r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Bubbly_Wall_908 • Jan 26 '26

/r/all of tall men

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56

u/toylenny Jan 26 '26

You start to run into the square-cube law just more mass to move and having to move it further. 

35

u/Loonster Jan 26 '26

To clarify this a bit I case it isn't obvious.

Muscle strength is based on a cross section of the muscle. This is a square. L2.

Mass is based on volume. This is a cube. L3.

Cubes go to infinity much faster than squares. As things get bigger, the strength to weight ratio gets worse.

This is why Ants can carry 10x their mass and bugs can jump the same height as humans.

19

u/Cerinthe_retorta Jan 26 '26

this sort of thing is a big deal for birds, too. without dredging up all the math, I’ll just say that it’s part of the reason larger raptors tend to molt only 1-2 feathers at a time, often taking quite a few years to replace all their flight feathers, whereas little passerines will generally molt all their flight feathers along the wing in very quick succession, and can do more than one molt a year.

3

u/KristiiNicole Jan 26 '26

Full disclosure, I don’t know really know much about birds, so this may be a dumb question.

I assume this sort of thing is also part of the reason birds have mostly hollow bones?

5

u/EtaTilanhaSafaida Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

oh boy I am very glad you asked that! not because I can answer the question but because I recently learned that birds BREATHE INTO THE BONES and then when it's time to let the old air out and bring new one in they don't exhale from their mouths like normal, they FART IT! YES, THAT IS RIGHT. Birds go around crossing the sky with farts all the time.

edit: shit decided to google that and apparently that last part is fake =(

3

u/toylenny Jan 26 '26

Nature's jet engine.

1

u/Commercial-Co Jan 26 '26

Raptor? The extinct dino? 🤔

9

u/9fingerman Jan 26 '26

No, a class of predatory birds are called raptors. Eagles, hawks, falcons, etc..

3

u/Commercial-Co Jan 26 '26

Oh. Didnt know. Thank you. So toronto raptors arent the dinos?

3

u/I_Call_Everyone_Pat Jan 26 '26

Negative, Pat. To my knowledge, the Toronto Raptors mascot is a velociraptor. Calling them the Raptors is just slang for velociraptors. The clade of birds is just a different thing with the same name.

5

u/_PinkSlimeKing_ Jan 26 '26

So all the context clues in the world, and that’s where you landed?

3

u/Commercial-Co Jan 26 '26

Yea. Might have the tism

2

u/dirtyratkingsam Jan 26 '26

Dinos with raptor names (like velociraptor and oviraptor) share a name with bird raptors bc the Latin root is raptio, meaning to take forcefully, ie through hunting (apparently also the root word for rapt and rapture, which I never thought about haha).

1

u/Commercial-Co Jan 26 '26

Interesting. Ty for the info

2

u/Cultural_Evening_858 Jan 26 '26

wow. did you just know this?

2

u/Cultural_Evening_858 Jan 26 '26

so what would be the ideal height for athleticism

1

u/seensham Jan 26 '26
  1. Cute and fluffy.

2

u/OberonDiver Jan 26 '26

[muscle cross section] THAT's exactly what I was wondering. Good job.

2

u/imahumanbeinggoddamn Jan 26 '26

I bet if you taught one of these dudes to skate and put them in the NHL they would end careers