Live data from Hacker News

Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

smithsonianmag.com

101–110 of 179 posts

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#101
post #3

> 3,300 one-pound bags of sugar Ah, but how many one pound bags of concrete could it hold?? Why bags of anything? This is a poor way of communicating weight. Just say "a modern passenger car".

Sorry I only understand football field based units of measurement

Obviously it weighs 10,300 baseballs, which are 26 football fields long.

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But everyone knows, by experience, what 3300 individual roughly one pound bags of sugar weighs and what sort of force is needed to hold it up. Mid sized car is ambiguous, and nobody saw anybody hold that up (seeing hulk doesn't count)

Do they? I don't recall ever seeing a bag of sugar in my life. I'm not a baker though so maybe that explains it. A car is more easier to picture for me.

You must be from the US.

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#103
post #3

> 3,300 one-pound bags of sugar Ah, but how many one pound bags of concrete could it hold?? Why bags of anything? This is a poor way of communicating weight. Just say "a modern passenger car".

How many hogs to the bushel?

A hogshead is 6.768 bushels in the US and 7.875 in the UK.

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#106
post #24

> Thats’s comparable to a single strand of spaghetti holding up about 3,300 one-pound bags of sugar What an odd example. A mid-sized car would have been much clearer.

But everyone knows, by experience, what 3300 individual roughly one pound bags of sugar weighs and what sort of force is needed to hold it up. Mid sized car is ambiguous, and nobody saw anybody hold that up (seeing hulk doesn't count)

You think people are better at estimating what 3300 bags of sugar look like - as opposed to estimating the size of a car?

How often has anyone ever seen 3300 bags of sugar together in their lives, do you think?

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they? I don't recall ever seeing a bag of sugar in my life. I'm not a baker though so maybe that explains it. A car is more easier to picture for me.

You must be from the US.

I am from the US and buy bags of sugar.

What else does sugar come in? If not bags? I don't think I've ever bought sugar in something other than a bag.

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#109
post #100
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half that, 3300 pounds of sugar is roughly 1800 quid (retail) and wholesale is probably half of that.

Well that's what ... 300 or so pints?

Wait beer in the UK is 11 quid per pint??? I know UK pints are bigger, but that seems really pricey

Re: Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)

#110
post #17

I wanted to see some pictures, this paper has good ones: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.10332 If you put your finger in front of a garden slug it may try to eat it, it's a very odd sand-paper sensation but I never knew why.

"try"? If it's harder than your skin it means it did, not tried.

Just because you succeeded doesn't mean you didn't try.
Post reply on HN