Leap...
The Hulk is capable of leaping massive heights and distances, but how much force does it take for him to leap?
The first thing we need is the Hulk’s mass, which according to Marvel is around 1400 lbs (635 kg).
The Hulk has been known to jump to the edge of space in Marvel comics, but for now we will focus on an easy jump of a mile high (1600 m).
We can use gravitational potential energy and the work done to find the force.
Gravitational Potential Energy = mass x gravity x height
In order for the hulk to get a mile high he would need to change his gravitational potential energy by 10,160,000 J (= mgh = 635 x 10 x 1600), this energy would have to come from kinetic energy as he left the ground.
Force = Work done x distance
(Work done is the change in energy).
He only has the short distance of his legs extending in which to create the kinetic energy needed to jump, for the Hulk this is a distance of about 0.8 m meaning he needs an average force of 12,700,000 N (= W/d = 10160000/0.8) while in contact with the ground to jump 1 mile high. Just to keep this in perspective an average human can produce about 850 N to a jump an average jump of 0.6 m.
The Hulk would need to leave the ground at a speed of 178.9 m/s (644 km/h) to make the mile high jump, a little below the speed of sound at 330 m/s.
Inspired by: Dot Physics - Physics of the Hulk jump.
Dense...
How dense is The Hulk? (in terms of his mass per volume, not his stupidity).
Bruce HulkDuring his transformation The Hulk goes from being Bruce Banner at 5’9” and 58 kg to The Hulk at 8’ and 635 kg (according to the Marvel database).
Density.
In physics we like to make things simple so we’ll turn Bruce and the Hulk into cylinders (much like a spherical chicken in a vacuum).
Using the density of water 1000 kg/m3 which is largely what a human is, Bruce’s volume would be 0.058 m^3
Scaling the Hulks volume using the cylinder and his 8 foot height his volume would be about 0.156 m^3.
The hulks density is then 635 kg / 0.156 m3 = 4072.8 kg / m3. This is similar to the density of titanium at 4500 kg / m3.
Where does the mass come from?
The other point to consider is how The Hulk gains almost 600 kg in transforming from Bruce. The suggested theory is he uses the nuclear energy from his gamma exposure converting it into mass (a reverse of most nuclear processes), if so we can use E= mc2 to calculate that he would need to convert 51,930,000,000,000,000,000 J of energy into the extra 577 kg he gains. This is about 300 times more energy than earth gets from the sun every second.