The Science of Middle Earth

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by Macalaure

Unfortunately, I had to cut the quality of the picture ridiculously in order to get the file size under 100 kb, which I found out to be the maximal allowed size of an attachment. *sulks at admins* If you want to see the original picture, send me a pm with your email address.

Why not try splitting it into three parts like I did. It can't hurt to see things a little more clearly.

And now... Some S.C.I.E.N.C.E!

Speed of Flight.

"Fly you fools" is a famous phrase of the infamous Wizard, uncloaker and all round busy body, Gandalf the Grey. But how fast is flight really?
Well, the question depends entirely on the context, obviously.
Through a vacuum and free of resistance or gravitational pull of any heavenly bodies, the speed of flight can be measured by the flight of Melkor. It is generally accepted that he took some 5.4 hours to reach his resting point (approximately 1,000 miles away from Arda) in the outer darkness after being driven out in the first wars.
It has been established by Elendil's theory of Valar flight patterns that Melkor left Arda's gravitational pull after 1 hour and thirty minutes. Therefore, it can be assumed that he took a further 4.4 hours to travel 1,000 miles. We can therefore calculate the speed of flight thus...

1000/4.4 = 227.2727r

So, in a vacuum, the speed of Flight is roughly, 227.3 mph. Yet Gandalf asked the fellowship to fly whilst in Moria. Thanks to recent incite from Dwarvish sources, we now know the air pressure of Moria to be roughly 3.5 grs.
Using Bombadill's theory of High:

Speed = Pressure + Speed of Flight (in vacuum) X 42 / 3
Therefore:
Speed = 3.5 + 227.2727 X 42 / 3
Speed = 230.772 X 42 / 3
Speed = 9692.454 / 3

Speed = 3230.818

QED