After trying to bring the imagery of The Legend of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom to the real world trying to understand the reproductive system of the Gerudo tribe, last night, while playing with my kids, I was once again assaulted by another question that navigates between the most earthly curiosity and the most martian absurdity.
Can Link really withstand the force he faces every time he opens the parasail, or are we destroying arms to the kid by subjecting him to a force of gravity impossible for his stunted limbs to withstand? Let's see, once again, what science says.
Newton's law in The Legend of Zelda
In fact, it would be a much easier topic to address if the one behind the keyboard didn't consist of letters rather than numbers. And it would be even more approachable if, in addition, the literature student had not been one of those who passed the exam to the classmate behind him in order to pass physics or mathematics – wherever you are, thank you, Sergio.
But since leaving you with this doubt in your head right now feels really bad to me, let's try to discover how physics can help us know how fast Link falls when he launches at full speed, What G forces could your arm withstand? and, ultimately, whether or not we are really torturing the kid every time we open the parallel.
Since this is about assuming things and is not an exact science, first of all it is necessary to assume that gravity in Hyrule it would be like that of the Land. The speed at which we move, the parabola that objects make, the time it takes us to fall from a certain height… For all the assumptions we are about to make, you will agree with me that this is the most plausible of all.
And from here we're going to assume that everything else, from Link's bone structure to Newton's law that we will use to get out of this mental somersault alive, follows that same equivalence. Let's imagine what would happen if the hero of Hyrule jumped into the void and opened the parasail in the real world.
Science is not done alone, it must be done
First of all, let's go with some additional data capable of destroying this fantasy. For example, the surface of the parasail It's not enough to stop Link's fall.crashing into winds that were not completely vertical would nullify the loss of speed and, due to its structure, the boy's weight would prevent you from being able to maneuver or do anything other than simply plummet.
Come on, the parasail is a pretty shitty invention, in general terms, but so that our illusion does not collapse with such a fantasy, we are going to assume that the parasail, due to the idea behind it, works on a large scale. traits like a parachute of a lifetime.
From here we should calculate Link's height and weight, at what speed he falls, what force he would face when braking with the parasail and, in rebound, the most difficult yet, what force we would need to exert on his arm to dislocate his shoulder.
At this point I have to thank you in advance first Razablanfriend and colleague of 3DJuegos who has put me on the track of the necessary formula to solve this mess (and who accompanies me and supports me on Twitch every afternoon with crazy things like this), and to that wonderful invention called the Internet that is going to take care of to cover the gaps that I will be unable to reach because I stayed in the 2+2.
What force is Link subjected to when opening the parasail?
Link's height in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom We can extract it based on details such as the length of the fish or mushrooms, a calculation that many have made before us and that places their height at an average of between 1.47 and 1.58 meters.
So, taking into account that he is an athletic person, his average weight should be about 50kg. Let's ignore the weight of the 200 swords he carries, okay? Please I ask you.
The next thing we need is speed and, using what base jumping experts can achieve, we could reach up to 190 kilometers per hour falling flat and with our belly facing the ground. Let's not even talk about when we go into rocket mode, plummeting with our heads.
This study on the risk of suffering a cervical injury when skydiving ensures that The average deceleration of a skydiver is between 3 and 5 G during the opening crash.
With those figures, if we assume that we are experiencing a deceleration of 4 G (1 G is equal to 9.8 meters per second) we can calculate the resulting force using Newton's law.
Taking advantage of the fact that in Hyrule the law remains the same, the force would be equal to Link's mass (50 kg), and multiplied by the deceleration (4 x 9.8 meters per second) would give us a result of about 1,960 N.
How to Dislocate a Hylian's Shoulder
Can a force of 1,960 newtons break Link's arms apart? Well, here we have to assume once again, because we must take into account that the real force will always depend on the type of jump, the shape of the parachute, the density of the air, the initial speed of the jump, the exact position of the arms. , from the individual anatomy of each person…
But here we have come to dream and live the fantasy, right? Well, since we've gotten to this point, let's take it to the end. And let's do it with the same enthusiasm as those who, back in 2019, They experimented on corpses to check what force you must apply to a shoulder in order to dislocate it.
Although the value only acts as a reference and cannot be applied to all situations, the study showed that a force of 123.57 N was enough to dislocate the shoulder. Us We are subjecting Link's arms to almost 2,000 Nso whether you are into letters or numbers, I think the answer is quite clear.
Now you know that we are all horrible people for, at the very least, dislocating poor Link's shoulder every time we open the parasail And if we dig a little deeper, we may even end up discovering what would happen to your bones, muscles, and tendons when subjected to that same force.
It is proven that we are terrible people, that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom It's a great game, and I've also gained one more reason to donate my body to science when I die: to help with the articles my grandchildren write tomorrow.
In VidaExtra | Neither princess nor warrior, the real Zelda died consumed by drugs and fire after a life dedicated to dancing and writing