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Originally posted by HappyBunny
Sorry to barge in, but the square cube law makes giants of the proportions they're talking about impossible.
If there are such things as "giants", IMO they're referring to people who are much taller than normal but still within the genetic range of human height. Even now, a man over 6-6 or so is considered large; back then, that would have been gigantic, never mind someone who was 7 feet.
Originally posted by Hanslune
Originally posted by HappyBunny
Sorry to barge in, but the square cube law makes giants of the proportions they're talking about impossible.
If there are such things as "giants", IMO they're referring to people who are much taller than normal but still within the genetic range of human height. Even now, a man over 6-6 or so is considered large; back then, that would have been gigantic, never mind someone who was 7 feet.
That is the problem; as people get bigger they put an enormous strain on the bone structure. You can see that limitation in sports; If you get any bigger than 8-9 feet you'll need another leg, hip and back structure to support that amount of weight - modern giants are often poor atheletes - with the odd exception
Originally posted by HappyBunny
And they don't live a normal life expectancy, either. It also hits the circulatory system hard, too. Just the sheer volume of blood needed to oxygenate the whole body is enormous.
Robert Wadlow only lived to age 32. He was recorded as 8-11.1. John Rogan lived to be 37, but he couldn't even stand due to ankylosis and he weighed only 175 lbs. To put that in perspective, that's a BMI of 11.2. Women have it even worse. The tallest woman recorded died in 1982 at age 18.
Originally posted by Hanslune
Originally posted by HappyBunny
And they don't live a normal life expectancy, either. It also hits the circulatory system hard, too. Just the sheer volume of blood needed to oxygenate the whole body is enormous.
Robert Wadlow only lived to age 32. He was recorded as 8-11.1. John Rogan lived to be 37, but he couldn't even stand due to ankylosis and he weighed only 175 lbs. To put that in perspective, that's a BMI of 11.2. Women have it even worse. The tallest woman recorded died in 1982 at age 18.
Yep, off topic but I wonder what the life expectancy for basketball players is like? Usually tall but not massive. I saw an illustration in a 1950's science fiction story of what a REAL giant would look like; massive elephant style legs, hips and a barrel chest to provide oxgyen - small head and upper body
edit on 23/12/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by HappyBunny
Originally posted by Hanslune
Originally posted by HappyBunny
And they don't live a normal life expectancy, either. It also hits the circulatory system hard, too. Just the sheer volume of blood needed to oxygenate the whole body is enormous.
Robert Wadlow only lived to age 32. He was recorded as 8-11.1. John Rogan lived to be 37, but he couldn't even stand due to ankylosis and he weighed only 175 lbs. To put that in perspective, that's a BMI of 11.2. Women have it even worse. The tallest woman recorded died in 1982 at age 18.
Yep, off topic but I wonder what the life expectancy for basketball players is like? Usually tall but not massive. I saw an illustration in a 1950's science fiction story of what a REAL giant would look like; massive elephant style legs, hips and a barrel chest to provide oxgyen - small head and upper body
edit on 23/12/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)
The life expectancy overall of world class athletes isn't good, but there could be a lot of reasons for that, including steroid use and just overall stress on the system. I think the average NFL player only lives to 52 or 53. For basketball players, though, they're not sure because a lot of them are still alive (the NBA hasn't been around that long compared to hockey, football, and baseball) , so they'd have the same life expectancy as anyone else on paper. But those aren't the really big guys from the last 20 years or so. Compared to them, guys like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are puny.
Not so good. The average elite athlete will die by the age of 67. That is considerably lower then the 76 year life expectancy of the average American. Do you want to hear something that is really scary? According to the NFL Players Association, the average life expectancy of an NFL player is 58 years of age.
Originally posted by Hanslune
Originally posted by HappyBunny
Originally posted by Hanslune
Originally posted by HappyBunny
And they don't live a normal life expectancy, either. It also hits the circulatory system hard, too. Just the sheer volume of blood needed to oxygenate the whole body is enormous.
Robert Wadlow only lived to age 32. He was recorded as 8-11.1. John Rogan lived to be 37, but he couldn't even stand due to ankylosis and he weighed only 175 lbs. To put that in perspective, that's a BMI of 11.2. Women have it even worse. The tallest woman recorded died in 1982 at age 18.
Yep, off topic but I wonder what the life expectancy for basketball players is like? Usually tall but not massive. I saw an illustration in a 1950's science fiction story of what a REAL giant would look like; massive elephant style legs, hips and a barrel chest to provide oxgyen - small head and upper body
edit on 23/12/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)
The life expectancy overall of world class athletes isn't good, but there could be a lot of reasons for that, including steroid use and just overall stress on the system. I think the average NFL player only lives to 52 or 53. For basketball players, though, they're not sure because a lot of them are still alive (the NBA hasn't been around that long compared to hockey, football, and baseball) , so they'd have the same life expectancy as anyone else on paper. But those aren't the really big guys from the last 20 years or so. Compared to them, guys like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are puny.
We shall see, I found another comment on this question
Not so good. The average elite athlete will die by the age of 67. That is considerably lower then the 76 year life expectancy of the average American. Do you want to hear something that is really scary? According to the NFL Players Association, the average life expectancy of an NFL player is 58 years of age.
One would have to check that against people who do physically exhausting work - to see if they die earlier. Of course this is skewed by there not being women NFL players and women living longer