Vsauce, I’m Jake and my favorite game series for Nintendo is Super Smash Bros.
And while playing the latest game in the series, Smash Bros.
Ultimate...I got to thinking...what if these moves that are performed in the game where
to happen to you in real life?
So today we are going to focus on 3 characters and a specific move from each of them: Ganondorf,
Isabelle and Wii Fit Instructor.
Now, it goes without saying that if any character from Smash were to come at you, your likelihood
of walking away from that battle would be very small but with these 3 characters and
their moves we will be discussing, they are not only deadly but surprisingly so.
So let’s start with Ganondorf and his Warlock Punch.
For this move, Ganondorf channels dark energy into a devastating punch.
In the game, when Ganondorf hits you with his Warlock Punch you generally fly back quite
a distance but if this hit you in reality, it would actually be much much worse.
To fully explain why, we need to first talk about what fuels his punch, dark energy.
Dark Energy is a property of space.
The more space there is, the more dark energy.
That is to say that as space expands, dark energy is not diluted.
And not only that, as more space comes into existence more dark energy, this energy of
space, would appear causing the Universe to expand faster and faster.
This relates to a discarded version of Einstein’s Theory of Gravity in which he referred to
this concept as the Cosmological Constant, something that counteracts gravity.
An additional theory for dark energy relates back to the first to a degree.
It is some kind of energy fluid or field that fills all of space that as NASA states, “whose
effect on the expansion of the universe is the opposite of that of matter and normal
energy.”
And that’s really all we know - nobody knows exactly what dark energy is.
It is a theoretical concept to explain a problem...the problem being the universe expanding at an
increasing rate, that something is opposing gravity.
So taking what we do know about Dark Energy, we can speculate, and I want to emphasize
that we are speculating, what Ganondorf’s Warlock Punch would do if it hit you.
Not only would his punch just be incredibly powerful in and of itself because of his strength
and size, but if he did hit you with a Warlock Punch you would not only be pushed back by
the force of the hit but also by the dark energy force.
You just don’t get up afterwards and shake it off, you keep getting punched in a sense...you
are never at rest.
The force from his fist is still on you even though, physically, his fist is no longer
touching you.
And that force gets stronger and more powerful as you are flung back further from it.
Because dark energy is the opposite of gravity, unless you were somehow physically stopped,
you would just keep going.
Forever.
And of course at some point the force applied to wherever you were struck, let's say the
chest, would eventually crush your bones and organs and you’d just be a corpse moving
through the air.
Now there are other incredibly powerful punches in Smash Bros, like the Falcon Punch and while
deadly, you can imagine what would happen if a fist moving so quickly it ignited in
flame were to hit you, but for a really wonderful analisis, Lockstin & Gnoggin have a great
video on the topic which I’ll link in the description.
And the term Falcon Punch actually comes from real life falcons punching their prey in flight...which
makes me wonder what are the most powerful punches in the animal kingdom?
To find out I just need to consult my TierZoo AnimalDex.
[TierZoo]
And speaking of animals, let’s choose a new Smash character that I found to be surprisingly
deadly, the adorable Shih Tzu Isabelle and her fishing rod toss.
For this move, Isabelle casts out a fishing line and can capture an enemy, throwing them.
This specific move caught my eye because of just how powerful it is in the game.
So how powerful would it be in real life?
A fishing rod is a lever.
It’s a simple machine generally used to amplify force.
There are 3 types of levers and each one is distinguished by the relation of the three
main parts: the fulcrum, the effort (also known as the force), and the load.
A catapult would be a class 1, a wheelbarrow would be a class 2, and a fishing rod is a
class 3 lever.
If we look at a rod the handle is the fulcrum, the force/effort is the arm of the rod and
the load is whatever is attached to the end.
In this case, you.
Quick sidenote, your arm when lifting is also a class 3 lever.
annnnddd 200.
Now here is where something counterintuitive but perfect for Isabelle’s deadly move comes
in: It’s harder to lift something with a class 3 lever than without one.
What it does excel at is increasing the speed at which that object is lifted.
It’s a speed multiplier rather than a force multiplier.
Meaning Isabelle has to be stronger to throw someone with her fishing rod than if she just
picked them up with her paws and threw them.
But using the fishing rod she can throw them much faster.
But how much faster?
Great question.
The increase in speed is directly related to the length of the lever, fishing rod, compared
to the length of her arm.
Using freeze-frames we can roughly estimate that the fishing rod is 9x longer than her
arm giving us a 9x speed multiplier.
And since it’s harder to lift things with a class 3 lever it also means Isabelle has
to be 9x stronger.
She would literally be one of the physically strongest characters in the game.
For example, here is one of the strongest humans on the planet, Thor Björnsson, throwing
a 12.32kg beer keg 8.05m into the air.
Isabelle could throw Thor holding a keg faster and farther.
So, with all that in mind and with some really cool studies on how fast a fishing line travels
through the air, we can estimate that if you were thrown by Isabelle with her fishing rod,
you would be travelling at around 643.7 kph if she threw you straight forward.
About 72% the speed of an airplane.
You would travel 240 meters in 1.3 seconds.
And going from 0 to 643.7 kph in roughly half a second would mean you’d experience 36.5
g’s.
At that level of acceleration the average human body would briefly weigh 2.6 metric
tons, about as much as a small car.
You’d bleed into your retinas causing temporary blindness, and you’d black out either from
lack of oxygen going to the brain or just from the brain slamming into your skull.
Oh, and if it were quick enough, your neck would snap.
However that's not the end of it.
If she threw you into a wall or really any hard surface you would immediately die.
Now onto our last character, the Wii Fit Trainer and her move the Sun Salutation.
For this move, the Wii Fit Trainer generates a sun energy ball that can be used as a projectile.
If she is creating a ball made out of sun energy the closest analogue would be plasma,
the fourth state of matter along with solids, liquid and gases.
Plasma is a superheated gas that also conducts electricity.
Now how hot would this be?
Well, the Corona, the outermost layer of the sun is ten million degrees celsius.
Even if we went with the surface of the sun it would still be a disgustingly hot 6000
degrees celsius.
Since you would be standing next to this ball of hot death we are going to go with the temperature
of the Corona.
If you were faced with a Sun Salutation, things would be not looking good for you.
Water turns into gas vapor at 100 degrees C, so every liquid in your body would immediately
evaporate and so would those nice wet balls in your head you use to see.
Your bones would evaporate too.
Actually, everything in the vicinity would evaporate.
The stage you’re on, the air around you, even Wii Fit Trainer themselves.
It would be a kamikaze move.
And this would all happen instantaneously.
The closest visual example I can think of is this...
So with all things said, you don’t want to go up against any Smash character in real
life but these 3 in particular I found to be incredibly interesting in just how underratedly
devastating they would be in reality.
Not just to you but to anyone or anything around you.
If there are specific characters you want to see explored in scientific reality, let
me know in the comments below.
And speaking of underrated, let’s go back to our TierZoo AnimalDex to find out what
the 3 most underrated animals are.
[TIERZOO]
Be sure to follow me over to TierZoo to find out by clicking the link at the top of the
description or by clicking right here and, as always, thanks for watching.