Mario Is Faster Than Usain Bolt, Science Proves

Usain Bolt has long claimed that he's pretty much the fastest person on the planet. But that could be arguable considering that he's never gone up against Nintendo's heroic Mario.

True, he's a video game character, and he spends just as much time behind the wheel as he does running around. But a new research study insists that the would-be plumber is actually the fastest being on the planet.

The report comes from Pedro Henrique Evers, who serves as a logistic engineer student from Joinville (Santa Catarina). According to the study, titled The Physics of Super Mario World, he believes that the plumber has enough speed to conquer most of the running world.
Granted, not everyone. Apparently a cheetah and a Volkswagen can go faster than him, along with an antelope and a lion. But as you can see by the chart below, he does beat Usain Bolt by just a hair. (Thanks to Manati Games for the chart!)

Per the study, Mario can run at 52 km/h, which is faster than the 44.5 km/h that Usain Bolt goes. Not only that, but Mario also has higher jumping capability, going up 6 meters high. That's more than double the world record of 2.45 meters high.

Pedro considers the Mushroom Universe to have a bigger land mass than Jupiter, which is the largest planet in the solar system. That means the gravitational acceleration is 5.5 times higher than on Earth and twice on Jupiter. He believes that if Mario was on our planet, he'd be able to jump as high as 28 meters into the sky. Who needs a Tanooki suit at that rate?

Pedro and his teacher, Diego Duarte, will be presenting more of this study at ITA (Brazil's Aeronautic Technologic Institute), during the XII Physics Encounter, in July. It should definitely be of interest to both scientists and video gamers alike.

The full paper can be found here, but it's in Portuguese so you may need to do some Google translation.

Bolt hasn't said a word about this study yet, but chances are he'll probably be calling Mario to prove his worth in a foot race. Hey, just be careful that he doesn't hurl any turtle shells, Usain. We hear he likes to use those.