Super Gravity Produces Super Strength

[Photon Guy]

Sometimes in science fiction they have planets that have very strong gravity and as a result the people from such planets are really strong. For instance, people from a planet that has twice the earth's gravity would be able to perform tremendous feats of strength while on Earth or while on any planet or environment that has gravity around the same level as earth's gravity, able to bend steel bars and lift cars and so forth. Im wondering though just how realistic that would be in real science. Let's say Earth did have twice the gravity, would we all evolve to be super strong? Or is that just in science fiction and not in real science?

[Steve81]

9 minutes ago, Photon Guy said:

Sometimes in science fiction they have planets that have very strong gravity and as a result the people from such planets are really strong. For instance, people from a planet that has twice the earth's gravity would be able to perform tremendous feats of strength while on Earth or while on any planet or environment that has gravity around the same level as earth's gravity, able to bend steel bars and lift cars and so forth. Im wondering though just how realistic that would be in real science. Let's say Earth did have twice the gravity, would we all evolve to be super strong? Or is that just in science fiction and not in real science?

It doesn't necessarily hold. They might be relatively weak on their home planet, and average human strength here. Alternatively, if they were evolved to be stronger, visiting Earth may cause them to suffer effects similar to how human bodies degrade in the microgravity of space, though that takes some time.

[iNow]

52 minutes ago, Photon Guy said:

Let's say Earth did have twice the gravity, would we all evolve to be super strong?

Different body shapes would likely have been selected and hominids may never even have come into the picture. 

[Genady]

1 hour ago, Photon Guy said:

Let's say Earth did have twice the gravity, would we all evolve to be super strong?

I don't see a selective advantage of evolving to be 'super strong' in this situation. We'd be heavier. Perhaps this would make us to evolve to be smaller, with thicker bones and skeletal muscles, lighter and smaller heads. We'd spend more energy on holding and moving our own bodies. We'd be slower. Excess of oxygen would make us to age faster, and our lives would be shorter.

[exchemist]

16 hours ago, Photon Guy said:

Sometimes in science fiction they have planets that have very strong gravity and as a result the people from such planets are really strong. For instance, people from a planet that has twice the earth's gravity would be able to perform tremendous feats of strength while on Earth or while on any planet or environment that has gravity around the same level as earth's gravity, able to bend steel bars and lift cars and so forth. Im wondering though just how realistic that would be in real science. Let's say Earth did have twice the gravity, would we all evolve to be super strong? Or is that just in science fiction and not in real science?

This is explored in Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_of_Gravity  which I read as a teenager and was much impressed by. His solution was small, compact beings. 

[Phi for All]

16 hours ago, Photon Guy said:

Sometimes in science fiction they have planets that have very strong gravity and as a result the people from such planets are really strong. 

The one I remember (but not the name or author), the humans there had colonized a planet with about 50% more gravity than Earth. They hadn't evolved there, but they adapted to the planet, and found when they traveled to other planets they had a big strength advantage, at least for a while. They had to go back home occasionally to reacclimate their muscles.

As others have noted, I don't think we'd look at all like humans if we'd evolved in double Earth's gravity. So much would change.

[Photon Guy]

Well in terms of science fiction cases of  planets with really strong gravity in which, as a result, the inhabitants of such planets are super strong, an example would be with the series The Orville. In The Orville there is a little girl with such tremendous strength that she can smash through walls and pry open big metal doors and bulkheads. The girl, whose name is Lt. Alara, is the chief of security on The Orville and the reason she is so strong is because she is a Xalayan, a fictional race from the planet of Xalaya which has a really strong gravity. The gravity on Xalaya is so strong that a human who stepped out on the surface would be crushed flat like a pancake without special protection such as a gravity suit. A metal can from Earth that's thrown onto the surface of Xalaya would instantly be flattened. Now The Orville is a spoof on science fiction and its not supposed to be taken seriously, even by fictional standards, but still that would be a science fiction example of a planet with really strong gravity having really strong people. 

[pzkpfw]

It goes both ways. I've never read "The Expanse" but am near the end of Season 5 of 6 of the T.V. show ...

The former Mars colony (now independent) has political and sometime military conflict with Earth. Martian marines get special training at 1G in case they ever need to fight on Earth. Regular Martians have more trouble if they visit Earth.

"Belters" (the culture developed in the outer planets and on asteroids), basically can't function well on Earth, being human but individuals having grown up with only weak gravity, and weak pseudo gravity from spinning stations and accelerating ships.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by pzkpfw

[zapatos]

I've run across many inhabitants of earth who I don't think would be considered to have super strength on even the smallest of planets.

[DanMP]

On 8/14/2023 at 3:57 AM, Photon Guy said:

people from a planet that has twice the earth's gravity would be able to perform tremendous feats of strength while on Earth

Long time ago I was thinking about a method to subject athletes to higher gravity in order to increase their performance. I imagined special suits in which I would add half a kilogram (sand or something) each day until they double their weight. The extra weight must be evenly distributed and they should wear the suit all the time, so the idea is not very practical. Maybe a space station with artificial (centrifugal) gravity would be, one day, used to increase athletes performance by increasing gravity.