Feats of Strength

A feat of strength is always something that puts people into a state of awe. Why? Because witnessing these "mere" feats of strength assaults our senses in such away that we cannot help but be set on our heels! In some cases, these feats of strength are so freakishly out of this world that our minds just blank. In other cases, we just stand there, agape and amazed. The annual World's Strongest Man comeptition exhibits some of these outstanding feats (like pulling a sizeable truck strapped via chest harness 100ft with raw leg pumping strength). Check out xtrememass for a fuller description or WSM on Wikipedia for a *super* short description. Other feats of strength are those done by cleverly leveraging knowledge of physics. Ever heard of the Coral Castle? Composed of stones weighing an average of 6 tons, the castle was built by ONE single man... who was 5 feet tall and 100 pounds... wow... But what about our other fellow organisms with whom we co-exist... roaming this rock called earth?

Some Amazing Strength

A flea can move things 100x its weight, and it can exert a jumping force of 150 G's (that's 150x the force of gravity... WOW!) [Bug Attack, National Geographic Channel]

A tick clamps down and does not budge until it is done feeding. It can suck blood upwards of 10x its own weight, maybe even more [Bug Attack, National Geographic Channel]. That's like me, at 155 pounds, sitting down in the morning and having a feast until I am 1,550 pounds!!! That's almost 3/4 of a TON! I would not be able to move...

[The following appeared on Dangerous Encounters, National Geographic Channel]

A domestic dog has a bite force of 317 pounds (human equivalent of obliterating a single sheep bone in one chomp).

A lion has a bite force of 691 pounds (human equivalent of obliterating two sheep bones in one chomp).

A hiyena has a bite force of 1,000 pounds (!!!) (human equivalent of obliterating three sheep bones in one chomp).

A snapping turtle (mind you, they have no teeth) nudges hiyenas with a bite force of 1,004 pounds!!!

A Florida crocodile has a bite force of... sit down of this one... no really... 2,500 pounds!!!!! *IF* a human had that kind of bite force, we would be able to chomp through a giant cow bone with one single chomping action splitting it in half.

By the way, on the show they cast a likeness of a human skull out of some metal and hooked its jaws up to some suped up hydraulics. They then used this way awesome contraption to show what a human could chomp through if we had these levels of bite force. And when I say obliterate... I mean OBLITERATE. Bones were crushed and snapped like NOTHING... and you could see the tell-tale puffs of powder that result when something is crushed/snapped like a twig. It was awesome!

My friends, the world is an amazing, dangerous, and exciting place!