161–170 of 179 posts
They say they’re taking about tensile strength at the footnote. But teeth would be more likely to be compressively strong. They don’t get pulled on much. The whole thing seems very confused. Anyway let’s build space elevator?
Given what they are talking about (mollusk tongue scraping rock) tensile strength is appropriate. The mollusk does f crush food between teeth - its teeth are on its tongue and scraped across rock.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article/12/105/20141...
The links given in TFA are broken.
> 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.
While I am totally with you on the bags of sugar, I am also unsure of the significance of a single thread of spaghetti! Is that by weight? By volume? Are we comparing uncooked (brittle) or cooked (flexible)? Even so, spaghetti strand is not known for strength or tension resistance even when considering the weight/size/volume. I can't at all understand what this comparison is meant to visualize for me, so it is obviou…
> 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
> 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
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)
But what is it in football fields? That's the usual measurement of size in the States and it's absolutely unbelievably ridiculous.