Scale law

[shush11]

Recently i've faced a man who believe there was giant human about 15 to 30 ft tall. human become shorter from them with time. So i'm interested to know whether scale law limit animal growth? or it is not applicable on human

 

see this pictures

 

http://www.genesispark.com/genpark/giant/giant.htm

 

http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/pics/giant.femur.html

[imatfaal]

Why not ask the man stating this for an address of a reputable museum that has one of the bones - or even better a full skeleton!

The links you made only had reference to a replica of a bone from a description - and both the sites seemed to be overly religious - they use quotes from Genesis to show the existence of giants. We have nothing against religion - but it means nothing in a scientific debate that a holy book says one thing or denies another.

Anecdotally - I have been visiting the natural history museum in London all my life, and I have never seen a super-sized human bone such as the one claimed. I am sure that a museum like that would have done anything to get hold of a giant bone if they existed. I would have thought that a nice letter to your national museum of natural history (or the ones in London, New York etc) would get a reply that you can trust. Museums exist to educate and provide information about what we know and I am sure they would be able to help

[Mr Skeptic]

The scale law means that if you want to make something bigger you will need to change its shape somewhat. Make a human 15 ft tall while keeping the same dimensions and if he was 5 ft and 150 lb, he'd become 15 ft and 4000 lbs. His bones wouldn't be able to support his weight, and even if they could, he'd break his bones if he ever fell (81 times the gravitational potential energy at standing height). A large land animal would have to be somewhat like an elephant, having very thick bones compared to its height. Note that if an elephant falls even a few feet it will break its bones.

 

 

As for giants in the bible, perhaps they weren't all that big:

http://en.wikipedia....2.80.99s_height

The oldest manuscripts - 4QSam(a), the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel), the first-century A.D. historian Josephus and the fourth century A.D. Septuagint manuscripts - all give the height of Goliath as "four cubits and a span", over six feet tall.^[4] Later manuscripts increase his height to "six cubits and a span," which would make him over nine feet (2.70 meters) tall.^[5]

 

 

We can do that:

http://www.guinnessw...allest_man.aspx

The tallest man in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence is Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was born at Alton, Illinois, USA, on February 22, 1918, and when he was last measured on June 27, 1940, was found to be 2.72 m (8 ft 11.1 in) tall.

...

At the age of nine, he was able to carry his father Harold F. Wadlow, later Mayor of Alton, who stood 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) and weighed 77 kg (170 lb), up the stairs of the family home.

[Mrs Zeta]

If my calculations are correct, an 80kg man with an average femoral thickness of 2.8cm, will become a giant weighing 80000 kg with a femur of 2.8 meters in diameter. Although this is a formitable femur, it won't be able to support that weight, and worse so during walking, let alone balance and falls problems (or even circulation problems: his heart will not be able to pump as in normal people and will be prone to very early heart failure). Maybe such giants can exist on the moon...

[michel123456]

IIRC the scale law was coined by Galileo.

In other words, if you scale a horse it will become...an elephant.

I found this link with all reservations I did not read all of it.

Edited January 18, 2011 by michel123456