Thursday 3 July 2014

PokeScience: Wailord is lighter than air?

So everyone knows what the largest pokemon is, Wailord, the massive leviathan of a pokemon that towers over all other pokemon. At a massive 14.5m (47'07") it would be the 6th largest animal (on physical dimensions) if it existed on our planet (beaten by 5 species of whale).




So surely this must be the heaviest pokemon as well? I mean, humpback whales are a very similar size and they weigh around 35 metric tonnes (80000 pounds).

Well no.
It barely scrapes the top 10.
There are 9 other pokemon (10 if you count primal Kyogre) that have more weight than this behemoth of a whale.
Weighing in at just 398kg (877.4lbs), Wailord is impossibly light.
But just how light is it? Could it even swim?

Warning, Science and Math ahead
Now, we have enough information to estimate the volume of a Wailord. We know it's mass and it's length and can estimate other dimensions from these measurements.

Now, pokemon only gives us one dimension of length in the pokedex, labelled height. Now I'm going to assume that this refers to the longest length of Wailord, giving it the specs of a whale which it is based off. Therefore, the length from nose to tail is 14.5m.
Now, from comparative measurements from pictures, I found a ratio of about 2.54 from height to length, giving it's other dimension as 5.71m
We can estimate Wailord as an ellipsoid (a 3D oval, pill, blimp shape), we can estimate it's volume to be about 247.54 cubic metres. [V=(4/3)(pi)abc].

Density = mass/volume, therefore we can calculate that density = 398/247.54
density = 1.61kg/cubic metre.

Now, for an object to float or sink in water, it's density must be less than or greater than the density of water respectively.
So if we have lead which is far more dense than water, it will sink, while a filled balloon which has less density that water will actively float and may be difficult to submerge.
The density of water at 20°C is 998.21 kg/m3. Which means, not only will Wailord float, it is almost impossible to submerge.

For that matter, lets check in on the density of air.
Air has a density of around 1.207kg/m3 at 20°C, which means our Wailord will almost float in air. However, consider that we have made a pessimistic estimation of Wailord's volume. Wailord is not an ellipsoid but is more like a cylinder with rounded ends.

If, instead we use the same dimensions but use a cylinder as the base shape (giving us an overestimated optimistic volume). We get Wailord's volume to come out as 371.3m3 and therefore his density as 1.07kg/m3. Therefore, Wailord's real density lies somewhere between these numbers and quite potentially, Wailord may be less dense than air.

I guess that's what you get from the float whale pokemon!


Now, lets quickly assume that height is the other dimension and therefore Wailord is 36.83m long making it larger than a blue whale. It's ellipsoid density is 0.0982 and it's cylinder density is 0.0654.
To put that in perspective, the least dense thing on our planet is hydrogen gas and that has a density of 0.082 meaning that Wailord could very well be less dense than hydrogen, and definitely less dense than air.

9 comments:

  1. So how is this pokemon able to swim if it is so friggin light!?!?

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  2. There's something called a swim bladder that lets them to control their buoyancy and of course, there's pokescience that allows them to spew fire, change shapes and flowers to walk.

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  3. technically since wailord has a WEIGHT of 398kg, and we assume that the pokemon "earth has the same gravity as earth, that means wailord has a MASS of 40kg. plugging this in means that wailord at 14.5 long would have a density of 0.102kg/m3 making him a giant helium balloon

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    1. No, you retard. If you want to be precise about weight and mass terminology, you start off with the fact that Wailord's 'weight' is expressed in units of mass, reflecting the fact that in everyday speech, 'weight' is used where mass is actually what is being discussed, because in everyday scenarios on the Earth's surface they are interchangeable. If you want to determine the force due to gravity a mass is subject to ('weight' in the strict definition) you express that quantity in units of force - newtons - not units of mass.

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    2. I think the reason he thinks this is that he thinks the density of air is based on the weight of air, and both the mass of air, though the mass of air is what was given here. also. does it make you feel like an adult when you call people a retard online? just because you got out of class today only half paying attention? because saying one kg, is really, one kgf. just like how sometimes people say calorie instead of kilocalorie.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. And of course, someone mąkę mistake, So let's call him "retard" , that definitely make you looks smarter.
    Thats pretty sąd how aggresive people in the internet are

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  5. So wailord is most definitely able to float in the sky correct?

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