How fast can Evangelion run? Application of aerodynamics and scaling laws to the Super Robot

Abstract

Super robots are huge, powerful robots that protect mankind from various invaders, and thus these superheroes are the main figures in many science fiction movies and Japanese animations. Among them, Evangelions have been a very popular type of super robot since the 1990s given that the animation series Neon Genesis Evangelion has been globally influential in various pop cultures. Evangelions (also called Evas) are cyborgs comprised of huge human body and robotic systems, and in the animation series, they often run at seemingly high speeds, which is quite different from traditional super robots. In this paper, we attempt to estimate the running speed of Evangelions based on known scientific facts. First, we measured the running speed of Eva Unit 01 (Eva-01) to be between 910 and 980 m/s based on its step length measured in movie scenes, and the Mach cone formed behind Eva-01. Second, we employed scaling laws known for animals and find that the maximum running speed of Eva-01 is 0.9 m/s. This striking difference between the anime-based speed and the physics-based speed raises a question as to how Eva-01 can run at such a high speed, and we conjecture that the cyborg can do so due to internally stored electrical power.