There are some wonderful hypothetical situations that we often encounter in life, and today we will explore an interesting proposition - if the praying mantis and the tiger both weigh 200 kilograms, then when they fight, which side will prevail?
When you first hear this idea, most people will not hesitate to choose the praying mantis, right? After all, praying mantis are "insect powerhouses"! They can lift dozens or even hundreds of times heavier objects than themselves. In addition, the praying mantis has a pair of sharp "big knife arms", which is intimidating to look at. What's even more powerful is that the male mantis can fly, imagine the scene of the tiger being "falling from the sky" by the praying mantis, is the picture quite bloody and brutal? The terrible thing is the jagged claws of the praying mantis, which are as terrifying as a meat grinder!
But wait, it's not that simple. Do you remember Galileo's "square-cube law", which states that when the size of an object increases linearly, its surface area increases by squares, and its volume increases by cubes. This law may sound a bit boring, but it is a wise saying.
If a small 20-gram mantis is magnified to 200 kilograms, it will increase in size by as much as 10,000 times, but the surface area will only increase by 464 times. In other words, the current praying mantis has to support 22 times the weight load with the same muscle cross-section and 22 times the pressure with the same bone cross-section compared to the initial size. Do you think it can move freely? Don't forget, the praying mantis has to lift dozens or hundreds of times its own weight!
And praying mantis breathe less comfortably than we humans, relying on small holes on both sides of their bodies to exchange air with the outside world. Now the body size has been enlarged by 10,000 times, but the area of those holes has only increased by 464 times, and the oxygen supply capacity has been reduced to less than 5% of the original amount. Imagine that it was as hard as if humans could only breathe through their nostrils. Similarly, the heart's ability to supply blood is greatly reduced. In such a terrible environment, the giant praying mantis cannot even guarantee its basic life activities, so how can it talk about fighting? Is it really necessary to stage the tragic scene of "trapped beasts still fighting"?
But even if these factors are not taken into account, the praying mantis still has an Achilles' heel. That is, the nerve conduction speed is too slow! Our human nerve cells have a layer of "myelin sheath" wrapped around them, which allows nerve impulses to be transmitted quickly. The praying mantis doesn't have this thing, and the signal transmission speed is slow, more than 100 times slower than the tiger. It's like when you're playing a game, the network latency is very high, and the tiger has abused you half to death, and you haven't reacted yet. When I came back to my senses, all that was left was a near-death struggle.
So after analysis, the giant mantis is not qualified to compete with the tiger at all. Although it looks fierce and vicious, and its body is full of knives, it is actually empty and fragile inside, just like Wang Shan, "savage" but vulnerable. Of course, this is only an extreme hypothetical scenario. In reality, the weight of a praying mantis is not comparable to that of a tiger at all, let alone fighting. But that's okay, we've talked about the science behind it, right?
In the final analysis, the difference in body size is the fundamental reason for the disparity in strength between the two. Just like who is stronger than the man and the ant, size determines everything. So we can take an interesting lesson from this: don't be arrogant, and don't underestimate others. Each species has its own suitable body shape and living space, and only by respecting each other can nature live in harmony.
Finally, let's go back to the proposition itself -- if you really want to ask me, which is more powerful, a 200-kilogram praying mantis or a 200-kilogram tiger? However, the little praying mantis should not be discouraged, it is also a "insect Hercules" in the range that suits its own body type. The most important thing we humans should learn is to respect nature and know how to do it in moderation. Do you think what I'm saying makes sense? If you still have any questions, please feel free to continue to discuss.
Disclaimer: The information in this article comes from the Internet, which is not guaranteed to be completely correct and is for reference only.