science

Strange Visitor

Strange Visitor is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Strange Visitor rather than just read about it. In short: Strange Visitor (Sharon Vance) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Superman (vol. 2) #149 and was created by Randall Frenz and Ron Frenz.

Key takeaways

Strange Visitor belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Strange Visitor to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Strange Visitor from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Strange Visitor (Sharon Vance) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She first appeared in Superman (vol. 2) #149 and was created by Randall Frenz and Ron Frenz.

Fictional character biography Following a lightning strike on a plane, the cosmic entity Kismet and Sharon Vance (Clark Kent's childhood friend from Smallville) became one entity known as the Strange Visitor. She had become a being of pure electromagnetic energy and was drawn to the laboratories of Professor Emil Hamilton, who still had one of Superman's containment suits (from a period when he was temporarily converted to electromagnetic energy). Emil modified the suit to fit her since test results showed that her energy field was dissolving and the suit would help her maintain solid form. Her memories were weak, and even though she easily used her powers to magnetically levitate trains over destroyed tracks, destroy alien attackers with an electromagnetic pulse, and absorb the powers of a self-proclaimed "god of war", she still did not know who she was. A battle with the Parasite restores her powers and her memories. When the Imperiex fleet attacks Earth during the "Our Worlds at War" event, Strange Visitor sacrifices herself by giving all of her powers to Superman to give him the necessary power boost to defeat Imperiex. Strange Visitor returns in the sixth volume of Supergirl (2018) as a prisoner of the Department of Extranormal Operations and a member of the Justice Foundation.

Powers and abilities Strange Visitor is connected to the Earth's geomagnetic field and has the power to manipulate electromagnetic energy, which enables her to fire blasts of electrical energy from her hands or eyes, generate magnetic fields to move, lift, and manipulate metal objects, create force fields, steal energy from others, and even "read" an object's magnetic field. She also has the power to fly at near light speeds, lower her density to become intangible, and telepathically sense emotions.

In other media Sharon Vance appears in the Young Justice episode "True Colors", voiced by Masasa Moyo. This version is a tour guide at a LexCorp farming facility.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Strange Visitor

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Strange Visitor claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Strange Visitor before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Strange Visitor ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Strange Visitor

In research: Strange Visitor appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Strange Visitor in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Strange Visitor is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Characters created by Ron Frenz, Comics characters introduced in 1999, DC Comics female superheroes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Strange Visitor outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Strange Visitor in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Strange Visitor means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Strange Visitor out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Strange Visitor in simple terms?

Why does Strange Visitor matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Strange Visitor?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Strange Visitor.