If you had any hopes that becoming spiderman would be physically possible, then unfortunately, we’re about to squish those dreams by telling you that scientists have informed us that we are all just too damn big.
Yes, according to a recent team of Scientists at the University of Cambridge, humans have too large of a body mass to ever be able to hold ourselves onto a wall merely by our fingers.
Dr David Labonte describes it clearly “As animals increase in size, the amount of body surface area per volume decreases – an ant has a lot of surface area and very little volume, and an elephant is mostly volume with not much surface area.”
“This poses a problem for larger climbing animals because, when they are bigger and heavier, they need more sticking power, but they have comparatively less body surface available for sticky footpads. This implies that there is a maximum size for animals climbing with sticky footpads – and that turns out to be about the size of a gecko.”
Dr David Labonte goes on to explain just how large a volume area humans would need to hold themselves onto a wall “If a human, for example, wanted to climb up a wall the way a gecko does, we’d need impractically large sticky feet — and shoes in European size 145 or US size 114,”
Obviously, this is devastating news for budding Spiderman enthusiasts out there who have been working on a web serum that would allow them to swing from buildings. Well, technically, that might still be possible we don’t know. However, the idea of swinging and then landing on the side of a building is physically impossible. Unless, obviously, you have a spare size 114 shoes laying around anywhere.
Let us know in the comments if this has ruined your day like it has ours. Let us know if your plans to become Spiderman have been foiled and you’ll have to stick to working on becoming a billionaire and creating gadgets to do it all instead…
