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Thor’s hammer in real life

October 26, 2015
Jason Chung Orange Lutheran High Junior

By Jason Chung
Orange Lutheran High
Junior

Marvel’s fictions tend to be so surrealistic that it is nearly impossible to replicate such supernatural events in real life. Thor’s hammer, the Mjölnir, is no exception.

In Marvel’s The Avengers in 2012, nobody was able to lift up the Mjölnir except for Thor himself. This seemed to be fascinating yet preposterous because some characters like the Hulk were clearly physically stronger than Thor.

However, the ‘owner-recognizing’ hammer was created and became tangible by a young man named Allen Pan. His Mjölnir is literally impossible to lift up by others. In his YouTube video, created by him with his pseudonym Sufficiently Advanced, Pan asks others to hold the hammer and try to lift it up. Many individuals tried, but no one succeeded. Yet when they witnessed Pan simply holding it with his one bare hand, they either applauded with amazement or were fascinated with confusion.

The fundamentals were simpler than they thought. Inside the Mjölnir was an electromagnet that allowed the hammer to stick to a metal surface, such as manhole cover. This electromagnet allowed the Mjölnir to be, in terms of lifting it up, insuperable.

However, there was another secret device that was inside the Mjölnir’s hilt, which was a fingerprint scanner. The scanner only detected Pan’s fingerprint to allow the ‘owner-recognizing’ aspect possible. As a result, whenever Pan secretly scanned his fingerprint on the hilt by acting as if he was attempting to lift it, the scanner would detect his fingerprint and turn off the electromagnet, allowing Pan to easily lift the Mjölnir.

Of course, the others who tried to lift the hammer did not know this fact, and even if they did, their fingerprint would not have been able to deactivate the electromagnet.

Although it is arguable that Pan’s Mjölnir is merely a simple trick, it is still a significant invention that brought a fictional aspect of science-fiction movies to real life.