Cap's shield

I am in no way a physics expert, so I may be way off with this.

If Cap's shield absorbs the energy of hits (like Thor's hammer) then shouldn't it be able to absorb the force of hitting a wall, effectively killing its momentum?

This was something that occurred to me the other night as I watched Cap America (the first one) and thought I would consult the CV experts.

@wildvine: I've always just assumed it only absorbed the opposing force... Works for me.

Wouldn't a wall be an opposing force though?

It does do that in the winter soldier movie. Not sure if it makes sense in real life though. cap still should've gotten hurt IMO. His body still received all of the impact of falling fast and then a sudden stop against a hard object

@wildvine: But... the wall doesn't have any momentum... Does it??? I'm confused about what you're suggesting... my bad.

@project_worm:

You're probably right. As I said, I'm no physics expert.

In physics we have something called energy transfer. Say you pressed upon the wall with three tons, the wall would "press" against you with three tons. That's why if you throw a heavy ball/or a weight forwards you get pushed back too. If Captain Run into a wall and smashed himself against the wall his energy (in this case kinetic energy) would be absorbed by the shield. In the move they were just wrong, they forgot his shield can absorb all kinds of kinetic/momentum energy etc...

@wildvine: I'm far from a physics expert myself. In high-school I took "Integrated Physics and Chemistry" because I was to lazy to do any math...

@wildvine: Yeah, sadly, the shield is something of a plot device. It doesn't even function anything like it should based off it's description of abilities. Lol.

Nuh uh. Cap just knows how to flick his wrist the right way so it does the boomerang thing! Duh!

That damn shield is filled with so much freedom that it won't be stopped by any damned physics!

Physics and comics rarely fit together in a nice, neat way.

@wolverine08: D@med right!

Some serious physics talk is going around here and this is a good reason for me not to get involved since physics ain't my strong point.