# Is there a way to judge the launch energy of a dolphin from its capers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-judge-the-launch-energy-of-a-dolphin-from-its-capers/679456>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 22, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-judge-the-launch-energy-of-a-dolphin-from-its-capers/679456 "2014-01-22T16:37:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-judge-the-launch-energy-of-a-dolphin-from-its-capers/679456/1 "2014-01-22T16:37:40Z")

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Thought of it on the fourth viewing of [this beautiful, exhilarating gif.](http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/gifs_121.gif)

It reminded me of an underwater missile launch failure, and I figured that there are people in the military who do those kind of analyses for a living. Actually I think I mean the total fuel expenditure possible, judging by the flips and rolls.

[confession to mods]  
The above is a true thought/question, but I also liked alerting people to this clip.  
[/confession]

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-judge-the-launch-energy-of-a-dolphin-from-its-capers/679456/2 "2014-01-22T16:48:01Z")

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A dolphin has to get up to speed before launching himself. If he weights about 1,000# and leaves the water while going his top speed of 30 mph he would be packing about 30,000# of kinetic energy. I doubt he is going over about 20 mph typicaly. I would usually run my boat around 20 mph and dolphins swimming and jumping along side me were fairly common.

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**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:** [January 22, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-judge-the-launch-energy-of-a-dolphin-from-its-capers/679456/3 "2014-01-22T17:12:11Z")

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It’s simple, just get the maximum height of its center of gravity, and use gravitational potential energy = mgh.