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I asked about this in a VS topic, but nobody was really able to answer.
A common way to calculate character speed is to make a comparision with something wich we know the speed: bullets, falling objects, cars... But how can we be sure about the speed of such things ? We can say: "everything works like in real life, if not stated differently." But this answer show his limits when incosistencies start to show up.
For example let's say we have 2 characters with super speed (they move at 200 m/s). If they fight the time would be slowed down for the audience. But this means also that they would take forever to fall when in mid air, because the only force acting to them would be gravity and we know that gravity acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2. But in a lot of fiction falling speed doesn't seem to be that slow, so we have to conclude that the characters aren't really moving that fast.
Another thing to add is that characters without magical flight can't really fight at ridicolous speed. Because without a way to propel your body in the air you are limited to the friction between your feet and the ground. And it isn't enough to accelerate to supersonic speed (except if you jump vertically). Let alone trying to stop yourself...
So to come back to the original answer: if we have a character able of bullet dodging we should think that he is that fast ? Or that the bullets are slower than the real ones ? Both possibilities means breaking the laws of phisics. Given that we can't avoid breaking some of them it's important to decide what should work like the real world. It's impossible to make everything work like reality except the superpowers. Bullet dodgers means breaking friction (and a lot of other things) while slower bullets break gravity (and other things).
I think that setting a common ground is needful for VS debates. We should decide: "people are fast like real people" or "bullets are fast like similar real bullets" or "gravity acceleration is the same".
A common way to calculate character speed is to make a comparision with something wich we know the speed: bullets, falling objects, cars... But how can we be sure about the speed of such things ? We can say: "everything works like in real life, if not stated differently." But this answer show his limits when incosistencies start to show up.
For example let's say we have 2 characters with super speed (they move at 200 m/s). If they fight the time would be slowed down for the audience. But this means also that they would take forever to fall when in mid air, because the only force acting to them would be gravity and we know that gravity acceleration is 9.8 m/s^2. But in a lot of fiction falling speed doesn't seem to be that slow, so we have to conclude that the characters aren't really moving that fast.
Another thing to add is that characters without magical flight can't really fight at ridicolous speed. Because without a way to propel your body in the air you are limited to the friction between your feet and the ground. And it isn't enough to accelerate to supersonic speed (except if you jump vertically). Let alone trying to stop yourself...
So to come back to the original answer: if we have a character able of bullet dodging we should think that he is that fast ? Or that the bullets are slower than the real ones ? Both possibilities means breaking the laws of phisics. Given that we can't avoid breaking some of them it's important to decide what should work like the real world. It's impossible to make everything work like reality except the superpowers. Bullet dodgers means breaking friction (and a lot of other things) while slower bullets break gravity (and other things).
I think that setting a common ground is needful for VS debates. We should decide: "people are fast like real people" or "bullets are fast like similar real bullets" or "gravity acceleration is the same".
