Technical Question

omegaling · January 5, 2010

Hey guys,

I know it's been a while (more than a while, actually), but I have a technical question for 'yall and I'm sure you're the best bunch to answer it for me.

Food for thought.

It takes just seven pounds of pressure to break a man's bone.

So, how much would it take to break the bones of your standard, run-of-the-mill conveyor belt Zoanoid?

This is just for a couple of ideas I've been kicking around that probably won't end up going anywhere. It's just for my personal reference. Let me know what you think.

(Admittedly, this thought crossed my mind while watching Inglorious Basterds)

*zeo · January 6, 2010

7 pounds is just the average, it can be less or it can go up to 9 pounds or higher and this is in the direction of least resistance.

Normally bones are designed much like egg shells, to resist force from a specific direction. So a lot easier to break sideways than up and down.

Bones also have stress handling structure, which help absorb a certain amount of force by snapping on the cellular level, which is why you can land normally one time but break bone on the next jump because you've already used up the impact absorbing fibers.

Zoaform bones are a little more than proportionally larger and are steel like strong.

McAvoy · January 7, 2010

Considering that around 1,000 pounds is the limit a person can lift without breaking any bones or ripping muscles, and that zoanoids can lift anywhere between 5 to 60 times that. That and these zoanoids are not humans and are much larger but they're not all the same. A Gregole probably has much thicker bones than let's say a Vamore.

So taking a wild guess I'd say for example a Gregole should be able to up to let's say 100 pounds before breaking them horizontally, and around 8 tons vertically.

*zeo · January 10, 2010

Quite a bit more vertically, a standard zoanoid of the 12 man strength range took a tank nearly vertically before it finally got squashed, as shown in the battle scene on X-Day. And a tank is far beyond the strength of 12 men to lift. So it was all bone strength that held the tank up as long as it did.

Properly stressed, even normal human bone and be tripled in strength. And is how some are able to do things that would easily break the bones of the average person.

The upper limit of human strength may be 800 to 1000 pounds but for short periods we are capable of more. This is because we only use a percentage of our muscle mass at any one time. But in life or death situations our brains can temporarily over ride the limitation and let us use 100%.

Examples include a man pinned by a over 500 pounds stone slab about to slide off a cliff and at the last moment gets the strength to shove the slab completely off and stop himself from sliding off the cliff. This tore muscle but the bones held. Imagine then what someone who could normally lift that mass would be capable of in an emergency situation.

Also strain can be spread across the body to further prevent bone breaking. Only when the stress is focused to a small area and in a direction the bone isn't designed to resist does it become much easier to break the bone.

Zoanoids are of course designed for combat and thicker bones are proportionally stronger. Add steal like density and they can be extremely strong.

So I'd say double or triple McAvoy's estimate, for the strength type zoanoids. The other types like Vamore would be much less.

Aranor · January 12, 2010

Here is a good example of what Zeo is saying. Thought not on a bone based test but muscle. I watched a show explaining how the utilisation of multiple muscle groups allows him to do this. http://www.automotto.org/entry/what-sup ... n-seconds/ Granted teh lambo creates a layer of liquid rubber beneath its drive tires but impressive nonetheless.