How much Kryptonyte can kill Superman?

[mbaker]

I was watching "World's Finest" on my PS2 with an old friend of mine. He noticed the scene where Batman holds that little piece of kryptonite infront of Superman, and when Bats throws it into A drink, Superman isn't effected by it. So dose this mean that A small piece of kryptonite dosen't do as much damage to Supes as A much larger piece would? I'm just curious.

[DisneyBoy]

I guess it's like asking if a small piece of radioactive debris would hurt you as much as being near a larger piece of radioactive debris would.


In other words, yes, I'm pretty sure the more there is, the more it hurts!

[slackermonkey]

Superman isn't effected by the kryptonite when it was in the drink because lead and glass block its radiation.

[Joe Tully]

A larger piece would naturally hurt Supes more, since it would be giving off more radiation, and the radiation from the Kryptonite is what hurts him.

Radiation can be blocked by just about anything, to different degrees of success, depending on the strength of the radiation. Even a piece of paper will block small amounts of the strongest kinds of radiation, though not to the degree where it would be useful. In this case, the glass and water were able to block the already small amount of radiation given off by the Kryptonite to the point where Supes was not affected.

[dark knight acolyte]

I know he didn't ask it like this in his first post, but what I think he wants to know is how much Kryptonite people believe is necessary to kill Superman? Since such a small amt. hurt him, he probably feels a small amt. could kill him, too. Obviously, the bigger the rock the more damaging. But still...how much IS really TOO much? How much, short of a kryptonite bullet or unbearably long times of exposure, will kill the man?