Upscaling Insects and the effect resulting upon their biology

Assuming the information in this video by the Cambridge University is correct, Planthoppers can jump as far as a meter. Their size ranges from 1cm in cooler climates to 5cm in the tropics.

With disregard to further external influences such as diminishing returns, in theory they would be able to jump 50m when scaled to 50cm (from 1cm being able to jump 1 meter).

The video states that they accelerate to about 5m/s in the span of less than a millisecond, consequently experiencing g-forces of 500-700 g. Humans tend to die when subjected to g-forces greater than 100 g, so would this even be within the realm of plausibility to begin with?

Certainly, if scaled 50x without diminishing returns, the subjection of an organism to 25,000 g seems impossible. Not only does this g-force seem implausible but also the speed of acceleration, scaled up would be 250 m/s or 900 Kilometers per hour.

In theory, the insect would be the same size as dogs (50cm), therefore the air resistance will also be multiplied by around 50x. This would not lead to excessive heat build up as it would with a mouse the size of an elephant. assuming that internal densities and structural integrity were to achieve equilibrium and the organism may function correctly, would there be a way to consistently measure how much the acceleration speed would be affected by the upscaling?

If a Plant Hopper Nymph was to be scaled up to 50x its original size, to what extent would diminishing returns and other such laws affect the g-force, speed of acceleration, and jumping distance of the insect?

posted over 6 years ago

Lutro‭

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