[gurps] Dragon Aerodynamics

[Bret Indrelee]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007, Anthony Jackson wrote:
> Rupert Boleyn wrote:
>
>> How about swimming upside down, using their body's lift to push them 
>> downwards?
>
> Huh? Their buoyancy will push them upwards regardless of what side up they 
> are in the water, and I haven't assigned them a magical lifting ability. If 
> you mean, using wings or legs to push downwards, that's what birds do, it 
> just takes a fairly substantial amount of work, making it fatiguing, whereas 
> a water dragon can probably just float mostly submerged at minimal energy 
> expenditure.

Since bouyancy is a matter of displacement, perhaps we could think of
a way that the dragon decreases in volumn when diving. They are going
to have to do more than just expell air, but it would be one tact.

Since they are magical creatures, perhaps they just adjust their molar
constant.  :)

-Bret

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Bret Indrelee |   Lister's Law: People under time pressure don't
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