3 ms·
Can you explain why? Is it to do with the bulk properties of the materials not varying with scale? Or scaling with some power of length < 3? If you tried to s
by aaren 13y ago
Can you explain why?
Is it to do with the bulk properties of the materials not varying with scale? Or scaling with some power of length < 3?
If you tried to spec a full sized helicopter engine to make speed changes like those in the video would it tear itself apart?
- barrkel 13y agoYes. Mass increases with the cube of scale, while structural material cross-section area increases only with the square of scale. So insects can have miniscule legs, while elephants have tree trunks, proportionally.
- mturmon 13y agoRight, sometimes called "square-cube law" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law). Worth knowing about so you can explain to yourself the differences noted above.
- jamesaguilar 13y agoThink about it. Ants can carry six times their weight, while larger creatures could never accomplish that. I don't know the physics behind it, but it's not hard to see that small things can have greater strength per mass than large things.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]