Producer: Popular Science China
Producer: Su Chengyu (Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press)
Producer: Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Godzilla is the oldest monster character in the history of Japanese cinema and recognized as the most classic and famous monster character in the history of world cinema, and its origin is much older than Ultraman.
It's huge, comparable to a skyscraper, but you may not know that Godzilla's size is changing all the time.
Since the birth of the early Godzilla in 1954, Godzilla's body shape has also changed.
The height of the first and second generations of Godzilla is 50 meters, the height of the third generation is 80 meters, the height of the fourth and fifth generations is 100 meters, and the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth generations return to the initial setting of about 50 meters, and the latest generations have become about 110 meters.
The generations of Godzilla are highly contrasting| Image source: Science Magazine
Godzilla's "Red Lotus State" is 119.8 meters tall, or 40 stories high, equivalent to half the height of the CCTV headquarters building, and weighs 99,634 tons.
If there really is such a huge creature as Godzilla in reality, how much does it have to eat to eat enough? Let's take a scientific look at it.
There is a quantitative relationship between physiological characteristics such as the behavior, morphology, and energy required by organisms and body shape.
That is to say, these biological characteristics will produce quantitative changes with changes in the body size of the organism, and this change is not proportional, that is, the allometric growth relationship. The concept was first proposed by Julian Huxley in 1932.
This relationship can be expressed in a mathematical expression:
e = with。
e is a biological variable (such as the metabolic rate of animals, which can be understood as the energy consumed by animals per unit time);
m is the body type (generally expressed by body weight);
a is constant
b is a function power (also called a scale factor).
So what exactly is the b-value?
The behavior, morphology and physiology of the organism and the body shape and other characteristics and body shape are not equal proportional growth, first assume that the biological variables and body shape are linear relationship, that is, the larger the body size of the organism, the greater the biological variable value, then: b = 1;
This situation exists in nature, but there are prerequisites.
For example, frogs grow linearly except for a short period of a few weeks after metamorphosis, in equal proportions.
Tadpole changes| Image source: giphy
But this linear growth is not long-term, why?
The linear growth relationship is determined by the square-cube law. When an organism doubles in length, its surface area will be 4 times the original, and its volume and mass will be 8 times the original.
But in reality such creatures will have a lot of problems.
Suppose that the animal has doubled in size, and now has 8 times the biological tissue to support its survival, but if according to the previous statement, the surface area of its respiratory organs should become 4 times the original, then there will be a mismatch between the supply and demand of its body, and the oxygen provided by the original respiratory organs will not be enough to maintain the energy consumption of the existing body.
Similarly, when we double the size of an animal, the area of the bone is 2 times the original, and the mass becomes 8 times, which is completely inappropriate.
As shown in the image below, if you zoom in on a photo of an elephant and a photo of a spot-tailed possum to the same size, it's easy to see that the elephant's legs are much thicker.
If the spot-tailed possum is really enlarged to the size of an elephant according to its own proportions, according to the analysis in the previous paragraph, it must not be able to stand up, and in order for the elephant to be able to stand, its legs must be very thick.
Elephant skeleton
The skeleton of the spot-tailed bag ferret, the size of the two is different, the size of the bones is not the same| Image source: wikipedia
Therefore, the relationship between the behavior, morphology and physiology of the organism and the body shape will not be completely proportional, that is, allometric growth, rather than constant velocity growth, so this b-value is a value other than 1.
As to how much this b-value is, different scientists have come up with their own ideas.
"The Ecological Significance of Body Shape" | Image source: amazon.com
Biologist Robert Henry Peters, in his book The Ecological Significance of Body Shape, lists more than 1,000 formulas for allometric growth to describe the relationship between different animal characteristics and body weight. The scale index of these allometric growth equations is b = 3/4 or b = 2/3.
The relationship between metabolic rate and body weight of different organisms (including single cells) | Image source: Hemmingsen am 1969, rep steno mem hosp nordisk
Later, scientists verified the law of all-speed growth through various ways, and the study found that b=2/3 or 3/4 was supported by theoretical and experimental research. However, due to the limitations of the physical basis of b=2/3, scholars have preferred b=3/4 in recent years.
The earliest proponent of this view was animal energy and nutritionist Max Kleiber, so this conclusion is also known as the kleiber law.
The formula is expressed as: e = 70 m3/4
According to this conclusion, a cat weighs 100 times more than a mouse, and its metabolism is about 31 times larger than that of mice.
The relationship between body size and metabolic rate in different species kleiber (1947).| Image source: wikipedia
So according to the above theory, Godzilla should be calculated according to e = 70 m2/3, because Godzilla is not a mammal, its prototype is a lizard.
According to Godzilla's weight of 99634 tons, it needs about 9972537 kilocalories per day to maintain life, and an adult male is about 2200 kilocalories of calories, in other words, Godzilla needs about 4532 times the energy of an adult male a day.
Godzilla sets the poster | Image source: twitter
In order to "eat enough," it had to feed on whales and great white sharks, but it was too much effort.
Therefore, it is not difficult for everyone to understand why this strange skeleton and strong body monster will choose to eat nuclear warheads, after all, it is much more convenient to eat these...
bibliography:
[1]https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%e5%93%a5%e5%90%89%e6%8b%89_ii_%e6%80%aa%e7%8d%b8%e4%b9%8b%e7%8e%8b
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/allometry
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/max_kleiber
[4]https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ecological-implications-of-body-size/animal-abundance/1db0fea79142771a0e9d3fce2b9fc7dc
[5]https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ecological-implications-of-body-size/animal-abundance/1db0fea79142771a0e9d3fce2b9fc7dc