Why are insects stronger per pound than animals?

Answer 1

insects have chitin as their "skin" (It's that hard substance that makes a crinkling sound when you squash an insect by mistake). Their skeleton is on the outside. (exoskeleton)
The way the insects are built... if you look closely, you will see a lot of levers. (A lot of industrial machines which use levers take their designs from the insect world). As anyone knows, if a lever is used, the amount of force is multiplied at the other end.

Animals... most animals have skin covering their bones. Their skeleton is on the inside.
Most animals are not built with the same type of levers as insects do. Yes, muscles are levers, but not as powerful.

So Nature gave insects a natural advantage over animals....
the type of skeleton
the way the skeleton is formed.

Answer 2

The term "strongest animal" can be misleading, but most often it refers to how much an animal can lift relative to its own weight. Until recently (2007), it was thought that the Rhinoceros beetle was the world's strongest animal by this standard, capable of lifting 850 times its own weight. This is comparable to a 150 lb (68 kg) human lifting a 67 ton Abrams tank. Some of the largest Rhinoceros beetles weigh 120 grams, making them capable of carrying about 100 kg (220 lb). This means that a strong Rhinoceros beetle would be capable of carrying a heavy man. But in 2007, Michael Heethoff and Lars Koerner measured the strength of a tropical mite, Archegozetes longisetosus, finding it has a pull force equal to 1150 times its own weight, five times more than expected for an organism of its size (1 mm, 100 µg). As this study was the first to measure microarthropod claw forces, there are probably many other mites who might compete for the title of strongest animal. To put this strength in human terms, this would be like a 150 lb (68 kg) human lifting an 86 ton tank, or an elephant with a tower of 1150 elephants on its back. The strongest animal on land in terms of absolute strength is likely the African Bush Elephant The strongest animal in general is the Blue Whale Historically, some of the largest dinosaurs (like Brachiosaurus or Supersaurus) were stronger than any living animal. EDIT - nurnord - can't you answer a question without standing on your ''soap box!'' it's not really that difficult. basically you just give an answer to the question then he or she will decide which one to pick. you are not here to correct or criticise other answers, or does it make you feel superior!

Answer 3

Insects are stronger per pound than animals because of the mechanical advantage provided by their exoskeletons.

Answer 4

It all comes down to small size, and of course adaptation. The design that insects have is essentially flawless, their small size on combination with the exoskeleton and small compact muscles make them veyr strong for thier size. Large mammals have the majorit of thier bulk in skin, bones and blood. insects dont reall have ahy of those, well technicalyl they do, but the are not such high maintenace as in lets say an elephant for instance, becasue of this insects have adapted more funtional joints, musculature and flexibility.

Answer 5

Material of the external skeleton (exoskeleton) and;

Skeletal structure with internal arrangement of spaces to increase strength to weight ratio, pound for pound. (1)(2)

Scaled up insects would inadvertently have their structures changed and no longer enjoy the same advantages due to evolutionary requirements of adapting to changes in growth rate and accommodating size differences.

Answer 6

No. That is not correct.

A pound is a pound. Whether you weight a pound of insect or a pound of metal or a pound of hair. It still weighs the same.

Answer 7

It's all to do with physics and the fact that strength scales to the power of 2 where as weight scales approx to the power of three.

What this means is that if an ant was human sized (which it couldn't be as it wouldn't even be able to breathe) - then it probably couldn't even shift it's own body weight).

If there was a ant sized human animal (again there couldn't be as they would freeze to death) it would be capable of similar feats of strength.

Answer 8

Because they are tiny.
Have you seen the size of the muscles on a grasshoppers legs compared to the rest of it's body. Freakin' huge!

Answer 9

exoskeleton is the key. combined with the tactile advantages of having multiple pairs of legs, it delivers remarkable mechanical upgrades in terms of lifting/pulling/climbing.

Answer 10

exo skelaton man allows for greater stenghth versus size