Muscle mass required for organisms to jump

If an organism weighing roughly 20kg existed (same weight as a dog), similar also to the structural composition a dog. How much muscle mass would be required within those legs for it to jump 20m?

Dogs can jump up to 1.8m, their rear legs being around 10cm in diameter. Assuming the legs are half muscle, half bone the cross sectional muscle will be around 5cm. If the theoretical organisms muscles were around 20cm in diameter and rear legs were about 80% of their mass, how far could they jump?

Dogs use the method of direct muscle contraction as their method of locomotion, this is not effective for vertical jumps. Grasshoppers on the other hand employ a type of catapulting by the use of specialized cuticles in their rear knee joints. Through using this method they are able to gain vertical momentum with much more efficiency and therefore jump much higher. If the theoretical organism were to employ this type of locomotion instead while retaining the same amount of muscle mass how far could it jump?

posted about 6 years ago

Lutro‭

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