May Dragons from Recreation of Thrones Really Fly? Aeronautical Engineering and Math Says They May
The next essay is reprinted with permission from 
The Conversation, an internet publication protecting the most recent analysis.
Like many individuals, I’ve not too long ago turn into fascinated the lives and loves of the ruling lessons of the individuals of Westeros, the place the often charming inhabitants spend loads of time bickering about who’s in cost. Game of Thrones could be very entertaining – however don’t get hooked up to any of the characters, because the lifespan of their world does appear fairly variable.
One of many many aspiring rulers – Daenerys Targaryen – spends a good bit of her time round and infrequently driving dragons. My background as an aeronautical engineer bought me considering about the mythical creatures and it struck me that with a view to fly, their world should work a bit in a different way in comparison with Earth.
It’s potential to estimate the dimensions of a dragon by comparability to Daenerys who appears to be like to be about 1.6m (5ft 3in) tall with a mass of round 60kg (132lb). The dragon’s physique appears to be about 4 instances so long as her, round 5 instances as deep, and about twice as vast, with a tail about the identical size once more and about as thick as her physique. Assuming the density of dragon and lady are about the identical then a totally grown dragon’s mass have to be round 44 instances that of Daenerys: round 2,600kg (5,700lb).
Contemplating everybody in Westeros appears to maneuver in an analogous option to us on Earth, let’s assume the identical gravitational pull, which places the dragon’s weight at 26,000 Newtons (which we’ll name W) at a nominal acceleration due to gravity of ten metres per second per second (32 ft/s/s).
If we’re to grasp the aerodynamics of flying dragons, we’d like two extra bits of knowledge. First, the wing space. Every wing appears to have a span roughly twice the dragon’s fundamental physique size, so let’s approximate the wings as two rectangles 4m by 8m (13 by 26ft), or 64m2 (340ft), which we’ll name S.
Second, the stalling speed, or slowest that the dragon can safely fly earlier than it falls out of the sky. It will be affordable to guess that dragons take off and land at roughly their stalling pace, simply as aeroplanes and birds do. Judging by the programmes evidently the dragon’s body-length of about 13m passes by in about three seconds, which places the stalling pace at about 4.3 m/s or 14 ft/s.
Dragon aerodynamics
As an engineer, when introduced with any drawback I often to resort to mathematics, on this case the standard lift equation of:
which I can re-arrange to:-
If we use the usual earth sea-level air density of ρ = 1.2kg/m3, this offers a lift coefficient of 36. Which is totally unrealistic.
By comparability, a Rogallo winged microlight aeroplane – a tiny single or two-seater aeroplane comprising a lightweight body and a small engine suspended beneath a cling gliding-style textile wing – would have a elevate coefficient of between 2.2 and a couple of.7. Little doubt evolution has tailored the dragon’s wing to be extremely environment friendly, however I needed to make some assumptions right here, so went for a most elevate coefficient (or CL.max) of three.5.
Disregarding the opportunity of magic, this tells us that the ambiance of Westeros have to be much more dense than ours. Utilizing the identical figures, we will work out simply how dense:
12 kg/m3, or about 10 timesthat Earth regular (we name that 10 bar) sounds unpleasantly excessive, however truly isn’t that dangerous. It’s about what a diver would expertise at 100 metres depth – completely survivable.
There’s empirical proof that helps this. Watching just a few episodes of Recreation of Thrones you’ll discover that just about anyone can decide up a spear or sword and throw it distances that an Olympic javelin thrower could be deeply envious of. On condition that gravity appears to be roughly just like ours, this means the thrown weapons are producing far more elevate than on Earth – in line with an environment of upper density.
There’s one thing within the air
What’s the mixture of gases on this ambiance, I puzzled? Earth’s ambiance is 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and 1% numerous different gases. We all know that 21% oxygen is ok – you and I are respiratory it in the mean time – whereas 30% oxygen concentrations causes nearly every part to become highly flammable (past that begins to verge on explosive). This appears fairly seemingly on Westeros, as anyone going close to the slightest puff of dragon breath appears to catch hearth, whereas it’s noticeable that many of the locals are all paranoid about lighting fires anyplace besides inside a stone citadel. Westeros in all probability has a high-density air with round 30% oxygen, however no extra.
What of the remaining? I’m going to hazard an informed guess right here that it might not be nitrogen that we’re used to on Earth, however is as an alternative argon – an inert gasoline which is the following most typical gasoline on earth after nitrogen. Argon is 42% extra dense than nitrogen and would enable a higher-density ambiance at a strain a bit decrease than 10 bar.
There are two legal guidelines referring to gases that can be utilized right here to work out the behaviour of the air mixture of argon and oxygen: Charles’ Law so as to add the elements up, and Boyle’s Law to point out what occurs when the strain will increase. Making use of these I can present that at about seven ambiance’s strain, a 70% argon, 30% oxygen ambiance has our air density of 12kg/m3, and so dragons can fly. In easy phrases – we will have a extra dense ambiance if the air is heavier – on this case by changing the inert nitrogen we’ve got on earth with the heavier (or extra precisely, denser) argon.
This argon-oxygen (or argox) combine will truly be moderately narcotic when breathed at excessive pressures. Maybe this would possibly partially clarify the commonly irrational and downright aggressive behaviour seen amongst many voters of Westeros.
So a little bit of fundamental physics, aerodynamics, and a few working information of human physiology can inform you numerous about Westeros – the place dragons fly, hearth is to be feared, and the individuals’s irrational behaviour is just not essentially right down to what they’re consuming, however what they’re respiratory.
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