Hurricane Fluttershy's Fuzzy Math

[Clover Heart 978]

Okay, so I noticed something in Hurricane Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash's goal is to get over 1000 wingpower for the tornado. However, at the time they need to make the tornado to transport the water, they're in danger of not having enough wingpower to even lift the water (800 WP.) This kinda doesn't make sense.

 

The idea is that each pony needs 10.0 WP in order to beat 1000 WP. This would mean that if every pony were flying at 10.0 WP, there would have to be at least 100 ponies. However, there are 8 pegasi out with the feather flu. This would mean there are, minimum, 92 ponies. If they're flying with 10.0 WP, they'd still have 920 WP, which is plenty to lift the water. Heck, it would even still beat Fillydelphia's record of 910, which is what RD was really looking to do.

 

I suppose it's possible that not everyone is flying with 10.0 WP, but at the same time, we saw that some ponies were flying with more than 10.0 WP, like Rainbow, who had 16.5 WP, and that was before training. There might also be fewer than 100 pegasi, total, but that would mean that they'd need more than 10.0 WP each in order to break 1000, and RD said that 10.0 WP would be enough for each pony.

 

I can't ascertain the specifics 100%, but any way you slice it, it just doesn't add up. They would have to have made the number of sick ponies a lot larger in order to have it make sense. Around 20 would probably have been best. This would put them at 80 ponies, flying at 10.0 WP, would put them just at 800 WP, but it would still be believable, because it's still possible that not everypony would have had 10.0 WP.

 

Anyway, this is a real nitpick, but it's always sorta bugged me. What are your thoughts on this? Does this make sense, or no? Is this believable or not? Do you have your own explanation? Let's discuss.

[Osiria 142]

When they testing their wing power they were flying straight one by one without cooperating  . 

 

It was hard to reach top speed when they were flying in circle, let alone most of them couldn't go past others when they probably had to keep their own position. Hence, they were not likely to produce 10.0 WP each pony like they did in test. (Even if they did their best, it couldn't guarantee the overall force would be 920 WP, because of...physics.)

 

As for Dashie's expectation, well, I guess she's not good at math or physics

Dashie's lack of physics knowledge (or she simplified it too much) misled us into thinking we could calculate the overall force by simply adding all numbers up, but that's not how physics works. They were flying in circle which was a complicated movement involving directional changes and what not, making the calculation much more difficult.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Osiria

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

 It doesn't really make sense with the numbers given, assuming a simple linear equation, that is definitely true. I would say either 1. there was some sort of unmentioned synergistic factor at work (a multiplicative rather than simply additive effect), or 2. the writers didn't put enough effort into making the mathematics consistent. I'd put my money on #2, really. 

[Argumedies 1,748]

Cartoon logic vs physical mathematics is never an equal equation.

 

I remember long ago someone tried to work out the mathematical formula at the point of the SRB where RD avoided the ground and came up with something like 16,000 G forces

[PoisonClaw 8,153]

That's one of the only issues I have with this episode (I was actually going to post a thread like this but you beat me to it).

 

Based an the numbers seen and some over thinking, I estimated that the natural average WP falls somewhere between 6-8 WP, not to mention that the presence of Rumble, Thunderlane's brother, implies that Dash conscripted young colts and fillies too and their wing power would possibly only be half that at about 3-4.5. To meet the 1000 WP, Ponyville's Pegasus population (try saying that three times fast) would have be at least 100-120 give or take. Even if we assume that all the sick Pegasis could manage 10+ WP, it doesn't add up.

 

Of course, the short version is that for the story they needed some reason the tornado couldn't work in order to create a conflict to spur Fluttershy on. Also Writers Can't Do Math. (TvTropes link. Click at your own peril). 

[Clover Heart 978]

When they testing their wing power they were flying straight one by one without cooperating  . 

 

It was hard to reach top speed when they were flying in circle, let alone most of them couldn't go past others when they probably had to keep their own position. Hence, they were not likely to produce 10.0 WP each pony like they did in test. (Even if they did their best, it couldn't guarantee the overall force would be 920 WP, because of...physics.)

 

As for Dashie's expectation, well, I guess she's not good at math or physics

Dashie's lack of physics knowledge (or she simplified it too much) misled us into thinking we could calculate the overall force by simply adding all numbers up, but that's not how physics works. They were flying in circle which was a complicated movement involving directional changes and what not, making the calculation much more difficult.

 

Now I'd like to see someone calculate this for real, Game Theorist style. Except the Game Theorists only cover games. Are there any pony theorists out there?

Edited December 18, 2014 by Clover Heart

[sweetolebob18 724]

It's been awhile since I last saw the episodes, however IIRC, they showed T's notebook a couple of times.  One pony had an 11, the others were 8-10 except F's was 0.5 & RD was 16.5.  (F's wasn't completely accurate, she freaked out & faltered, not giving her best). This was before training.  Still, there must have been around 70 or more Pegasi involved.

[Tameless 979]

That is very interesting... but I'm no math elite or anything.