A Physicist Weighed in on Whether Scrooge McDuck Could Actually Swim in a Vault of Gold Coins

If you think Ducktales was a thing relegated to the 1980s or 1990s, well, you obviously don’t have kids. The McDuck kids and their grumpy, rich uncle are not only still around, but thriving on streaming platforms like Disney+.

The enduring image (and most common pop-culture reference) from any iteration of the series is the rich Scrooge McDuck going for actual swims in his piles of gold.

But could you actually breaststroke through mounds of money?

Physics professor James Kakalios took some time out of teaching classes at the University of Minnesota to write The Physics of Everyday Things and The Physics of Superheroes, and well, he was dying to figure out the answer.

First, he examined how Scrooge dives into his money – hands first, as if folded in prayer, and quickly followed by the top of his head – and determined that the miserly duck would likely end up with some broken bones.

“Gold is a granular material like sand, a macroscopic object. You can’t swim through sand or dive into it easily.”

You’d want to, at the very least, lead with your feet – and some bent legs.

Kakalios says,

“A ball pit is a good example.

The balls are lightly packed and have low friction relative to one another.

The key is to have objects in front of you move out of the way in order to advance.”

So, perhaps Scrooge has a workaround for not injuring himself on the dive?

The character has made smirking references over the years to a “trick” to his dive, leading to at least one fan theory that McDuck coats his coins in some kind of lube to make them move more easily out of the way.

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?Not phony tales or goblin tales, but Duck Tales!? (don’t even try to tell me you didn’t say “Woo woo!”- I def did!) • As a kid how much did you want to take a dive into Uncle Scrooge McDuck’s vault?! Can you even imagine?!? I did a values exercise on my team meeting tonight- and results were surprising to me! We picked 20 from 164 listed values then 10 from the 20, then 5, then 3 final values . Except I could only pick 2 and had 4 vying for that third spot. (I’m usually excellent at following instructions – so this kinda felt like failing?) Anyway- one person wrote “Wealth” as one of theirs and I was like- I want that on my list!! You guys- it didn’t even make it the first round for me during the exercise- and I had to question myself – why is that? I really believe that I have been conditioned to push wealth away as the root of all evil; So I have never admitted to myself, let alone out loud that I do In fact value it. And it’s hard to write it out here because I’m afraid the world is going to have something to say about how selfish, privileged, etc etc I must be. Now, BEFORE you come at me with PITCHFORKS, let me explain. I don’t dream of being Scrooge McDuck. As an adult swimming through piles of money seems like a germ fest ? Let me also say that I do believe we are wealthy and I am so thankful for the life we have. And I value it. I have list of things I’d love to experience with my family and they cost money (Grand Canyon, San Diego Zoo, Eiffel Tower). So yeah, I value paying off debt, being financially responsible and learning to save better AND earning. Wealth. ??‍♀️ I currently stay home with our kids which is awesome (except from 4-6:30pm- jk-not every day). I’m doing something new with these values in mind to reach these goals. (I’ll talk more about my other values and why I think wisdom is essential above all on another day- watch for it!) #wealth #scroogemcduck #values #goalsetter #sahm

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Silly, of course, but possible?

Kakalios isn’t so sure.

“You would need a massive amount of lube to slide your body past the coins with minimal effort.

The ball pit is easier because the weight of the elements is low. Gold is a very dense material.”

Well thanks for shattering our dreams!

Basically, it’s possible but not at all practical or comfortable, since one 5-foot-tall pile of gold would put 2492 pounds of pressure on a little duck body.

If you found all of this very interesting but really just made you want to watch more DuckTales, well, you’re in luck -DisneyXD is relaunching the series.

Let us know if you’re gonna watch! Drop a comment!

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