Altitude of Cloudsdale

So, any of our friendly canon-wranglers have any references/estimates/guesswork/etc. to what it might be? Asking for a next chapter.

Comments

[Dinode]

You could measure the time it took Rarity to (almost) fall to the ground. You'd have to factor in that she started at a higher altitude than the stadium and estimate the terminal velocity of a unicorn, but with those out of the way it's a simple calculation.

[Arzoo]

Easiest is to look up the typical heights of different types of clouds, and then pick out which Cloudsdale rests upon. Cloud types are pretty digestible for the average person; there's plenty of quick primers online, and I'm sure the heights are easy to find as well.

[Dinode]

4858337
Except the ones they use in Ponyville are obviously lower than what they would normally be, so we can't rely on that.

[lordelliott]

I'm sure it varies, but I don't think it would go to high normally, because of thinning air being harder to breathe.

[goldfencer]

4858330
All that still assumes that Equestrian gravity is the same as that of Earth. It might not be.

[Dinode]

4858386
Even then, you'd just have to replace the rate of acceleration with whatever value it takes in Equestria.

[LostArchivist]

The whole cloud thing strikes me as odd, come to think of it. Equestrian clouds hold an absurd amount of water, and are far too small. Real clouds are at most the density of fog, and are miles across, even the small ones. 2Km (~6000 ft) is around average height, according to a very shoddy glance at Wikipedia.

I hate to say it, but this might be something else to explain as weirdness due to their planet and the systems supporting it.
Maybe there's a method that allows the clouds to compress the water or store it in something like a bag of holding.
Anything that lets them have clouds where a significant portion of their volume is water, let alone move them, likely would result in very low clouds anyway. (For another matter, the pegasi can actually go grab them with minimal effort, so they can't be that high...? But they make them too, so that also depends on whatever a pegasus' flight ceiling is, and then it cancels out.)

I'd say the city should be about 2-3 thousand feet up, and that's already really high for anyone looking over the edge or for those on the ground looking up. It would also help since the city's clouds must be very dense to support building, so the clouds would likely be low. (Well, IRL, they would be fog or a lot of rain in short order, but let's say magic fixes both. But no need to levitate the thing higher than strictly necessary.)

TL;DR: Equestrian clouds break so many rules that trying to figure out their height would be somewhat futile, even if they use the same names as we do. Therefore, pick an altitude that is reasonably high and best fits the story, and then have it remarked upon as another anomaly, so that the more picky readers don't start grumbling. Points if you can create an explanation for it too.

Sorry that I couldn't find an actual answer, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can.

[LostArchivist]

4858330
That's actually pretty good, but the camera angles and hollywood timing would make that somewhat moot. Did she keep falling while the viewpoint changed, or did it cut back to where it left off on a switch? I doubt that the timing was even done accurately at all, if we even could figure it out; that sort of realism in ANYTHING is rare. :(

[goldfencer]

4858390
Incidentally, I love the fact that this equation includes the step “estimate the terminal velocity of a unicorn.”

[Dinode]

4858420
Yeah, I only realized how ridiculous that sounded after I wrote it.

[Cordial Nova]

4858420

Obvious follow-up question: pointy-end first, or not?

[Dinode]

4858474
Not, she was falling facing upwards.

[goldfencer]

4858499
Back to the subject of Equestrian gravity… I mean, there’s exhibit A:
media.giphy.com/media/apq5pd7E5yvNC/giphy.gif
But the idea of basing our understanding of local physics on the Pink One’s activities terrifies me.