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0 pointsspeedybird4y ago0 comments

A grown blue whale weights about 1/50th of the submarine (~200 tons vs ~10k tons) and is quite a bit squishier. But maybe that would still be enough to knock some submariners around and cause some injuries? I'm not sure.

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8 comments · 2 top-level

throwaway0a5e4y ago· 4 in thread

If you hit a 60lb object while driving your car you'll know.

adwww4y ago

I think the weight difference is more like hitting a badger with a fully loaded semi truck.

Chris20484y ago

But the dynamics of large things change, because the bond-strength of metals don't scale up as you build bigger things.

Also, this happened underwater, so the harder-to-displace water would give more resistance ("inertia"?) to the whale maybe?

5423542342354y ago

This sounds like a job for the Mythbusters.

If you're driving a ~3,200lb Honda Accord, sure. But the mass difference at the scale of 10,000 tons is a lot different. Especially under water.

InsomniacL4y ago· 2 in thread

A grown blue whale is about 1/5 the length of the USS Connecticut.

If a submarine crashed in to a whale, it would not only have the forces of trying to accelerate the mass of the whale, it has to accelerate an object with a large surface area under water.

Aerodynamics vs hydrodynamics might skew your perception of the forces involved.

Tuna-Fish4y ago

Well no, because it will be less of "submarine crashes into a whale and pushes it forwards" and more "submarine swims partially in whale". Compared to the forces involved, living tissue just isn't that strong.

Interestingly, there was this a recently.. https://www.newsweek.com/mizushima-whale-death-photos-japan-...

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