How does Sonic run fast?

[Kuzu]

The explanation is simple...Rule of Cool, which justifies anything and everything.

IT doesn't have to make sense as long as it looks cool, its perfectly reasonable.

[Skull Leader]

He was taught by Speedy Gonzalez.

[Durarara]

He's a Kryptionan Hedgehog.

[Scar]

I'm going to give a chav's explanation:

He iz bare hench

Seriously though, he has a stupid amount of energy to be able to reach anything close to MACH speed. Also, everything in his body are either bone or muscle. Heck those spikes must also be made of bone and muscle to be able to break metal.

Also, he's extremely resistant to motion sickness, because not only does he blast through loops at insane speeds, he also rolls through them. If you could roll through a loop at 768mph without feeling sick I applaud you.

[Blue Blood]

Also, he's extremely resistant to motion sickness, because not only does he blast through loops at insane speeds, he also rolls through them. If you could roll through a loop at 768mph without feeling sick I applaud you.

Screw that, I'll applaud you for rolling like Sonic does without suffering fatal head trauma.

[Gatestormer]

*Appears*

You know what would be a FAR better way to have Sonic boost whilst grinding? Implement a simple extra animation that just has him stretch his back leg out and push off the rail to boost, much like someone on a skateboard does to pick up speed, repeat the animation every 3 seconds or so whilst continuously boosting. With the massive power his legs supposedly have, by Sonic physics at least it would make way more sense then him doing actually doing anything.

*Disappears*

Edited April 24, 2011 by ENVY16

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Screw that, I'll applaud you for rolling like Sonic does without suffering fatal head trauma.

Head trauma? Try flaying the skin of most of your body. Rolling as fast as Sonic does has hella amounts friction.

Edited April 24, 2011 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[-Mark-]

If you think about it, it should actually be impossible to run through a loop, or up a wall. I mean, if you think about it, running itself is essentially jumping forward small distances, one foot at a time. In order to 'jump' (read = run), you need to push yourself off from the ground with enough force to move forward and keep going. If you actually tried to run on a wall or ceiling, you'd basically just jump off of it. D:

[SupersilverTH]

Well, and the Homing Attack?

How can spin and hit an enemy like a missile?

[Raxz]

I can explain both the homing attack and the magic do-nothing-but-go-faster Boost.

Sonic doesn't actually run fast, he controls his inertia. So, whether he be on land, air, or rail, he can just suddenly go faster whenever he wants. This is also how he changes direction in midair.

Now, what gets me is how he can't fly this way. I mean, isn't the speed of sound faster than the Earth's gravity? Correct me if I'm wrong...

[SupersilverTH]

Inertia... I don't think of that.

And he can kind of fly, the panels in Adventure and 2006 prove it.

[MckenzieTheHedgehog]

Sonic eats chili dogs, everyone knows that and everyone knows that the chili on a chili dog is a mixture of beans and other stuff. So basically, when sonic begins running he starts to release a extreme and continuous stream of methane gas, propelling him forward. So really Sonic is moving fast because of his "propellant" and the fact that he can move his legs quickly is just a simple parlour trick he's learned to hide his secret.

[Ebby]

I gave up on questioning Sonic's physics ages ago because:

A: I was horrible in the subject. I recall getting a 65/D+ in my Astrophysics class!

and

B: He's a three foot tall bipedal blue hedgehog! ...that can talk!!

So when it comes to the topic at hand, I have no freaking idea. But while we're at it, why is it that Sonic can breathe in outer space? Does such a phenomenon have to do with his chili dog consumption?

Edited April 25, 2011 by eboni

[SpeedKeed]

After shortly thinking about it, I think it his shoes that gives him the power.

[Raxz]

Sonic's green eyes store excess oxygen for later use. They intake all the air from his massive speed like a jet engine, only, instead of turning it into propulsion, it stores it all.

Edited April 25, 2011 by Raxz

[Phos]

If you've ever observed Sonic's stride closely, you might notice that he has his legs straight during the propulsive part of his stride, which implies that the majority of the toque on his legs comes from inside his body, while his legs are essentially just levers to increase the speed his feet are traveling at, increasing the "tip" speed of his legs.

When it comes to strength, something's strength can be very different compared to its size. An orangutan's arms are about the same size as those of a human, but they're about five times as strong. Being thin provides benefits to his air resistance as well. His legs also have a very slight teardrop profile to them if you look closely as some of the more recent 3D models.

Unlike a normal creature, Sonic's ears seem to lack visible openings, which would increase their drag significantly.

Sonic's tendency to hold his arms in front or behind while running make sense insofar as aerodynamics are concerned. If he were to swing his arms while running, they would repeatedly exceed the speed of sound, creating a great deal of turbulence in his path.

You guys have answered my question to lengths which have left me in entire awe. I only have this to say in reply:

How does the boost work?

Sonic swallowed a small Alcubierre drive, with properties very similar to the Warp drive of Star Trek fame. This is consistent with both Sonic's acceleration and ability to smash large objects using this ability.

[TeddyJ]

Sonic swallowed a small Alcubierre drive, with properties very similar to the Warp drive of Star Trek fame. This is consistent with both Sonic's acceleration and ability to smash large objects using this ability.

You know, that thought had occurred to me when I was watching Star Trek the other day and I remember hearing about the mechanics of an Alcubierre drive on the Science Channel; so that has given me the incentive to not only explain Sonic's powers, but also the majority of the other characters' abilities. So here I go, the explanation for most of the characters' abilities are due to the Chaos emeralds (and the Master and Sol emeralds if you want to get finicky). Wow, I just made the biggest copout ever! Not exactly though, as I'm not finished yet. These "emeralds" are not normal emeralds in the common sense. The emeralds are all made up of or contain exotic matter. This exotic matter radiates negative energy all over the planet that the characters (whom I will refer to as a whole as Mobians, even though that's not cannon) are able to utilize and manipulate to their advantage. Many Mobians have adapted unique ways of using the negative energy to warp space itself. Their strength in using their power depends on their willpower (not trying to rip-off Green Lantern), and they can feel exhaustion if they are trying to push themselves beyond their limit of what they can do.

The answer came in a flash of insight. It seemed a bit ironic, though. The hedgehog didn’t know he was warping spacetime! He probably thought he was born with some sort of super speed. In reality, he wasn’t moving at all. He was locally at rest in the pocket of spacetime in the warp bubble, which was translating over the landscape. It expanded spacetime behind it and contracted spacetime ahead of it, creating what appeared to be a supersonic hedgehog.

This is an excerpt from a decently written fanfic from 1997 called "The Fastest Thing Alive", following a being from a technologically advanced race trying to scientifically explain the impossible feats of the blue blur in a report he's writing about Sonic's planet. What this part of the story states, is that Sonic is somehow able to generate a bubble of warped space surrounding his body, similar to the properties of an Alcubierre drive or the Faster-Than-Light devices you see in a lot of science fiction. Now the fanfic itself takes place in the SatAM/Archie continuity, which I don't consider as part of the main canon, but it's one of the only stories I can find that try to explain Sonic's powers

When you watch him from the 2D view in Unleashed without the boost, his animation is actually quite slow for the speed he's moving at, it's still fast but not realistically fast enough which would have to mean he's able to take huge strides quickly which is all thanks to the sheer power in his legs

This actually supports the notion that Sonic is actually not running that fast within this theoretical "bubble". What's really happening is that this field around him distorts the space in front of him, pulling his destination towards him. Everything inside the bubble is at rest, while anything along the outside edges is warped around. Because of this, Sonic and anyone with him is protected from the likes of air friction and g-forces (comparable to the "aura" that surrounds the Flash when he runs). To some extent, the bubble can help to deflect projectiles, such as bullets, missiles, and the occasional bug. Sonic only creates a bubble subconsciously when he starts to run or it can be triggered by extreme circumstances, like being in space, in which he can store a supply of air in the bubble, or re-entering the atmosphere, protecting him from the intense heat (now, how he survives the impact is because his skeleton made of an extremely durable substance). Other Mobians have this ability as well, but they aren't able to create as strong bubbles to propel themselves as fast as Sonic. Notable examples include Shadow, who "skates" instead of running, and Blaze, who couldn't run very fast under normal conditions because of her high heels.

Now that I've explained Super Speed, I'll explain how warping space can explain other powers. Almost every Mobian has all of these powers, but some are stronger in certain areas, while others aren't so much.

Super Strength

Knuckles the Echidna has pipe-thin arms, so how can he lift so much weight? Well, using the space warping technique, he makes a bubble around the object he's lifting, and propels the space around it. His arms physically exert little force on the object. When he punches something, a bubble forms around his arm and increases its speed, and creates a devastating blow. Like Sonic, he has a super strong skeletal structure, so his arm doesn't shatter on impact.

Flight

Mobians like Rouge the Bat and Charmy Bee have tiny wings in ratio their bodies, making it impossible to fly normally. Their wings use the negative energy emitted by the emeralds to repel the force of gravity, akin to the infamous anti-gravity. Knuckles and Cream use this to some extent to glide, and Sonic on an even lesser extent uses it to jump large distances. Tails though, is not so easy to wave off with "exotic matter" and "negative energy", as his method of flight is unique. What I say is that not only does he somewhat use the latter characters' abilities, it's also the fact that his two tail are not biological at all, but that he had surgically placed a system of two robotic tails arranged in a rotor-like system (I don't what would compel him to do that).

Telekinesis

Silver the Hedgehog uses a technique like Knuckles, but from a distance. When he focuses on something, he'll make it "float". To fly, he uses a more powerful version of Knuckles' ability.

Pyrokinesis

Blaze the Cat warps air molecules to create friction, and thus makes fire.

Hammer Space

Amy Rose creates a pocket of space somewhere around her that appears to be larger on the inside than on the outside to store her Piko Piko hammer. Other characters use this to store chaos emeralds.

Super Forms

Being in the direct vicinity of even one emerald increases a Mobian's ability to distort the fabric of space. All seven emeralds generate enough energy to give Sonic the ability to travel speed of light or possibly "faster". The warping of space also protects Sonic from time dilation when reach near-light speed.

Chaos Control

Shadow the Hedgehog can use chaos energy to warp the space around someone and manipulate it so that they are moving slowly relative to him. Shadow's other chaos abilities can be explained as a surge of chaos energy.

Time Travel

The emeralds, due to their exotic nature, can open microscopic wormholes and keep them open, so that someone can travel through time, as long as the other end of the wormhole existed in the desired time destination.

I really have no life if I try to scientifically explain the workings of a world of cartoony video game animals

Edited July 9, 2011 by TeddyJ

[HyperGogeta]

It's a popular belief that his speed is granted by his shoes, but that's false.

Sonics speed is totally natural from his body.

This is proven in SA2. And in the OFFICIAL STORY OF HOW SONIC TURNED BLUE.

So it's just his own talent.

Oh, and it's arguable he doesn't have any bones in his body, otherwise they would have been stressed and broken, or liquified from breaking the sound barrier.

Edited July 9, 2011 by HyperGogeta

[Mr. Awesomest]

Well, he puts one foot in front of the other then puts the other foot in front of the first foot. This of course, creates movement and steadily goes from walking to jogging and finally to running.

....That didn't make a lick of sense, did it?

[Melru]

Unleashed HD. Try to boost with an empty gauge. Sonic farts.

Made even funnier with the fact I actually believed it at first.

Its funny the boost is brought up, it absolutely makes no sense in Unleashed. You get it after collecting Rings. If anything it should make you go slower from all that weight, but noooo.

Is there a way that The Flash's super speed is made to make sense? If there is lets try to apply the logic to Sonic =p