Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site psivax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen
From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Sauropods Got Dianabol???
Message-ID: <732@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 16:16:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.732
Posted: Mon Sep 16 16:16:32 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Sep-85 05:26:18 EDT
References: <392@imsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 34

In article <392@imsvax.UUCP> ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:
>
>
>     Don't take  my word  for this  one, Wayne.  Consider "On Size and Life", a
>Scientific American Library book,  1983 by  Thomas A. McMahan  and John Bonner.
>On pages 55 and 56 it states:
>
>     "..The  figure  shows  that  the  weight lifted in each of the body-weight
>     classes up to 198 lbs is quite precisely proportional to the .67  power of
>     body weight  as would  be predicted  by an  argument that muscle stress is
>     invariant  to  body  size,  so  that  muscle  force,  and  therefore total
>     weight-lifting ability  is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the
>     body (that  is,  the  2/3  power  of  body  weight  in  animals  scaled by
>     isometry)."
>
>     It sometimes  happens that reading about such things on paper doesn't give
>one a very good  FEEL for  what is  actually being  discussed.  If  this is the
>case, you might try watching ants carrying leaves 20 times their own weight for
>awhile (several kinds  of  ants  make  a  practice  of  this),  and  then carry
>something 20 times YOUR weight (such as a Corvette-Stingray or one of the newer
>Porsches) around for awhile, until you become convinced.
>
	Well, you still didn't pick up the whole of what they were
saying. You missed "...body-weight classes *up* *to* *198* *lbs* is..."
This means that the authors found that for *larger* weights the
relationship broke down! In short a human is about the largest animal
to which the .67 power ratio applies! Boy is extending it to Sauropods
completely out of line!
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen
ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen@rand-unix.arpa


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com