RE: Biomechanics

[Toby White <augwhite@neosoft.com>]

On Monday, September 06, 1999 6:17 PM, Ralph W. Miller III 
[SMTP:gbabcock@best.com] wrote:
> Two questions for the engineers in the crowd...
>
> First, what figure would you put on the pressure at the level of the lungs of
> a
> large, submerged, snorkeling _Brachiosaurus_ individual with the lungs about
> 20
> feet (a tad over 6 meters) below the water level?  Can this be put in terms 
of
> psi
> (pounds per square inch)?  I'd appreciate seeing how you arrived at this, and
> no,
> you're not doing my homework.  I'm not enrolled in school at this time.  I
> understand that the water pressure would be too much to enable the lungs and
> air
> sacs to expand, but I would like to see the predicament quantified.

If snorkling -- i.e. with air in lungs in contact with atmosphere, would there 
be any pressure differential?

> Second, it has been stated recently on this list that a fast running
> _Tyrannosaurus
> rex_ individual (was it 20 meters per second?) would trip and fall on its
> skull
> with the force of a bus impacting a brick wall at approximately 60 mph.  I
> understand such a hypothetical tyrannosaur was calculated to have sustained
> fatal
> injuries.  My question: is the 60 mph bus analogy apt?
>
> -- Ralph W. Miller III       gbabcock@best.com

20 m/sec seems a bit fast, even for the hottest of hot-blooded dinosaurs.  As 
well, I think the average city bus is somewhat more massive than the average 
tyrannosaur.  Would you accept a Suburban going, perhaps, 30 mph?

  --Toby White