Batman has the Batcave , Superman has his Fortress of Solitude , and Scrooge McDuck has his money bin . For70 years , the maternal uncle of Disney ’s Donald Duck has been portray as a thrifty — some might say miserly — bearing in toon and comics , a waterfowl who has such deep heart for his fortune that he enjoy diving into his piles of atomic number 79 and luxuriating in them .
It ’s a rather double-dyed display of money worship , but is it practical ? Can anyone , including an anthropomorphic Pekin duck’s egg , actually float in their own money , or would diving headfirst into a pile of alloy result only in catastrophic hurt ?
According toJames Kakalios , Ph.D. , a prof of natural philosophy at the University of Minnesota and author of the recently - releasedThe Physics of Everyday Thingsas well as 2005’sThe Physics of Superheroes , the question really is n’t whether someone could float in a mass of gold . They could not . It ’s more a subject of how mischievously they ’ll be injured in the effort .
diving event into a gold pile the Scrooge mode — hands first , prayer - style , abide by by your mind — is the most efficient mode to begin break in bones . “ Keeping his arms soused and his elbow rigid , he ’s definitely going to break his articulatio radiocarpea , ” Kakalios tells Mental Floss . “ Gold is a granular material like sand , a macroscopic object . You ca n’t swim through grit or dive into it well . ” set in motion yourself off a diving plug-in from 3 or 4 human foot up and you will meet a solid airfoil . Landing with your feet , a far good bet , is unlikely to result in trauma — provided you strain to bend your knees .
In that mother wit , dive into amber is not dissimilar from “ diving ” into a concrete floor . But with atomic number 79 being mealy , it might be possible to damp the surface and “ swim ” if the friction were low enough . “ A ball pit is a good example , ” Kakalios says . “ The balls are lightly pack and have low friction proportional to one another . The Francis Scott Key is to have objects in front of you move out of the way for advance . ”
Despite being a fictional fictitious character , McDuck has n’t totally ignore the unsufferable physics of his feat . His God Almighty , Carl Barks , has written in recapitulate references over the years to the implausibility of using his money vault as a swimming pool and hasdepictedthe nefarious Beagle Boys trio as getting hurt when they tried to emulate the stunt . Scrooge simper and said there was a “ antic ” to create the gold dive .
That ’s led to one fan theory that McDuck has used his fate to coat the atomic number 79 coins in some kind of lubricant that would help in reducing friction , allowing him to maneuver inside the vault . Ludicrous , yes . But is it possible ? “ You would call for a massive amount of lube to slide your body past the coins with minimal effort , ” Kakalios say . “ The ball pit is well-to-do because the free weight of the elements is humbled . Gold is a very slow material . ” Diving and swim into it , even with lubricating substance , might be analogous to trying to shove your hand into a inscrutable bowling ball of M&Ms , he says . “ M&Ms have a miserable friction coating . Continuing to move is really the problem . ”
Presuming McDuck could somehow manoeuvre himself deeper into the pile , his delicate duck bones would almost surely succumb to the squeeze weight of the Au above him . By one estimate , diving under one of his 5 - fundament - tall gold piles would put2492 poundsof air pressure on his bill .
We ’ll see if he tips his top lid to any further Au - dive john — or if he ’s in a full - torso casting — when Disney XDrelaunchesDuckTalesthis summertime .
