MANTIS MURDER SHRIMP (Slow Motion) - Smarter Every Day 121
Why Worldbuilding Stack Exchange recommends it
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answerers link it when they need a concrete, real-world example of an animal's fast, spring-loaded or cavitation-based strike to support designing creatures, weapons or underwater technology.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2016 to 2018.
What it is
A Smarter Every Day episode in which Destin Sandlin films a mantis shrimp (stomatopod) striking in extreme slow motion with a Phantom Miro camera. It explains how the animal's spring-and-latch club strike works, including the cavitation it produces underwater. The animal was handled by marine biologist Dr. Jamie Seymour at James Cook University.
What people said
Recommends JDługosz · 2016-06 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “How do underwater societies develop mining?”
I'd like to point out that the age of steam and the study of thermodynamics was a result of the task of keeping water out of mines. So maybe they won't develop mecanical technology in the same way. But, using air pockets to facilitate mining might be their approach. A pocket of air just enough to swing an axe in, keeping is “head” back away from that; later finding that cavitation, pressure differences, and eventually explosions can be used based around “air tech”. And speaking of cavitation, remember the mantis shrimp [LINK] . You can strike underwater, with a suitable implement, and impart damaging force to the face in an entirely different way [LINK] . Here is a good video on it [this video] t
Cites PipperChip · 2017-08 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Far Future Melee”
I study Historic European Martial Arts and Material Science, so I consider myself smarter than the average bear when it comes to melee weapons and how to improve them. I also authored several bits about medieval warefare in the Universe Factory. Check out the first one here [LINK] ! A Side Note: There is no ideal melee weapon. I dislike it when people think that one weapon or another is best, and the katana is often that weapon. Katanas are not special: they're too stiff, short, and terrible at thrusting compared to many other kinds of swords. What you're using a weapon on is just as important as the weapon (and the techniques used), so I'm not going to talk about individual weapons, but som
Cites Cort Ammon · 2018-05 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “How can my creature use explosives to get the maximum bite force/speed?”
Basically what you will want is a concrete nailgun [LINK] . [LINK] Concrete nailguns like these use a small firearm charge (such as a .22 blank) to generate pressure to drive a nail into difficult materials like concrete. It's designed to move the nail fast enough to limit the concrete's ability to distribute the shock outward (which would lead to chipping). This is perfect for you because it lets you avoid one of the banes of any firearm setting: momentum. If you tried to drive a giant object forward, like, say, a 20mm bullet, it drives back with comparable force [LINK] . This is less than ideal in the middle of your skull. Even with adamantium bones, you still have to carefully construct t