms. So, maybe redistributing the mass closer to where the center of mass ofa person would be, sorry CM. The Fist of Doom, how could that change? - You know underneath that boxing glove is just a solid block of aluminum. - Okay, so if it was more rigid then more force would transfermore quickly to the face. You're saying the gloves are coming off? - I think the gloves are coming off. - [Announcer] Round three.
Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. (upbeat music) - Okay. Okay so, still not airborne. We did everything that we possible could. And I think looking at the high speed, it's the flexing of the neck. - [Allen] We did manage topunch this guy about as hard as you could ever possiblehope to punch a guy. - The neck is flexing so much that the force is goinginto translating motion into the neck and not lifting straight up. Humans are floppy things. This is kind of what would happen. I mean, looking at him more closely I do see some damage underneath the neck. I see kind of a big gash across where the jugular would be. - Yeah, his throat got splitopen in a couple places. - Yeah. - [Allen] It's still floppy. - Why is his head so, oh, Allen look at this. Look at this. That is a full spinal fracture right across where, I believe, this is where your spinal cord would be. It snapped his neck, beforeit lifted him half an inch off the ground.
This is a fatality my friend. So, I think we've donepretty much all we can do in this setup. How can we make this uppercut work. - We've made the fist harder we've made the body stiffer. We've given this every possible chance. I think the only thing left to do if we wanna replicatewhat we see in the game and try to get a body tofly two meters in the air or whatever, is just tomake this guy super light. It might look kind of weird. - I'm fine with that. - Okay, let's do it. Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. - [Announcer] Finish him. (triumphant music) (crew laughing) (upbeat music) - Yes, Allen get over here. We did it. - I think that was perfect replication. - Yeah, if you look at the footage it looks just like itdoes in Mortal Kombat.
But what did we have to dojust to make that happen? - Well first of all, we had to create agigantic punching machine that could punch way harderthan any mortal man could. - And then we had to makea special inflatable dummy that weighed 10 to 15 times less than what we had been using. - And then, just to makesure that all that energy actually transferred into him, we had to give him thisoutrageous chin extension. - And, we had to add a guiding rod like he was some kindof water bottle rocket just so the force wouldn't push him away when he was punched. - Kyle, - Yeah? - I don't think youcan punch into the air. - Allen, I'm reallyglad we replicated this. But I don't think you canpunch a guy into the air.
This is awesome though. We set out to test today whether or not it truly was possible to uppercut someone so hardthat they lifted off the ground. And I think we've shown thatthat's pretty much impossible. Even if you had thetheoretical amount of force behind your fist to lift someone humans are squishy, bendy things, and most of that force is gonna go into either moving the head out of the way. Or, moving the neck so far back that you cause a fatality before the other fightereven hits the ground. Kinda defeating the point. So, this move has to stay inthe Mortal Kombat universe. Until next time, I'll see, for me?
Thank you. I'll see you in the Void. - [Announcer] Coming up next on, The Science of Mortal Kombat, - [Kyle] It is the heatof Scorpion's chain which allows him to pullit through a person. So what we are going to do today is try our best toreplicate the conditions of this heated fatality to see what they do toour human flesh analog. - [Man] Heated chain test in three, two, one. (triumphant music)
That was good, okay. Kill for me. Defend my honor. (uptempo music) (choral music) Wow, that was great. You've earned one treat. What would it really taketo do a move like that. This is the science of Mortal Kombat. Welcome to my MortalKombat version of the Void. Complete with a legion of minions ready to do my sciency bidding. An entire areas dedicatedto the over-analysis of kicking and punching. In today's episode we are covering maybe the most famous move inall of Mortal Kombat. The classic uppercut.
You've seen the uppercutin Mortal Kombat games for decades now. And of course, it returnsin the latest entry into the series, Mortal Kombat 11 from Warner Brothersand NetherRealm Studios. It is typified not justby a punch that is strong but a punch that hasso much force behind it that lifts an opponent up into the air and above the puncher's head. Our mission today isto test whether or not a humanoid fighter couldreally punch this hard. But, if one of my minions can't handle it then we'll have to figureout some kind of way to replicate what we see in the game. What? You haven't done anythingyet, you don't get a treat. This isn't how this works. Get out of here. Leave. Go away. You would not believe thetreat budget around here. Look, I'm not gonna pull any punches here. A Mortal Kombat style uppercut does not have physics in its favor.
If you wanted to lift afighter off of the ground with an uppercut alone, you're gonna have tosupply a substantial force to their face with your fist. At minimum that forceyou apply to their face is gonna have to equal their weight which is the mass of the fighter multiplied by theacceleration due to gravity on whatever planet they're on. If there is some force left over, some resultant force afterthese two forces interact then in accordance with smartboy Issac Newton's second law they will accelerate in that direction in accordance with their mass, flawlessly.
But, did not move up in the air. How did that feel. - Felt good, felt solid. Just actually being able tolift the mass off the ground I thinks gonna be impossible. - I think this mightactually be impossible for mere mortals such as we. So, I'm gonna bring in whatI call the Fist of Doom. - Alright, I'm gonna leave for that. - Okay, yeah let's go. Hey, do you think Icould do some MMA stuff? - [CM] You know, if you tryreally hard, probably not. - Oh, thanks. I think we're gonnahave to ramp it way up, so what do you got. - Just the thing, this. - No. - Okay, plan B. - Sure. - The Fist of Doom. (bright angelic music) - That's legitimately impressive. - Thank you. - What is that gonna do. - This is a punching piston. It's running at about 170 PSI and it can punch with aforce of nearly 3000 pounds. - Nearly 3000 pounds.
That's perfect because itfalls right within the range that we previously calculated. So, if the head doesn't comestraight off of this thing it might lift up some amount. - Maybe. - Yeah, okay, well youfinish the Fist of Doom. - Can do. (dramatic music) - Allen our minion punched valiantly but it wasn't quite theclassic Mortal Kombat uppercut. So, how is the Fist ofDoom gonna do better? - Well, we're going to fullpressurize our air tank. And then, after gettinga safe distance away we're gonna activate that punching piston with this switch and this battery. - Yeah, better be safewhen this thing goes off. And we still have ourweighted dummy accurately, 80 kilograms just so we can see what the perfect applicationof force does to it.
But what do you think is gonna happen. - Well, it's a ton of force that we have, but just like a real body, our dummy has a littlebit of a flop to 'em. So, I think there's agood chance that rather than getting punched up, he might just get punched back. - Alright, well you get to a safe distance while I do the same. - [Announcer] Round two. - Okay. Punching machine is armed. Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. (dramatic music) I don't think we got airborne. - Oh really, what gave that away? Yeah, but it does looklike our entire stand shattered in the back. - [Allen] Yeah, we pulled out the wood screws down here, entirely.
Yeah, that's not easy to do. But we still did not get any lift off like we see in Mortal Kombat. - Yeah, you know, I'm noticing now that we put all of the weight that a human body wouldhave, at the bottom here. And that might have created sort of like an artificial pivot point that encouraged him to getknocked back like this, rather than up. - Yeah, my feet don't weigh 80 kilograms. So, maybe redistributing the mass closer to where the center of mass ofa person would be, sorry CM. The Fist of Doom, how could that change? - You know underneath that boxing glove is just a solid block of aluminum. - Okay, so if it was more rigid then more force would transfermore quickly to the face. You're saying the gloves are coming off? - I think the gloves are coming off. - [Announcer] Round three.
Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. (upbeat music) - Okay. Okay so, still not airborne. We did everything that we possible could. And I think looking at the high speed, it's the flexing of the neck. - [Allen] We did manage topunch this guy about as hard as you could ever possiblehope to punch a guy. - The neck is flexing so much that the force is goinginto translating motion into the neck and not lifting straight up. Humans are floppy things. This is kind of what would happen. I mean, looking at him more closely I do see some damage underneath the neck. I see kind of a big gash across where the jugular would be. - Yeah, his throat got splitopen in a couple places. - Yeah. - [Allen] It's still floppy. - Why is his head so, oh, Allen look at this. Look at this. That is a full spinal fracture right across where, I believe, this is where your spinal cord would be. It snapped his neck, beforeit lifted him half an inch off the ground.
This is a fatality my friend. So, I think we've donepretty much all we can do in this setup. How can we make this uppercut work. - We've made the fist harder we've made the body stiffer. We've given this every possible chance. I think the only thing left to do if we wanna replicatewhat we see in the game and try to get a body tofly two meters in the air or whatever, is just tomake this guy super light. It might look kind of weird. - I'm fine with that. - Okay, let's do it. Fist of Doom firing in three, two, one. - [Announcer] Finish him. (triumphant music) (crew laughing) (upbeat music) - Yes, Allen get over here. We did it. - I think that was perfect replication. - Yeah, if you look at the footage it looks just like itdoes in Mortal Kombat.
But what did we have to dojust to make that happen? - Well first of all, we had to create agigantic punching machine that could punch way harderthan any mortal man could. - And then we had to makea special inflatable dummy that weighed 10 to 15 times less than what we had been using. - And then, just to makesure that all that energy actually transferred into him, we had to give him thisoutrageous chin extension. - And, we had to add a guiding rod like he was some kindof water bottle rocket just so the force wouldn't push him away when he was punched. - Kyle, - Yeah? - I don't think youcan punch into the air. - Allen, I'm reallyglad we replicated this. But I don't think you canpunch a guy into the air.
This is awesome though. We set out to test today whether or not it truly was possible to uppercut someone so hardthat they lifted off the ground. And I think we've shown thatthat's pretty much impossible. Even if you had thetheoretical amount of force behind your fist to lift someone humans are squishy, bendy things, and most of that force is gonna go into either moving the head out of the way. Or, moving the neck so far back that you cause a fatality before the other fightereven hits the ground. Kinda defeating the point. So, this move has to stay inthe Mortal Kombat universe. Until next time, I'll see, for me?
Thank you. I'll see you in the Void. - [Announcer] Coming up next on, The Science of Mortal Kombat, - [Kyle] It is the heatof Scorpion's chain which allows him to pullit through a person. So what we are going to do today is try our best toreplicate the conditions of this heated fatality to see what they do toour human flesh analog. - [Man] Heated chain test in three, two, one. (triumphant music)
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