How does Spiderman manage to stick? The answer lies with the workings of forces within molecules called Van der Waal forces.

These forces, which act between stable molecules, are actually weak compared to the forces that appear in chemical bonding.

Well they can’t be that weak considering that Spiderman still manages to scuttle up an 80 story building in nought to ten seconds! So: if the scientific world describes them as ‘weak’, let’s find out exactly what makes them special.

Van der Waal forces were first discovered by a Dutch physicist J.D. van der Waal.

They exist because the movements of electrons in atoms and molecules cause them to become dipolar. A dipolar atom or molecule has a “positive-pole” and a “negative-pole”. The positive pole of one atom or molecule will be attracted to the negative-pole of another.