For my school project, I had a argumentative essay on what pokemon can actually fly in real life, but with over 1,000 pokemon, how could we determine what pokemon could fly?
After that it was process of elimination, all pokemon that can levitate were immediately put out a long with pokemon that can float (they’re not included), along with pokemon with no realistic way to launch themselves off the ground. I ended up with almost 70 pokemon that fit the criteria and used these variables:
Wing loading: How much weight each square meter of wing must support
Stall Speed: Minimum speed in which lift and flight can be sustained
Aspect ratio: Used for analysis
Wing Area: Total surface area of both wings.
I then came across a problem: Most pokemon did not have known variables for wingspan, which determines if they can fly or not. After brainstorming, I quickly came up with a solution: Find the closest IRL animal relative and scale the wings by a multiplier of height and weight.
I then plugged these variables into chatgpt for quick bulk calculation (only for calculation, everything else is mine) and then had it put it in a spreadsheet. So without further Ado, here are the results: combined_pokemon_flight_with_emolga_set (1).csv (4.2 KB)
now some pokemon weren’t included for the sake of time, so please let me know which ones I missed and I will add them. This project took a few weeks and I’m pretty proud of the outcome.
Can you explain with one example how you determine a Pokemon can fly or not (based on the numbers in your sheet)? As per your spreadsheet, Pidgey and Spearow cannot fly but the metal bird Skarmory can?
Also, as per your sheet, Flygon which is based on a real life insect (Antlion) cannot fly but Salamance can. What are these multipliers you used.
This is something unique you have done, so I am genuinly interested and curious to understand.
Cheers!
Edit: Dragonite is not on your list. It is a flying postman. It’s duty goes beyond your calculations!
Maybe a stupid question but..
If you’re using an animal from the real world (which is probably known to be able to fly) as a multiplier for the Pokemon, aren’t you adding a huge bias to your study?
No, a lot of these pokemon still can’t fly even with size multiplier applied to it. It’s only approximating Wingspan by how many times bigger is it to the irl animal, not scaling to height and weight. I made a mistake on that mb.
Typically if you’re proving something mathematically, it’s best to:
State all of your assumptions
Cite which equations are being used
Specify the criteria for which somethings works/does not work
I would also skip on using chatpgt. Looks like you’re mostly dividing/multiplying, and makes for good practice with spreadsheets. I also find it interesting you’re using metric units here, are you following someone else’s example? (which is not a bad thing)
Pidgey should be able to fly, but Spearow actually can’t because it’s too heavy to. I should’ve removed skarmory also. Another mistake on my part. For flygon, even with multipliers scaled it’s still too heavy to be able to fly due to it’s smaller Wingspan.
Also Dragonite has way too small wings to be able to and way too heavy.
I had to use it for bulk calculations and had a deadline. I am using the formulas of wing loading, wing area, aspect ratio, and stall speed. I had to do a bit of research of basic areodynamics also.
I should update this with disclosure of closest relative, I merely did a simple search of “what pokemon is this based on” and went from there, doing a bit more research to confirm. Also size multiplier doesn’t garauntee it will be able to fly. Weight and height is still a factor.
If you really want to impress your teacher, show the formulas and cite where they came from. These equations are not widely known compared to something like pressure (P=F/A), so its best to credit whoever/whichever organization came up with them. It increases your credibility.
