# If a dragon can survive a MBT shooting it easily, does that mean it must also survive falling? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819 "2017-06-13T00:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dude\_robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e7dd6/32.png) [@dude\_robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dude_robert)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/1 "2017-06-13T00:08:39Z")
So I once read a thread on a forum where a person said that if a dragon was durable enough to survive multiple hard-hitting projectiles hitting it, such as rounds from a tank, it by definition also easily survive falling at terminal velocity from a great height. Is this true, though? I mean, while not necessarily the same, a tank might be able to survive multiple rounds from other tanks, yet it could never survive falling from even a dozen or so meters without being rendered useless. For example the dragon in GATE JSDF could survive multiple tank-like rounds (not necessarily tank rounds though), yet I really really doubt it could survive falling from a great height, since the only reason it could survive those rounds was from the angle they were being fired at/were hitting the dragon, and the dragon’s pretty good armor. Yet since it was still made out of flesh and bone, I seriously doubt it would have a nice cozy life if it was to fall out of the sky for any particular reason IMO. If a very heavy dragon, made out of extremely thick hide, muscle, fat and bone, so heavy and thick it could survive “tank blasts”, fell out of the sky and hit a hard rocky surface at terminal velocity, would it survive? How badly injured would it be? Assume little to no magic in the dragon itself. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/2 "2017-06-13T00:11:00Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > … Assume little to no magic in the dragon itself. Ok, so we’re talkling about real life dragons, then? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/3 "2017-06-13T00:13:21Z")
Dragons actually generate anti-gravity and must make a conscious effort to remain on the ground. If injured or rendered unconscious, dragons drift upwards to the margin of space, where the Van Patten belts hold them in place. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/4 "2017-06-13T00:34:25Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Dragons actually generate anti-gravity and must make a conscious effort to remain on the ground. If injured or rendered unconscious, dragons drift upwards to the margin of space, where the Van Patten belts hold them in place. [He’s slacking off, then - he’s still wearing his.](http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/pc/Dick+Van+Patten+honors+Mel+Brooks+received+V3y8a8rbck2l.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/5 "2017-06-13T00:58:50Z")
Without magic, something as large as a dragon could not fly. However, your OP depends entirely on the Universe in which this is pondered. Most certainly, it is not this one. A dragon by most fantasy game settings would explode into a shower of scales and meat upon being hit by a tank shell. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/6 "2017-06-13T01:14:36Z")
No. Really, really hard armor will not save you if you fall from a great height. Imagine, if you will, wearing a suit of miraculous (non-magical, but futuristic) “Iron Man” armor. And falling from a great height. You die from internal injuries. Your brain smashes against the inside of your skull; your heart tears away from the aorta; your spine telescopes. (“Ever drop a wrench inside a submarine?”) ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/7 "2017-06-13T01:19:04Z")
People should stop fighting your hypothetical.l The fall could kill him because all of his internal organs would slam to his chest/back/ass (depending on orientation on hitting) at terminal velocity and would likely get, to be technical, smushed. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/8 "2017-06-13T04:39:57Z")
Somewhat related but I always heard the claim that due to how massive Godzilla is, something that huge would have to be incredibly dense to even survive without collapsing in on itself, and thus pretty much no conventional human made weapon could ever hope of harming it unless it happened to be a several megaton direct hit by a nuclear weapon and even that just might only wound it. Any truth to this? ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/9 "2017-06-13T14:23:32Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > A dragon by most fantasy game settings would explode into a shower of scales and meat upon being hit by a tank shell. I don’t know why, but by coincidence, I was thinking this morning about the scene in Larry Elmore’s [_Snarfquest_](https://www.amazon.com/Snarfquest-Book-Pages-Dragon-Magazine/dp/088038462X) where Snarf tricks the dragon menacing his village into looking down the barrel of the gun he has. This being a fantasy setting, Snarf doesn’t understand exactly _how_ the gun works, but he _has_ experienced what happens when he pulls the trigger. Needless to say, all it takes is one shot right between the eyes to mean the end of that dragon! ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/10 "2017-06-13T15:34:17Z")
> [@dude\_robert](#): > > So I once read a thread on a forum where a person said that if a dragon was durable enough to survive multiple hard-hitting projectiles hitting it, such as rounds from a tank, it by definition also easily survive falling at terminal velocity from a great height. Is this true, though? I mean, while not necessarily the same, a tank might be able to survive multiple rounds from other tanks, yet it could never survive falling from even a dozen or so meters without being rendered useless. You’re right, they are wrong. Unless it’s able to survive projectiles giving it a sudden change in momentum similar to what it experiences when hitting the ground the comparison is flawed. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/11 "2017-06-13T15:40:12Z")
A battleship will shrug of a tank shell, but it wouldn’t handle being dropped a couple thousand feet. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/12 "2017-06-13T15:41:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Asuka** : > > Somewhat related but I always heard the claim that due to how massive Godzilla is, something that huge would have to be incredibly dense to even survive without collapsing in on itself, and thus pretty much no conventional human made weapon could ever hope of harming it unless it happened to be a several megaton direct hit by a nuclear weapon and even that just might only wound it. > > Any truth to this? Impossible to say, really. In order to survive his own weight, Godzilla must be more durable than ordinary organisms. There’s some minimum durability he must have to survive. But how much greater than that minimum durability is he? One can envision a Godzilla that’s strong enough to support his own weight, but only just barely, such that even the slightest additional trauma would be the straw that broke the kaiju’s back. On the other hand, one can also envision a Godzilla that’s strong enough to bear many times his own weight, in which case conventional weapons would be negligible compared to his surplus durability. Back to the OP, to sum up, a creature could be tough on the outside while still being squishy on the inside. Or it could be tough all the way through; we don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/13 "2017-06-13T16:31:06Z")
There’s a weird trope in some fantasy genres (_cough_ Buffy _cough_) that bullets never work, but punching the bad guy _really_ _really_ hard does the trick. Fantasy writers do not seem to understand physics at all. But let’s do the math (in a shoddy sort of back of the envelope sort of way). A tank penetrator shell weighs about 10 lbs and is moving at 1400 m/sec. A dragon falling out of the sky would be moving at a terminal velocity of, I dunno, 100 m/sec? Let’s say it weighs about the same as the equally terrifying A-10, so 30,000 lbs. Kinetic energy is mv **2, so the ratio of energies is 14** 2/3000. So I think a plunging dragon would have about 15 times the kinetic energy of a single tank shell, ignoring the high-explosive shaped charge aspects. So no, I think falling would be a more energetic event, especially as I probably underestimated the terminal velocity of a 30,000 lb iguana. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/14 "2017-06-13T18:25:55Z")
I would expect any flying creature to have a fairly low terminal velocity. Something’s making it fly, after all, and whatever it is isn’t gone entirely when it’s falling. It might be big wings, or a lighter-than-it-looks (or possibly even buoyant) body, or magical antigravity, or whatever, but all of those things are going to mean a softer fall than you’d expect. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/15 "2017-06-13T18:45:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I would expect any flying creature to have a fairly low terminal velocity. Something’s making it fly, after all, and whatever it is isn’t gone entirely when it’s falling. It might be big wings, or a lighter-than-it-looks (or possibly even buoyant) body, or magical antigravity, or whatever, but all of those things are going to mean a softer fall than you’d expect. Not sure I buy your reasoning. A flying creature is likely to be streamlined. So if it noses in, then it could fall faster than you’d think (a peregrine falcon can hit 240 mph, and that’s a controlled dive). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/16 "2017-06-13T19:23:34Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > I don’t know why, but by coincidence, I was thinking this morning about the scene in Larry Elmore’s [_Snarfquest_](https://www.amazon.com/Snarfquest-Book-Pages-Dragon-Magazine/dp/088038462X) where Snarf tricks the dragon menacing his village into looking down the barrel of the gun he has. > > This being a fantasy setting, Snarf doesn’t understand exactly _how_ the gun works, but he _has_ experienced what happens when he pulls the trigger. Needless to say, all it takes is one shot right between the eyes to mean the end of that dragon! Is this the same Snarf that used to hang around with He-Man snarf snarf? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/17 "2017-06-13T19:26:02Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > There’s a weird trope in some fantasy genres (_cough_ Buffy _cough_) that bullets never work, but punching the bad guy _really_ _really_ hard does the trick. Fantasy writers do not seem to understand physics at all. Hand to hand weapons that remain in contact with a soul might be able to impact some nebulous intentional energy that bullets cannot. It’s magical: that’s why it’s fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/18 "2017-06-13T20:21:24Z")
Yes, in a _controlled_ dive. But a falling creature is going to be in some random orientation that’ll have a lot more drag, not the one single orientation that has low drag. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/19 "2017-06-13T22:02:32Z")
Even the MBT does not survive falling ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819/20 "2017-06-13T23:46:45Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > . . . Snarf doesn’t understand exactly _how_ the gun works . . . He is one lucky Zeetvah. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-dragon-can-survive-a-mbt-shooting-it-easily-does-that-mean-it-must-also-survive-falling/788819.md?page=2)