Comments on: Movie monster madness!

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:54:08 +0000

Anybody have any idea what the armospheric percentages were 100 million years ago and what the atmospheric pressure was? Current partial pressure of O2 at sea level and standard temp. is about 2.7 PSI. With a somewhat higher percentage of O2 in the atmospheric mix in those days, plus higher sea level pressure we can see how large insects could have “breathed”.

I considered writing a SciFi novel years ago in which the “explanation” for giant critters was that earth had a larger radius in those days, with a consequent lower surface gravity. As the planet cooled, it shrank,,resulting in our current surface acceleration of G of 9.8 m/sec. Of course, I have no idea if that would be even theoretically possible, but that’s the fun fo fantasy,,,anything goes.

Gary 7

By: Elwood Herring

Elwood Herring — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:48:00 +0000

Ah – now I see it has been mentioned. Sorry about that. Good old Isaac – I wonder what he’d make of the current war on science if he were still with us. Him and Richard Feynman, two of my heroes since they could explain complex science ideas to laymen like me. We really could do with them now!

By: Elwood Herring

Elwood Herring — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:34:16 +0000

Apologies if this has already been pointed out above but I haven’t read all the replies yet. I think it was Isaac Asimov who pointed out in one of his numerous essays that if you increased the size of an insect to giant proportions, not only would it have trouble breathing but it would also be incapable of movement! If you double the size of an object you increase its mass by a factor of eight. (If you have an object a foot square that weighs a pound, doubling the size means you have a cube 2 feet on each side which gives you a volume of 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 cubic feet, and a mass of 8 pounds!)

Insects’s legs are very thin because they don’t need to support much weight, but an insect the size of an elephant would have to have elephant size legs too. Even then, an elephant can’t jump to save its life whereas most insects can leap incredible distances compared to their size. The bigger you get, the more muscles you need just to stand up.

By: Mark Martin

Mark Martin — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:05:23 +0000

CafeenMan,

If you have an opinion of Peter Jackson’s filmmaking style, you may be interested in this:

http://www.rpstudios.net/dorkoftherings/

By: icemith

icemith — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 19:05:22 +0000

Ever notice how super-sized Hollywood animals seem to never leave footprints, nor ruffle the dirt they walk on? When they stomp on a car, usually a Police vehicle, or even the ubiquitious Sherman tank, it gets squashed, but the ground beneath is left un-touched!

Considering most of our streets have tunnels carrying power, water, sewerage, and telephone cables etc., I’m not surprised that sometimes these occasionally fail in not much more than normal traffic.

Ivan.

By: Bob Hancock

Bob Hancock — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:39:15 +0000

I believe that one other factor to consider is the “Square-Cube Law” which says that if you double the size of an object, you square its surface area, and cube its volume.

In other words if you cube its volume, you also cube its weight, and therein is the basic problem is enlarging and keeping the same proportions. That is why elephants have large legs….as did the giant dinosaurs, and that is why insects and spiders can get along on spindly legs…..

By: Rowsdower

Rowsdower — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 17:56:49 +0000

Yeah, but there are still some really big insects out there. The most frightening I’ve seen is the Giant Asian Hornet or Vespa mandarinia. I would post a URL for it, but unfortunately the blog won’t let me. But if you google for it, you’ll see it easily enough.