Video Game Theorists played with numbers to determine the top speed of the iconic blue hedgehog from the Sega video game series. Sonic the Hedgehog can achieve sprints 10 to 15 times faster than the maximum sprinting pace of a domesticated pet hedgehog. Is anyone surprised?
From a community of hedgehog-enthusiasts reporting the results of rigging odometers onto a pet wheel, I know that domesticated hedgehogs can hit a top sprinting pace of roughly 6 meters per second when under stress. While quick for a living creature with one-inch legs, it’s utterly trounced by Sonic’s 80 meters per second.
It’s not surprising that Sonic has his real-life counterparts totally outpaced when it comes to top speed, but I’d challenge him to match reality when it comes to sprint duration. When my little hedgehog was experiencing a particularly scary week (otherwise known as “vacation”), he not only set a personal record-best top sprint speed of 6.6 m/s, but maintained a pace quick enough to cover 14 kilometers in 1.5 hours. That takes a sustained average speed of 2.5 m/s.
Alright, fine: Sonic could probably match, that, too. But it would require someone playing the game for 1.5 hours straight, while actual hedgehogs cover that sort of ground every night.
https://kotaku.com/sonic-runs-at-179-mph-according-to-science-1587065103
