Re: Giants!

Minun olisi pitänyt tietää, olisi pitänyt tietää,
olisi pitänyt tietää KUKA SINÄ OLET, Kermit:

Robert Carnegie wrote:
rich hammett wrote:

Being unusually tall puts you at increased risk of some fatal illnesses
- I think there's extra strain on the heart.

Not just the heart. If you were to clone me, and feed my poor
experimental twin growth hormones as he grew up, so that he wre twice
as tall, the result would be: eight times the mass. But the bones'
strength is determined by the cross-section, which would only be four
times as much. The bones would be only half as strong for the mass just
sitting there. Same goes for the muscles. Imagine trying to walk around
with another you on your shoulders. And what would happen if you fell?
Not only would your bones be proportionately weaker, but you'd be
falling farther, and hit the ground faster.

The blood would have eight times the volume, but the heart would only
be four times as strong, pumping thru blood vessels four times bigger.

And the airways... I have asthma now, usually not a problem. I can't
imagine half the current capacity, though.

I would think the human body plan could be scaled up, but their would
have to be some serious adaption - the most noticeable change would be
that the body would have to be thicker. Compare T. Rex to velociraptor,
or an elephant to a horse.

Seven foot humans have to be built just right to get around well. For
every pro basketball players, there are a bunch of gimpy seven footers
who die young. Eight footers usually don't live very long; it's hard to
imagine their genes (if genes were responsible for their height)
getting passed around.

I notice that our general body plan has scaled up a good
bit, and has, I believe, at least doubled just in the
homo genus.

rich
--
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\ Rich Hammett http://home.hiwaay.net/~rhammett
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