question

[woolymonkey]

Squirrelmonkey has lots of questions. This is today's.

How big/heavy would a sponge have to be to crush a person? Is it physically possible?

He knows sponges don't grow that big. He's wondering about mass and gravity and squidgeyness.

Thoughts, anyone? Please?

Comments

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

The more I think about this, the more I become concerned that the sponge is going to stick in the tube, due to friction, and possibly expansion pressure. This would, of course, interfere with its crushing abilities. Or the tube might break before person-crushing force was attained.

Or is this one of the infinitely strong, infinitely friction-free tubes stocked by good maths depts everywhere?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

The marquis informs me that both tube and sponge are frictionless.
And the oxygen pack would, of course, protect from suffocation but not from the crushing.