How did 8 sick Pegasi lead to almost not reaching the 800 wingpower goal?

[Never2muchpinkie 211]

I love the episode, and it wouldn't have been a satisfying ending if Fluttershy didn't get her moment of glory, but they clearly should have had enough wingpower to get that hurricane going.

 

Rainbow claimed that if every pegasi could hit at least 10 wingpower they could hit or exceed a goal of 1000, meaning there should have been about 100 pegasi. Accounting for Fluttershy's 5 and assuming Rainbow was holding back during her demonstration(she can fly fast enough to do a sonic rainboom after all) let's put her actual number around 25 wingpower(Flying in a circle is different than straight line speed so she couldn't build up as much momentum). Even with 8 sick, they still should have hit 930, 10 above the previous record.

 

Even with all the present pegasi, they barely managed to hit 800, so that means for them to have hit Rainbow's goal of 1000, every one of the missing pegasi had to have flying 25 wingpower, WAY above the goal of 10, and 8.5 ahead of Rainbow's own 16.5. Of course the only pegasi to get sick are fricken MACHINES, right?

Edited October 28, 2013 by Never2muchpinkie

[Scootalove 10,689]

I don't really know. Maybe, if the 8 pegasi were not sick from the feather flu then they could probably reach the 1000 wing power goal either that or they could still reach the 800 goal anyway.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

Well we need to know a little more before we can give a reason why it did not work.

 

Did they acutely have a 100 pegasus at first and how many of them were able to get to 10?

 

There could still be a few pegasus that could only do about 7 or 8 wingpower and not make it to 10. Maybe the ones that are missing were the one's that had highwing power. Still like I said, we need a little more info.

[Pomfritter 165]

I think that was just an episode of RD trying to talk up the other pegasi and to show how teamwork is important. I don't think the people who wrote the episode took very hefty notes about how much wingpower was necessary or expected any of use to really be paying that close attention as well.

[Zygen 6,066]

I have to agree that the episode did have some confusing facts.

 

However the only conclusion i can come to is that all the pegasi didn't get to 10 wingpower, and that the ones that happened to not be present where the ones with the highest wing power records.

 

Its still a little sketchy, but frankly i've been unable to think of any better conclusion.

 

I do highly doubt each and every pegasi flew at even 10 wingpower, some flew under and others over i'm sure.

[Never2muchpinkie 211]

You know, if it was just Rainbow Dash around, I could see her being too obsessed with the record to pay attention to what their actual numbers were going to be. However, with BRAINIAC Twilight around, the mare who can 'recite facts and figures with ease' and calculated the square root of a number inside her head, that's where it gets confusing, because a mare like her would definitely be able to keep track of how close they were to breaking the 1000 record. Thus, it seems like the 8 missing pegasi really WERE hitting 25 wingpower.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Never2muchpinkie

[Forlong 1,726]

Math and aerodynamics are a bit more complicated than that.  Are you familiar with the "V Formation"?

 

The reason this formation is used is because the air that the bird in front pushed when he flaps down is pushed behind him and gives the birds on his left and right an easier time.  Rainbow Dash's tornado probably followed the same principle.  Thunderlane and Flitter were probably some of the strongest fliers and meant to make flying easier for the weaker fliers.

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

I'm only going to guess Rainbow just isn't good with numbers and therefore wasn't 100% accurate when she said they needed 800 wing power to get the water up to Cloudsdale.