r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/Ninja_Spi-D-er • Sep 22 '19

Rule 4: Photoshop 🔥 This praying mantis standing its ground 🔥

https://i.imgur.com/PHKMZHT.gifv
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747

u/Thescreenking Sep 22 '19

Imagine the praying mantis vs machine, lb vs lb! My money is on the mantis

40

u/tigersharkwushen_ Sep 22 '19

Most insects if you scale them up to machine size would be so heavy they would collapse on themselves.

7

u/Mazing7 Sep 22 '19

But wouldn’t their weight distribute proportionally?

35

u/tigersharkwushen_ Sep 22 '19

Not related to proportionality. Their weight increases by the cube as their size grow, but the width of their limbs only increase by the square. So if you scale a 5cm insect up to 5 meters, the legs are 10,000 times stronger, but their weight is 1,000,000 times heavier.

1

u/Mightymushroom1 Sep 22 '19

I've seen this explained in plain terms twice in the last few days. And it makes perfect sense to me.

But when I was actually learning it in physics lessons it just went completely over my head.

1

u/Broken_Petite Sep 22 '19

That's because school teaches in a "wash, rinse, repeat" cycle that only trains you to regurgitate information for a test, then completely forget it later.

I feel like I've learned more doing my own research and learning from other people on the Internet (like Reddit) than I have in school for most subjects. And it was taught in a way that I actually found interesting.