Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2011 13:57:14 GMT -6
It's always puzzled me that so many Barsoomian creatures have more than four legs. Banths have 10, thoats have 8, and so on. Surely, in the lower gravity (only 40% of Earth's) things weigh less - so why the need for more legs? Then, about a week ago, I suddenly realized why. In a word, inertia. Anyone who's seen a wildlife film of lions hunting wildebeest will have seen that they rely on ferocious acceleration and deceleration, and violent changes of direction. If you transplanted a lion to Barsoom it wouldn't be able to do this because, although it would weigh less it would still have the same mass (and therefore inertia, momentum, and so on), but only 40% of the purchase on the ground. To have the same agility as a lion in Africa it would need 2.5 times the purchase: and 2.5 x 4 = 10, which is the number of legs a banth has! So now I can stop worrying about that, and go back to worrying about how Gandalf got his staff back in the first LoTR film...
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terje
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Blasphemous accelerator
Posts: 204
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Post by terje on Jan 22, 2011 5:40:30 GMT -6
Wow, I never figured ERB wrote Hard SF! :-)
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Post by gloriousbattle on Jun 25, 2011 19:07:08 GMT -6
WAY too much time on your hands...
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Post by Malcadon on Jun 26, 2011 1:30:12 GMT -6
Considering the unique nature of Barsoomian wildlife, the earth-like humanoids are truly aberrant. I sometimes imagine if all life on Barsoom followed it's own nature, with multiple limbs, and such, and all humanoids are more or less like Tharks. That is, John Carter found himself on Mars (or a world like it), but his story of action and romance was just a self-made lie to cover from the boredom form living alone, in a world of unearthly, inhuman, psychically & emotionally incompatible aliens. Truly, a stranger in a strange land. Then I remember Dejah's glorious red topless bounties - completely ignoring the fact that I have way, way to much time on my hands - and I'm suddenly content.
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