Could a dragon use its wings to swim? The Next CEO of Stack OverflowDragon evolving from humanoid: Ice dragonWingless Dragons?Dragon taxonomyCan a dragon be electrocuted?Could this Very Specific Dragon Fly?Can a dragon who can heat parts of its body at will use that to fly?Alternate uses for dragon wings?Anti-Dragon armor, shields and melee weaponsHow would winged humans fight dragons?Is this humanoid dragon realistic the way I’ve imagined it?
Does destroying a Lich's phylactery destroy the soul within it?
Towers in the ocean; How deep can they be built?
"Eavesdropping" vs "Listen in on"
What does "shotgun unity" refer to here in this sentence?
free fall ellipse or parabola?
Redefining symbol midway through a document
Does the Idaho Potato Commission associate potato skins with healthy eating?
Help! I cannot understand this game’s notations!
Is there an equivalent of cd - for cp or mv
Why doesn't UK go for the same deal Japan has with EU to resolve Brexit?
Is dried pee considered dirt?
Traduction de « Life is a roller coaster »
Do I need to write [sic] when including a quotation with a number less than 10 that isn't written out?
Is it convenient to ask the journal's editor for two additional days to complete a review?
Graph of the history of databases
(How) Could a medieval fantasy world survive a magic-induced "nuclear winter"?
Where do students learn to solve polynomial equations these days?
Lucky Feat: How can "more than one creature spend a luck point to influence the outcome of a roll"?
What connection does MS Office have to Netscape Navigator?
Is there a reasonable and studied concept of reduction between regular languages?
IC has pull-down resistors on SMBus lines?
Is there a way to save my career from absolute disaster?
Aggressive Under-Indexing and no data for missing index
What happened in Rome, when the western empire "fell"?
Could a dragon use its wings to swim?
The Next CEO of Stack OverflowDragon evolving from humanoid: Ice dragonWingless Dragons?Dragon taxonomyCan a dragon be electrocuted?Could this Very Specific Dragon Fly?Can a dragon who can heat parts of its body at will use that to fly?Alternate uses for dragon wings?Anti-Dragon armor, shields and melee weaponsHow would winged humans fight dragons?Is this humanoid dragon realistic the way I’ve imagined it?
$begingroup$
I have three types of dragons; dragons that primarily fly, dragons that primarily run, and dragons that primarily swim, with all three types being able to do the other two things for a limited amount of time.
What kind of wings would a water dragon have to have to be able to fly as well as swim? I had envisioned them using their wings as flippers, but I don't know if that would work for flying too.
biology mythical-creatures dragons
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I have three types of dragons; dragons that primarily fly, dragons that primarily run, and dragons that primarily swim, with all three types being able to do the other two things for a limited amount of time.
What kind of wings would a water dragon have to have to be able to fly as well as swim? I had envisioned them using their wings as flippers, but I don't know if that would work for flying too.
biology mythical-creatures dragons
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I have three types of dragons; dragons that primarily fly, dragons that primarily run, and dragons that primarily swim, with all three types being able to do the other two things for a limited amount of time.
What kind of wings would a water dragon have to have to be able to fly as well as swim? I had envisioned them using their wings as flippers, but I don't know if that would work for flying too.
biology mythical-creatures dragons
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$endgroup$
I have three types of dragons; dragons that primarily fly, dragons that primarily run, and dragons that primarily swim, with all three types being able to do the other two things for a limited amount of time.
What kind of wings would a water dragon have to have to be able to fly as well as swim? I had envisioned them using their wings as flippers, but I don't know if that would work for flying too.
biology mythical-creatures dragons
biology mythical-creatures dragons
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
asked 4 hours ago
NadiraSpzirglasNadiraSpzirglas
212
212
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
Totally yes.
If these ducks can do it, your dragons can do it. The video is great - these ducks are flying down to the ocean floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7wY4Cnuk-s
It occurs to me that it would be good for something like a dragon to be able to use only part of its wing at first. I worry the forces put over the entirety of the wing to move that much water could tear the wing. As the dragon got up to speed it could use more and more wing.
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are certainly real-life birds that can fly in air and primarily hunt underwater... gannets and puffins, for example. There's plenty of footage on youtube of them doing just this. There are other flying birds that can fold their wings back neatly and use their feet for propulsion underwater, such as cormorants or diving ducks, so both options could work for you (though dragons with huge webbed feet might not be quite so intrinsically bad-ass as ones with talons. ymmv)
I strongly suspect that there will be scaling issues... for the same reason that large flying dragons are awkward things to make plausible (see countless questions on this site passim ad nauseam) making very large flippers remain light and strong and fast enough for flight and remain tough and powerful enough for swimming is likely to be very difficult. If you've already handwaved dragons into your scenario, perhaps this is less of an issue for you.
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
$endgroup$
add a comment |
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function ()
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix)
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
);
);
, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "579"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142896%2fcould-a-dragon-use-its-wings-to-swim%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
Totally yes.
If these ducks can do it, your dragons can do it. The video is great - these ducks are flying down to the ocean floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7wY4Cnuk-s
It occurs to me that it would be good for something like a dragon to be able to use only part of its wing at first. I worry the forces put over the entirety of the wing to move that much water could tear the wing. As the dragon got up to speed it could use more and more wing.
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Totally yes.
If these ducks can do it, your dragons can do it. The video is great - these ducks are flying down to the ocean floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7wY4Cnuk-s
It occurs to me that it would be good for something like a dragon to be able to use only part of its wing at first. I worry the forces put over the entirety of the wing to move that much water could tear the wing. As the dragon got up to speed it could use more and more wing.
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Totally yes.
If these ducks can do it, your dragons can do it. The video is great - these ducks are flying down to the ocean floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7wY4Cnuk-s
It occurs to me that it would be good for something like a dragon to be able to use only part of its wing at first. I worry the forces put over the entirety of the wing to move that much water could tear the wing. As the dragon got up to speed it could use more and more wing.
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
$endgroup$
Totally yes.
If these ducks can do it, your dragons can do it. The video is great - these ducks are flying down to the ocean floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7wY4Cnuk-s
It occurs to me that it would be good for something like a dragon to be able to use only part of its wing at first. I worry the forces put over the entirety of the wing to move that much water could tear the wing. As the dragon got up to speed it could use more and more wing.
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
answered 4 hours ago
WillkWillk
115k27218484
115k27218484
add a comment |
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are certainly real-life birds that can fly in air and primarily hunt underwater... gannets and puffins, for example. There's plenty of footage on youtube of them doing just this. There are other flying birds that can fold their wings back neatly and use their feet for propulsion underwater, such as cormorants or diving ducks, so both options could work for you (though dragons with huge webbed feet might not be quite so intrinsically bad-ass as ones with talons. ymmv)
I strongly suspect that there will be scaling issues... for the same reason that large flying dragons are awkward things to make plausible (see countless questions on this site passim ad nauseam) making very large flippers remain light and strong and fast enough for flight and remain tough and powerful enough for swimming is likely to be very difficult. If you've already handwaved dragons into your scenario, perhaps this is less of an issue for you.
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are certainly real-life birds that can fly in air and primarily hunt underwater... gannets and puffins, for example. There's plenty of footage on youtube of them doing just this. There are other flying birds that can fold their wings back neatly and use their feet for propulsion underwater, such as cormorants or diving ducks, so both options could work for you (though dragons with huge webbed feet might not be quite so intrinsically bad-ass as ones with talons. ymmv)
I strongly suspect that there will be scaling issues... for the same reason that large flying dragons are awkward things to make plausible (see countless questions on this site passim ad nauseam) making very large flippers remain light and strong and fast enough for flight and remain tough and powerful enough for swimming is likely to be very difficult. If you've already handwaved dragons into your scenario, perhaps this is less of an issue for you.
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
There are certainly real-life birds that can fly in air and primarily hunt underwater... gannets and puffins, for example. There's plenty of footage on youtube of them doing just this. There are other flying birds that can fold their wings back neatly and use their feet for propulsion underwater, such as cormorants or diving ducks, so both options could work for you (though dragons with huge webbed feet might not be quite so intrinsically bad-ass as ones with talons. ymmv)
I strongly suspect that there will be scaling issues... for the same reason that large flying dragons are awkward things to make plausible (see countless questions on this site passim ad nauseam) making very large flippers remain light and strong and fast enough for flight and remain tough and powerful enough for swimming is likely to be very difficult. If you've already handwaved dragons into your scenario, perhaps this is less of an issue for you.
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
$endgroup$
There are certainly real-life birds that can fly in air and primarily hunt underwater... gannets and puffins, for example. There's plenty of footage on youtube of them doing just this. There are other flying birds that can fold their wings back neatly and use their feet for propulsion underwater, such as cormorants or diving ducks, so both options could work for you (though dragons with huge webbed feet might not be quite so intrinsically bad-ass as ones with talons. ymmv)
I strongly suspect that there will be scaling issues... for the same reason that large flying dragons are awkward things to make plausible (see countless questions on this site passim ad nauseam) making very large flippers remain light and strong and fast enough for flight and remain tough and powerful enough for swimming is likely to be very difficult. If you've already handwaved dragons into your scenario, perhaps this is less of an issue for you.
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
answered 4 hours ago
Starfish PrimeStarfish Prime
1617
1617
add a comment |
add a comment |
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
NadiraSpzirglas is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Worldbuilding Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142896%2fcould-a-dragon-use-its-wings-to-swim%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
var $window = $(window),
onScroll = function(e)
var $elem = $('.new-login-left'),
docViewTop = $window.scrollTop(),
docViewBottom = docViewTop + $window.height(),
elemTop = $elem.offset().top,
elemBottom = elemTop + $elem.height();
if ((docViewTop elemBottom))
StackExchange.using('gps', function() StackExchange.gps.track('embedded_signup_form.view', location: 'question_page' ); );
$window.unbind('scroll', onScroll);
;
$window.on('scroll', onScroll);
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
$begingroup$
I don't know much about the physics or biology of this kind of thing, but it seems to me the needed motion for swimming vs flying is different? You push "down" against the air when flying, as opposed to pushing "back" against the water when swimming? So, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the range of motion is different for these two things and your dragons would need pretty versatile joints? I'm also now pretty interested in this question, looking forward to seeing what the science-literate folks on here say. P.S. Welcome to Stack Exchange
$endgroup$
– MarielS
4 hours ago