The Pokédex is WEIRD (with

[@NovaSaber]

Hearing physics approximations mentioned in connection with Pokemon made me realize...a Miltank using Rollout is an actual spherical cow.

[@twistedtachyon5877]

Whitney's well on her way to getting that physics degree.

[@mikeCD62]

There are many shapes besides spheres that are round enough to roll

[@sambhavgiri4007]

@@mikeCD62 It can be approximated to a sphere

[@donniemorrow]

I saw a theory that the Pokedex isn't a scientific document so much as it is a child's diary. Complete with the child-like hyperbole leading to some of the more ridiculous entries. It could explain why the Pokedex entries remain blank until you (the child protagonist) have caught the Pokemon, and could explain why there's a different Pokedex entry in each game & region as different protagonists of different ages and experience levels fill out their Pokedexes

[@leow.2162]

Guess professor oak should have given the kids a tape measure and scales before sending them on a mission to catalogue all pokemon.

[@KarolOfGutovo]

The professors playing the longest, most elaborate pranke evah

[@TKDB13]

I had the same exact thought. What else do you expect when you're tasking a bunch of 10-year-olds to fill out the entries?

[@emolgana]

I definitely get the vibe for Macargo that like some scientists/children/casual pokemon fans saw one in the wild and was like "damnn that's hot" "how hot?" "gotta be like 18,000 degrees man"

[@katiekawaii]

Yes! I love that idea

[@FearTheRelicFighter]

Wailord being a blimp has been so ingrained in me that I wrongly remembered it as a water/flying type for years

[@harrygenderson6847]

I like how the quest6ion you asked for magcargo was "How many mars bars does it eat", not "How far do you have to stay from this thing to avoid spontaneous combustion?"

[@Autumn_Actually]

A fun video and a neat collab! Some notes from a nerd below. Wailord is the "float whale" Pokemon: aka, a living blimp. It does float above land, when you use it in the game. Maybe it uses float bladders like a fish in water like a ballast of sorts, but in this case it inflates like a helium balloon. Cosmoem is based on a black hole, so it's hard to say what's possible there, and Magcargo is sentient lava, which is a bit hard to nail down. Also, Baziken is a chicken. Blaze-Chicken. Evolves from Torchick... the chick Pokemon. Still had fun with the video, the confusion there just made me laugh a bit.

[@shadowrylander]

Also, Cosmoem being a psychic-type may allow it to not instantly destroy the Earth every time it's called.

[@AliceYobby]

Yeah even though it’s a pointless, silly little fun maths video which my higher brain can always get behind, it is always base level frustrating to see someone accuse someone else of stupidity or at least of not thinking something through, when in fact what they are proving is that it was thought very completely through! And they themselves are the ones who haven’t done an adequate level of research to discover this fact.

[@crayfishfuture]

@@AliceYobby Could not agree more. It's fun to see someone explain how the maths actually checks out in the real world, but god is it unnecessary to belittle and insult the people who designed them, when clearly they aren't trying to make realistic creatures that could possibly exist in the real world. Like, there's one person who didn't do enough research in this situation, and it sure as hell isn't Gamefreak, or whoever specifically came up with the Pokemon in question.

[@xolotlnephthys]

The density of air is only 1.2 kg/m3 at the Earth's surface, so at some point Wailord would stop floating at an altitude equal to its density

[@Rapidashisaunicorn]

I’ve always bought into the headcannon that it is supposed to be less dense than ground-level air

[@kantpredict]

Some of the stats make perfect sense as calculated, as Waillord is meant to be a blimp and Cosmoem is meant to be a black hole. The 18,000°F for Maccargo seems to be flavour text, so makes less sense.

[@william_sun]

18,000 °F is presumably the result of converting 10,000 °C into degrees Fahrenheit, so they were just going for a round number that conveys "very hot", and it got less round after translation.

[@iveharzing]

Sag A* actually has a pretty low density when compared to smaller black holes. The density of a black hole (if you define the volume to be everything inside the Schwarzschild Radius) is: (3 c^6) / (32 pi G^3 M^2) Cosmoem has the same density as a black hole with a mass of 1.36 million Solar masses. Any black hole with a lower mass than that has a higher density than Cosmoem.

[@WooperSlim]

I was thinking the same thing, black holes have some non-intuitive densities because of how it is measured. A better comparison might be a dwarf star, according to NASA, an earth-sized white dwarf has a density of 10^9 kg/m^3, so Cosmoem is somewhere between the sun's core and a white dwarf.

[@HunterJE]

Yeah the "this is more dense than a black hole" really relies on the indefinite article, and indeed there are non-singularity astronomical objects that are significantly more dense than Cosmoem (specifically neutron stars have densities in the 10^17 kg/m^3 range)

[@swierheeres726]

The M87 black hole has a density of ~1kg/m^3, so being denser than a black hole also applies to Wailord.

[@thundersheild926]

Going even further, you could put all mass in the observable universe into a black hole with roughly the same diameter, meaning that basically everything that's not a pure vacuum is less dense than a black hole. Comparing density to a black hole is completely meaningless. Also, 999.9 kg isn't that much weight even when super compressed. It's not even close to neutron star levels yet, which has a density of 10^17 kg/m

[@seedmole]

Yeah you can tell the video is by a mathematician and not a physicist. No discussion of the density threshold at which something would collapse into a black hole, and mistakenly assumes that black holes are the same volume as the masses that give rise to them.

[@michaelconvery4108]

The high density of the star shaped pokemon isn't that unusual considering its density is an order-of-magnitude lower than the density of a white dwarf star, and it's nowhere near neutron star densities. But to compare it to the density of a massive black hole is a little misleading as black hole density is actually inversely proportional to the square of the Schwarzschild radius. They get less dense as they increase in size! Specifically, given a non-rotating uncharged black hole, the average density is: (3 c^2)/(8 G Pi R^2) with R being the Schwarzschild radius So if you're going to compare it to a huge black hole, it actually makes sense for it to have a higher density because it's smaller. Damn I feel like an annoying pedant :( (black holes do that to me, I suppose 😅)

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

This doesn't even come close to the level of annoying pedant, you are fine

[@michaelconvery4108]

@@aguyontheinternet8436 Well thank you :) I guess a video that itself compares Pokémon to black holes does invite a different standard of commentary 👍

[@descuddlebat]

Just did some math on this, a black hole of the star pokemon's size (5cm radius) would have a density of 6.4248e28 kg/m³, and on the other extreme TON 618 is orders of magnitude lighter than the whale pokemon calculated to be lighter than air.. Black holes just aren't that useful for density comparisons in general ^^'

[@michaelconvery4108]

Exactly! Because of the inversive behavior of their density, best to keep them separate in comparisons of density, because they’re kinda in a class of their own.

[@justforplaylists]

I also read - and I might be misremembering - that black holes don't really have density because the warping of space means they have infinite volume (though finite radius) and the black hole might just be warped space without the matter that falls in having a location. So you can sort of say a black hole has 0 density (of matter).

[@addymant]

Excellent video! Just a note though, Blaziken is a chicken, not a fox. You might've confused it with Fennekin or Braixen which are from another fire-type starter evolutionary line and are based on fennec foxes.

[@SoWhiteItHurts]

Or Vulpix/Ninetales which are also fire foxes

[@addymant]

@@SoWhiteItHurts True, though I mentioned the two I did because, in addition to what I said above, their names also sound similar to Blaziken

[@SuviTuuliAllan]

Fire chickens are way cooler than foxes.

[@Double-Negative]

The density of the actual black hole part of saggitarius A* is 10^16 kg/m^2. You can easily check if cosmoem is a black hole by checking if its shwatrzchild radius is larger than it, which it is very much not at only 10^-22 cm.

[@jacobdgm]

Some googling and poking around in Wolfram|Alpha suggests that an ~1oz Mars bar would release something like 0.3 * 10^16 J were it to be converted directly into energy. I'm not at all up-to-date with the Pokemon lore, but I'd sooner expect a hotter-than-the-sun snail to be fusing any candy bars it consumes rather than digesting/combusting them...

[@SebiStr99]

Magcargo having a power output of almost 1.21GW is pretty funny, considering the absolute coincidence involved in 2 pop-cultures meeting at almost the same number. So if Pokemon were in the Back to the Future Universe. It would have been fairly easy to get the necessary power for a second time jump, simply by catching 2 Magcargo and converting just over half their output into electricity

[@harrygenderson6847]

The problem at that temperature is catching them. It will liquefy anything it touches and cause things to spontaneously combust at quite some distance.

[@AntonioBarba_TheKaneB]

@@harrygenderson6847 it could turn most metals straight into vapor and plasma

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

@@AntonioBarba_TheKaneB but then would the vapor turn a wheel fast?

[@AntonioBarba_TheKaneB]

@@aguyontheinternet8436 sure, as long as it doesn't destroy it too quickly!

[@jacobsiemons687]

Cosmog having a density "higher than a black hole" is a little deceptive: black holes are weird where the bigger they are the less dense they are, so supermassive black holes can have a density lower than water. The reason is that radius is linear with mass (Schwarzschild radius), implying volume is cubic with mass. Density is mass over volume, so density is inversely proportional to mass squared. The SgrA* black hole would have a density 10x more than cosmog (100 current density) if the black hole was 1/10th as massive.

[@Scum42]

When I followed the link from Matt's video to come see this, I WAS NOT EXPECTING MATT PARKER IN THE EXACT SAME SHOT to greet me.

[@penguinpenguin-zm2mr]

Given the tempreature of Magcargo's body. I think it's safe to assume that thermonuclear fusion takes place. (Sure, for plasma ~10 000 K might not be enough, but Magcargo's solid, so naturally there are much more collisions that can result in fusion). And 1200 MW equates to mere ~13 ng/s according to E=mc^2. It means, that it can burn more than 100 years without any food.

[@harrygenderson6847]

Are you assuming that its entire mass can be perfectly converted to energy? Because it's most likely that it's fusing light elements like hydrogen and helium, so its mass defect will be a relatively low proportion of its total body mass.

[@walrusmedia924]

Honestly considering the Pokémon mentioned these are somewhat reasonable conclusions. How cool!

[@victorribera5796]

Actually, Wailord was kinda inspired by Zeppelin's so that kinda makes sense(?) Also Cosmoem is also inspired in a black hole so also kinda makes sense

[@MrCheeze]

Yeah, Wailord is specifically meant to float in the air as described, and Cosmoem is based on cosmic objects like neutron stars with similarly absurd densities. The numbers are still kind of implausible anyway (how does Wailord swim?), but at least they're meant to be extreme in the way described here. Magcargo has absolutely no excuse.

[@Miguel-sh1nd]

I’d like to imagine that Wailord can intake or expel large volumes of water.

[@victorribera5796]

@PeachCrusher69 actually, Necrozma is also inspired in a black hole, amd that is why it absorbs other things into him. Cosmoem would be more like a neutron star than a black hole, but also kind of applies

[@illustriouschin]

If the volume of Wailord was approximated more accurately it would be exactly neutrally buoyant in air. The devs knew what they were doing.

[@victorribera5796]

@PeachCrusher69 Ahhh, sorry, my use of prepositions never went quite well, so I did't realized 😅😅

[@fieora]

Weight is simply a mechanic in the battle system, some attacks factor in weight into the damage calculation, and the logical values aren't as important to the user as much as "that a big/small number"

[@Nicrocon]

Accurate timestamps for the video: 0:00 Intro (Matt Parker from StandUpMaths cameo) 0:23 Tom starts talking 0:28 Wailord 5:04 Cosmoem 7:21 Magcargo 12:34 Summary and wrap up 12:45 Small note about Bewear 13:10 Small note about Rhyhorn 13:26 Small note about Blaziken 13:45 Conclusion

[@johnchessant3012]

applying the Stefan-Boltzmann law to pokémon ... hahaha this is so nerdy I love it

[@MrBelguin]

My favourite is that Magikarp, the world's most pathetic pokemon, can - according to the Platinum dex - jump over mountains using its signature move Splash. The lowest elevation the UN recognises as a 'mountainous environment' is 300 meters, and to jump 300 meter up, it would have to have an initial speed of 76.71 m/s, which is 276.1 km/h or 171.6 mph (this is ignoring both that it would need to retain some horizontal velocity at the top to get to the other side of the mountain, and that it would lose speed to air resistance). A Magikarp is 22.0 lbs or 10.0 kg, so you would think getting hit by it at that speed would do any damage, whatsoever. What actually happens if you use Splash is that 'The user just flops and splashes around to no effect at all...'

[@watcher314159]

In the anime, Magikarp evolving by itself pumped out like a kiloton of TNT equivalent. Like, that's its resting output. A 30 kilojoule Splash really is nothing of significance by Pokémon standards.

[@OriginalPiMan]

The exact entry is, "A Magikarp living for many years can leap a mountain using Splash. The move remains useless, though." You could read this as I suspect you have: that an experienced Magikarp could leap mountains in a single splash. But I read it differently: given enough time, a Magikarp could Splash its way up a mountain and down the other side, but it would take years.

[@ArtArtisian]

This much power is useless if it can't be directed at the opponent - maybe it's an aim problem?

[@TheRedSmarty]

@@OriginalPiMan There's an official mobile game all about Magikarp using Splash to jump ridiculous heights (personal highest is 289.95 m). It's all at once.

[@biggrayalien4791]

@@TheRedSmarty How much of that is playing into the misunderstanding, though?

[@vrewq]

When our Sun dies and becomes a white dwarf it will a density of around 10^9 kg/m^3 And a neutron star goes upto 10^17 So 10^7 is not much in comparison

[@LorenzJahn]

And that Pokémon is even meant to be a neutron star, like he even showed in the video. It's written in that very Pokédex entry there. 🤦‍♂

[@PtylerBeats]

The wailord one is interesting because a part of me remembers something being said about wailord actually being able to fly. Which… would make sense if it was lighter than air. Although, it’s not really flying as much as it’s just floating

[@OliviaSNava]

I was trying to find a more manageable material for Magcargo to consume in order to supply its energy needs. I originally thought diesel would suffice, but it'd still need to consume 31 liters per second. I was like "well maybe uranium. In fact, let's look up common energy densities to consider what might be a sufficient energy source." So I found this reference table on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density_Extended_Reference_Table. So first of all, if Antimatter were readily available in the Pokemon universe, it would only need to consume 1.3 x 10^-8 kilograms per second to serve it's energy needs, which comes out to 1.2 grams per day but it's extremely unlikely that antimatter is readily available. The next ones on the list are a fusion reaction, pure uranium 235, followed shortly by natural uranium. Seeing as the first three are mostly artificial in nature, natural uranium would likely be the source of energy. They would need to consume 1.4 x 10^-5 kilograms per second, or 1.2 kilograms per day. Which is much more doable, though my guess is that they'd run out fairly quickly, considering worldwide production of uranium in 2021 amounted to 48,332,000kg, which would only provide for a population of around 110,000. This is likely the only way they could survive in the wild, near natural uranium deposits. Second though, the energy density table included the entry "Specific orbital energy of Low Earth orbit". Which was very funny to me because it's so different from the other sources of energy density on the list. The first 50 or so come in two flavors, radioactive decay and chemical energy, excepting for antimatter and the fusion reaction. Then out of nowhere comes the energy density of an object orbiting earth??? It just feels like comparing the energy density of gasoline to the energy density of a bullet.

[@art.65367]

Mom: What did you learn in Maths today? Me: It's complicated...

[@randomviewer896]

Here's another fun fact. 1,200MW is more commonly referred to as 1.20 gigawatts! Magcargo radiates enough energy to power a specific time travelling DeLorean from Back to the Future, continuously. Doc Brown would be proud!

[@slazzaris]

I mark that as a missed reference

[@bryanalexander1172]

I came to the comments to point out this tragic missed opportunity...

[@ivanip549]

neutron star has a density of the order 10^17kg/m^3 so I will say cosmoem is OK as a star-like pokemon.

[@jacobsiemons687]

With Bewear's strength, I think contextualizing it like a car crash isn't particularly helpful. Something that weighs ~300kg (a little over 2x the weight of Bewear) will apply a force of 3000N down due to gravity. If Bewear can lift twice it's body weight, then it can apply 3000N of force.

[@thundersheild926]

Yeah, a lot of the examples here exaggerate things even further then what the Pokedex starts with

[@nberedim]

Oh a cylinder. So what you're really saying is the spherical approximation only works with cows.

[@itsnottylor4011]

Wailord is called "the float whale pokemon" - it's basically a blimp! I think the lighter than air thing is intentional!

[@FrenkieWest32]

No it's not.

[@crayfishfuture]

@@FrenkieWest32 says who lol?

[@FrenkieWest32]

@@crayfishfuture the pokedex

[@crayfishfuture]

@@FrenkieWest32 which is definitely always accurate and definitely reflects the intention of the person/people who created each pokémon? okay boss, but maybe next time you don’t leave rude, useless comments that only prove your inability to communicate like a reasonable person? thanks

[@FrenkieWest32]

@@crayfishfuture yeah so the nickname ''float pokemon'' proves the intention of the creators but the pokedex which is distinctly said to be canon is not? What is this logic? If anyone sounds aggressive and rude, it's you. Imagine getting emotional over pokemon...

[@HienNguyenHMN]

I can tell Tom's a real fan of Pokemon because he knows the "height" given of a long Pokemon is actually its length. (Look up the stats of any "snake" Pokemon)

[@Kinkajou1015]

On the flip side, I can see he's NOT a real fan and is just trying to game the KZbin algorithm because the new game came out so he got a Pokemon shirt and tried to put out a video explaining the bad math in Pokemon but didn't explain any truly bad math because, Wailord IS A BLIMP of course it's lighter than air, Cosmoem is a Protostar so of course it's reaching critical mass before exploding into becoming a full fledged star, Blaziken is a CHICKEN not a fox... And the most important things, the Pokedex is filled in generally by the player character, on the spot, after catching the pokemon. If scientists were filling in the data then why on Arceus's green Torterra do you have to catch the bloody pokemon to unlock the entry. It's as sensible as you can only read Wikipedia articles if you personally visit a location or witness an event or obtain an item from an event. That's why we have stupid numbers like 18,000 degrees F on Magcargo. Which why didn't you use the Celsius value of 10,000 degrees instead? Used metric for everything else...

[@ArtThingies]

Also, in Japanese, Height and Length are synonyms.

[@ArtThingies]

@@Kinkajou1015 considering the large pokeball tattoo on his forearm (the same one with the KZbin play button tattoo, on the other side), I'd say he probably already owned that pokemon shirt. Edit: I'm sorry, there are two different pokeball tattoos on that forearm.

[@saltlakeatrocity9771]

That moment when I realize videos like these are to help get people intetested in math by associating it to familiar concepts, but i'm such a nerd i was interested in the math even without the pokemon association (which it just so happens i'm still also a fan of).

[@amaarquadri]

Supermassive black holes are actually not very dense; some can be less dense than water. In fact as the mass goes up the density actually decreases, so the smallest black holes are the most dense.

[@SmileyMPV]

What does density even mean in this context? Wouldnt it be theoretically infinite due to the singularyity? I guess the real question is what is considered to be the volume of a black hole.

[@amaarquadri]

@@SmileyMPV Good point! I was basing it off of the event horizon radius.

[@thebestnerd4444]

given Waylord's weight assumeing it was weighed at sea level wouldn't you first need to subtract the boyent force exerted on him when he was weighed on a scale to accurately measure his density?

[@thebestnerd4444]

if i attach a baloon full of helium to a scale I should get a negative value for its weight instead of a positive one right? because a balloon full of helium is less dense than the atmosphere around me and would want to foat away rather than push down on my scale right?

[@Luca_5425]

6:50 you sure Tom? There are neutron stars that are waaay denser than that, and blackholes are denser than neutron stars, right? Where did you get those numbers? I couldn't find any match online

[@TheVictor126]

iirc, the worse offender in terms of math is lanturn. it can illuminate the surface of water from a depth of 3 miles, or 5 kilometers in the japanese version. I have no idea about the math of light dissipation through materials, but if the guy that calculated it did everything right it means that it produces 10^105 Watts. would be interesting for a potential part 2 of the video

[@leotamer5]

While they probably just wanted a cool pokedex entry, and didn't care about the physics, I think the simplest explanation that doesn't break physics is that they shed bioluminescent materials that float up.

[@Eichro]

I mean, Cosmoem IS intended as a cosmic body, the name gives it away already. Maybe it is an actual black hole after all.

[@NickolaiKM]

1267 Mars bars “difficult enough in a lifetime..? You underestimate my power!

[@ganymedemlem6119]

It's crazy that I was doing this same math myself yesterday at work and today it comes up in my feed.

[@ashwalker1]

I can't wait to see all the new pokedex entries on gen 9 pokedex(Pokemon scarlet and violet)

[@IanMelbourne93]

My biggest takeaway is that 1 mars bar per second is roughly equivalent to 1MW, so I can realistically be consuming 100kW for say 10 seconds if I were eating a mars bar over a 10 second period. The future of energy storage sure is wild...

[@sundhaug92]

Given the density of Cosmoem, could you actually have it in your hand without tidal forces ripping you apart?

[@donniemorrow]

No worries here! 1000 kg at a distance of 5 cm applies only about one forty-thousandth of Earth's gravity. So it's negligible

[@PopeGoliath]

It's important to remember that the (vast, vast) majority of the volume within a black holes event horizon is empty space. The singularity at the center is minuscule. The event horizon of a very modest black hole is 26 km in diameter. If you spread out all the mass in a singularity evenly across the event horizon, you'd have a city-sized sphere of material roughly as dense as the Pokemon. Sitting next to a city-sized mass of something is very different from sitting next to a Pokemon sized mass of that same thing.

[@MrCheeze]

Yeah, density doesn't matter here, does it... it would have the same effect as any other one-ton weight.

[@sundhaug92]

@@MrCheeze Yes and no - it reduces the minimum radius at which you could touch it

[@OriginalPiMan]

@@MrCheeze Unless there were extreme forces holding it together, then it would instantly and explosively decompress. Every one of these dense Pokémon is a bomb waiting to go off.

[@oniaisu8560]

"the blimp pokeman floats like a blimp" "yeah no shit" "the star pokeman has the density of a star" "again. no shit." quality video

[@dhayes5143]

"In fact, we can convert this, to Mars bars." Top class British moment.

[@RC32Smiths01]

The applications of maths to pop culture is so interesting, gives a deeper meaning that we wouldn't know otherwise! Cheers Tom!

[@Psycho345]

Also Magcargo having such high temperature would emit so much radiation it would be blindingly bright and it would basically evaporate everything around it like a nuclear bomb.

[@mmaciomhair]

Surely but for rounding, that’s 1.21GW - enough to power a flux capacitor…

[@kfitch42]

So, 1 magcargo could power Doc Brown's Delorean! 1.21 "jigawatts", Marty!

[@benjaminrealy5661]

Love the perspective put on things, however all of your estimates are biased towards the extreme side. For example, using the wailord as a cylinder, it's is a cylinder, but with chunks removed like rounding corners and a comparatively sizeable amount for the space between main body and tail. I think if you factored the cylinder down to .8x to account for the missing parts of the cylinder, it would still result in a crazy number, but at least would be more "realistic" for its proportions (if still not overestimated). Whereas if for cosmog, if you estimated it as a full sphere you would still come up with a very extremely (ungodly) dense pokemon, but could still say that you're erring on the conservative side, and cosmog is likely way more dense than that. To sum up, when comparing extremes, I feel that one should compare conservative estimates and then say it in all likelihood is more extreme as opposed to using estimates that appear more biased toward the extreme result.

[@Thagrynor]

I am more curious about the effects of Magcargo's heat radiation on his trainer, assuming the trainer is roughly .5m away while battling. I cannot imagine that would be good for the skin .... or the internal organs .... or living.

[@NeroDefogger]

I love "terminal montage" (I believe that's the name of the channel) animation, it shows it literally creating an extreme heat wave melting almost everything in a huge radius, is a good representation of what would happen if the pokedex wasn't written by dumb 10 years old with a lot of creativity

[@Kris_not_Chris]

Tbf wailord is designed on purpose to look like a blimp, and Cosmoem basically is a living black hole, so honestly these numbers make a certain kind of sense

[@flikkie72]

If anything, you've proven that gamefreak is actually really consistent with the densities and lore

[@bobrong9645]

For the snail-like pokémon, shouldn't the area be only the body without the shell? It would still be a ridiculous output, but slightly less so. As for the bear one, I suppose 3000N would be for an adult, but I assume the younger the trainer, the easier it'll get (if you have a toddler at home, please DON'T try it).

[@watcher314159]

This isn't about Gamefreak not doing the math, but rather Pokémon just being that ridiculous. In Pokémon Go you can see Golem moving faster than light. In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon you can see Mega Mewtwo X destroying a star as part of the plot, in Ultra Sun and Moon Ultra Necrozma, as part of the plot, absorbed all the light in the universe and emitted enough to make a planet over 13,000 light years away feel like high noon (said emitted light arrived in seconds, not millennia). Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina have all been shown to destroy and create universes in the games, anime, and manga. Arceus, while heavily depowered, shifting in its sleep was almost enough to destroy 2 universes in the Jewel of Life movie. Episode 1 Pikachu put out a Thunderbolt on par with the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever detonated, going by the crater. Magikarp was pumping out a kiloton of TNT equivalent just by evolving in the anime. Azelf made a black hole in the manga. These aren't off-hand Pokédex entries, but actual stuff we directly observe Pokémon doing. And frankly, the Pokédex entries are tame by comparison.

[@huxleyleigh4856]

I missed when they did maths on game theory, thanks for bringing this back

[@WRSomsky]

Your density for Wailord is only correct if it is solid throughout. Suppose it is hollow, like a hot air balloon. If it is an envelope 2mm thick its density would be about that of water or flesh.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

Doesn't matter for buoyancy, because it's the amount of mass displaced in total that determines what the "lifting force" is.

[@MarkusAldawn]

That really depends on whether you mean density to exclude air pockets or not- I think it should really include them. We would still say a helium balloon floats because it is lighter than air, for example.

[@harrygenderson6847]

@@SimonBuchanNz But you're assuming it's full of vacuum. It's actually full of some combination of air and water, which it could potentially use to adjust its ballast. What matters for buoyancy is weight of fluid displaced (buoyant force) vs weight of the object. What the original comment is suggesting is that if it's a 2mm thick shell of flesh, the weight of the water it displaces when fully submerged (and filled with water) is equal to the weight of its flesh, thus being neutrally buoyant. If it's partially filled with air, then it will float partially above the water.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

@@harrygenderson6847 You're assuming I'm assuming that, actually. Generally whatever's in a fish (or anything else) counts to it's weight. That's why we have wet and dry weights, afterall.

[@harrygenderson6847]

@@SimonBuchanNz It's problematic if whatever's inside counts to its weight in this case, since it could contain a maximum of 399L of water before the rest of its body is massless. Saying it's a 2mm thick shell full of vacuum would then be the most charitable assumption, since this would give reasonable body density. However, I'm also assuming that the mass given is absolute, and has buoyancy during measuring accounted for. Otherwise it could just be dry weight, in which case the true weight is higher by the weight of air it displaces, which is non-negligible.

[@NathanSMS26]

4:06 We can get Wailords density another way and it gives a value that actually makes some sense. If we use the same approximation that half of Wailord's body is submerged, its density will be roughly 500kg/m^3 (Half the density of water at STP) Assuming something is floating still, whatever percentage of its volume that's underwater is the same percentage that it's density is relative to the density of what its floating in. Ice as an example is 91% as dense as water and 91% of its volume is submerged when its floating.

[@thebestnerd4444]

4:30 if Waylord is less dence than air then how did they measure the weight of Waylord? if they picked up Waylord and put him on a giant scale and that's how they measured his weight then he couldn't be less dense than air otherwise the scale would measure a negative value for his weight. so something is wrong here.

[@PrismPoint]

Wailord Floating in air and Cosmoem being denser that a star are both completely intended.

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

WHY have I never known in all this time that Matt has a second channel?! Thank you for making this video

[@ZipplyZane]

Ohhh! It's that Tom! The alternative mathematician from Numberphile. I kept trying to figure out who he meant when I watched Matt's video.

[@Mr.Nichan]

The cylinder is an overestimation of waylord's volume, so it's density is likely actually less than air. Still ridiculously low density, though. Also, Cosmoem is not denser than a black hole of the same size. Both a 10^4 and a 10^7 kg black hole would actually be microscopic. The Schwarzschild density of black holes gets lower the bigger the black hole is, and Sagittarius A* is over 4 million solar masses - far bigger than any star.

[@hoytdotblohm]

Omg, it all makes sense now, that's why the bowl of petunia's said "Oh no, not again."

[@AliceErishech]

I knew Wailord was quite light for its size and that Cosmoem is quite heavy for its size, but I never realized their weights were quite THAT absurd. I don't recall the last time I even saw a Magcargo pokedex entry though so that one was a total surprise. What a ridiculous pokemon.

[@markrobinson8237]

My takeaway from this is that if we wanted to convert Drax to burn Mars Bars instead of biomass, we'd need to shovel in nearly 4000 per second.

[@thatonepersonyouknowtheone7781]

your approximation of Wailords size being a cylinder is pretty bold, not to mention, it's called the float whale pokemon and the dex says that it takes one breath and dives 10000 feet underwater, so maybe its weight was measured with the least possible air inside, possibly also how it can leap so far into the air. And Cosmoem eats stardust, I'm pretty sure it literally is supposed to be a black hole from another dimension.

[@lostincyberspaceIII]

I did this same style math on Wailord before I think I used info from pokemon go and with the variable weights had one that was less dense than hydrogen.

[@umanggada8684]

I'm not sure what happened but once you started mistaking 1200 MW for 12000 MW, it turned into chaos with 230 cal and 1276 mars bars. 😂

[@ronnydragon2211]

LOL this is so funny I love math and Pokémon u made me laugh a lot XDD

[@ammalyrical5646]

This reminds me of the weird pokemon physics videos on MandJTV. But if I remember correctly that was literally more about weird and funny stuff. Not just entries that feel like a kid's wonderment and imagination

[@TomRocksMaths]

Check out Matt's video on the Pokémon Calculator here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGa6oH9smpxlbrM

[@Guest0496]

Wailord in the pokédex is defined as the "Float Whale Pokémon" so I mean, at least it lives up to it's description. It's literally a floating whale.

[@murk1e]

I so wish it had not been ‘weight’ in kg, I know that in everyday use…. But when you’re trying to get over the distinction between weight and mass - and then do some density practice……

[@Syuvinya]

Note: Supermassive blackholes are actually not that dense compared to neutron stars because the density of a black hole is inversely proportional to the square of its mass, when you combine the Schwarzschild radius formula with the volume of a sphere formula. But a blackhole with a radius of 5 cm should be much denser, with a mass of 5.637 times that of Earth's and a density of around 6.4*10^28 kg/m^3.

[@samuelmorrow7758]

On the Magcargo Mars Bar consumption; That rate of Mars Bar consumption is based on Magcargo metabolising food in the same way that we do. But given it's surface temperature, I would expect it's physiology to be somewhat different. Perhaps it fully converts the matter into energy following E=mc^2. In that case a standard 51g Mars Bar would not provide 0.963 MJ, but rather 4,583,651,412 MJ. Therefore, rather thatn 1267 Mars Bars /second, it would only need to consume one Mars Bar every 44 days.

[@vernanonix]

Good thing Wailord is classified as the Float Whale Pokemon then.

[@theletters9623]

Honestly part of the charm of the pokemon series is the unbelievable absurdity of the pokedex, theres a chandelier that will eat your soul, a little lizard thing that will eat an entire mountain, a fish that can jump over a mountain, and whatever chestnaught is supposed to be it can flip a tank. These little mathematical "quirks" are just part of the absurdity, and honestly if larvitar consistently eat actual mountains I can totally see magcargo eating thousands of mars bars a second

[@adamlabnaki9216]

"this is ridiculous, but this is only ½ the story!!" Lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@SourceOfBeing]

It'd be interesting to see what the physics of the Pokémon world would have to be for these to "realistic".

[@MitchBurns]

When I saw the density of Wailord worked out I was thinking that it must not be able to swim since it’s more dense than water, only intuitively enough about metric to know that the density of water is 1, and not remembering the exact units off the top of my head. Metric is hard to understand.

[@B3Band]

Wailord is the blimp pokemon. Its measurements are intentional.

[@wiseSYW]

if you present the video faster and crazier you'll get brian david gilbert

[@ryancritchlow5495]

I also have a tackle powerful enough to bring down a skyscraper... ;)

[@pkmnhx43_27]

Cosmoem is meant to be really dense, its supposed to be like an entire galaxy stored within it or like a black hole, I don't think that one was an oversight, the worst it could be was an over exaggeration of what it realistically should have been

[@pkmnhx43_27]

also the fact that there are many pokemon that have ridiculous power doesn't mean they don't make sense, as one pokemon become more powerful, even just a little more powerful, it causes all the other pokemon to need to be more powerful and by evolution become more powerful, this can continue over a long course of time and create a vast amount of insanely powerful pokemon

[@zuloo37]

Don't forget that diglett can move at the speed of light lol

[@clover7359]

13:01 I don't know of any 500 lb cars. Some lawn mowers weigh more than that.

[@LaPrincipessaNuova]

I feel like the cylindrical approximation of wailord isn’t close enough to say that it would float. Because we know that it is an overestimate of the volume of wailord, it gives an upper bound for the volume, and therefore if we assume the weight to be exactly correct, the density is a lower bound. For instance, if the average area of a cross-section of wailord was closer to a circle with a 23cm smaller radius, which doesn’t sound completely implausible to me given the tail shape, then it would be denser than air.

[@Kiytan]

According to multiple pokedex entries, arcanine can run over 6200 miles in 24 hours, giving it an average hourly speed of around 258 mph. If we assume that is it's max speed, let's compare that to an F1 car (or the best figures I could find): F1 speed record (not on a track): 247mph F1 fastest average lap speed: 164mph If we assume arcanine has a similar handling/cornering to an F1 car, so a similar ratio of max to average speed, it'd be around 5 seconds quicker on the specific lap I was looking at (around 6% faster). Another fun comparison mostly for UK people: arcanine could do land's end to john o'groats AND BACK 2.5 times a day.

[@bloodypommelstudios7144]

Magcargo pretty close to being able to time travel.

[@PhilBoswell]

1267 Mars bars is doable in about 3½ years if you ate one every day, so maybe not such an impossible target if one is allowed to take one's time 🤣 I think you rather drastically over-estimated Wailord's volume-it's nowhere near cylindrical-but by enough to stop it floating away? 🤷‍♂ I wouldn't take much though, the figures are pretty close.

[@Sebanisu]

I was thinking that Snail would set fire to the atmosphere. Though I don't know enough about that. heh

[@sk8rdman]

Why do you use SA = 4πr^2 ? If you're already working with the diameter, surely you could just use SA = πd^2 Then there's no need to bother converting diameter to radius, and then compensating for it later with the 4.

[@londoncrotty560]

assume wailord is perfect cylinder *chef's kiss*

[@Hamuel]

13:35 Blaziken is a fire chicken, not a fire fox, just for clarification 😅

[@markstyles1246]

At 10 orders of magnitude less dense than a neutron star, he likely leaves enough space and less dense elements to do the whole being alive thing.

[@pmcgee003]

Camera switches to the pokemon inc boardroom - 13 toddlers, in a daycare, reacting to this latest media report and seeing no issues with the descriptions. 🙂

[@unfortunatelyevil1767]

There are 3 universes of physics in Pokémon, the games (most realistic), the anime, and the pokedex (least realistic). If we take them as observations rather than inaccuracies, then there are a lot of scientific consequences. Like (taking anime&pokedex), it would seem likely that air on the Pokémon world is less dense than on Earth, leading to a lower gravity... which corrolates with Jessy and James being able to be blown high into the sky and still survive, as well as Blaziken being able to jump higher than a human on Earth. And How many calories are in a liter of lava? Likely the diet of Magcargo as it is the energy source where they live. It gets interesting when you around for the people in Pokémon being different from humans. A species that evolved around and eventually dominated creatures that can produce just all the volts of electricity. We see Ash in the anime constantly take thunderbolts, and we can either believe it is impossible or take it as an observation and conclude that their bodies have different structures than ours, in material composition of skin to electrically favorable pathways away from important organs~

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

I mean it IS literally called the Float Whale Pokémon. Also I learned it takes a thousand Magcargo to time travel. Guess Celebi's out of a job.

[@plentyofpaper]

To be fair, Cosmoeon is a cosmic entity, so having density values more at home in the cosmic realm than the earthly realm is on theme. I'm not sure where that black hole density figure came from, but a quick google search came up with a neutron stare as having a density of 10^17 kg/cubic meter, which is much denser than Cosmoeon.

[@Nicrocon]

I have a guess that Game Freak has at least taken physics into more consideration for certain Pokémon over others. Take Cosmoem for example. Cosmoem is supposed to be like its pupa state between Cosmog and Solgaleo or Lunala, and I think the whole evolutionary line is supposed to mimic the life cycle of a star. Cosmog is the Stellar Nebula, Cosmoem skips the massive star and red supergiant steps and becomes the moment before the star collapses into a supernova, and Solgaleo and Lunala are supposed to be that supernova. Apparently, supernovae leave behind dense cores. That could be the inspiration to Cosmoem's density. Either that or Game Freak was aiming to make Cosmoem a blackhole-like Pokémon. Either way, I think sometimes Game Freak's Pokédex physics are more intentional for some Pokémon more than others (like Wailord).