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I was reading a few answers to this question about anatomically correct giants, and it got me wondering.

In order for giant humans to evolve, many things would need to be changed.

As summarized from this answer, the giant would need:

  • Thicker bones
  • Larger muscles
  • Longer arms
  • Bigger internal organs
  • And so on.

I am curious how a normal human, proportionally scaled up, would fare in an Earth-like world. What would the effects of, for example Ant-man be? How long would the giant human be able to survive?

What would the health effects of a giant human be?

In terms of scale, let's start with 10x bigger in height all the way up to 100x bigger in height. (between 50-500 ft tall) Obviously, the health effects would be more prominent the larger we scale up.

This would just be a normal human, scaled up. This means that they still have the same amount of bone, the same amount of muscle, etc. Everything is scaled up proportionally and exactly. I'd also like to know just how long they might be able to survive in these conditions.

A little bit of world-building background: In my story I have two characters I've called Wax and Wane. Wax has the ability to make things larger, and Wane has the ability to make things smaller. Only by working together, they are able to shrink and grow objects (or each other) so the answers to this question will help me understand the effects that Wax's ability will have on human beings. I might write a similar question for shrunken humans later. (if I can't find an already existing question and answer)

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't think the question is answerable without a lot more detail about how Wax and Wane's abilities work, specifically with regard to conservation of mass and energy. I'm not sure how you take a scenario that's in flagrant violation of the laws of physics and then try to apply those same laws to the result. If you want a scientifically plausible answer to the question, Wax and Wayne need a scientifically plausible way of doing what they do, and I don't see how that's possible. $\endgroup$
    – Morris The Cat
    Oct 16, 2019 at 17:36
  • $\begingroup$ I only provided the bit about Wax and Wane as a way to explain world-building relevance. The question as it stands doesn't even need that info to be answerable. $\endgroup$
    – overlord
    Oct 16, 2019 at 17:39
  • $\begingroup$ It's just a normal human, scaled up. This means that they still have the same amount of bone, the same amount of muscle, etc. Everything is scaled up proportionally and exactly. $\endgroup$
    – overlord
    Oct 16, 2019 at 17:41
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    $\begingroup$ Off the top of my head, a normal human scaled up to 10x height would die immediately in five or six simultaneous and unpleasant ways. He or she would immediately be crushed under his or her own weight, bones would shatter, blood vessels and organs would burst, the heart would be completely incapable of pumping blood, death would take probably somewhere between thirty and ninety seconds. Pretty much anything that Ant-Man does in the movie would be instantly lethal to a real human. $\endgroup$
    – Morris The Cat
    Oct 16, 2019 at 17:48
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    $\begingroup$ @Trevor no he doesnt cover it. Andre the giant had a growth problem. Its like saying that the physical ailments that liliputters or whatever they want to be called nowadays are synonimous to the ailments a downscaled human would have. Andre was not scaled up, and he had no healthy growth towards his size. So he is not a good example. $\endgroup$
    – Demigan
    Oct 16, 2019 at 20:47

1 Answer 1

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Double the size and your human has eight times the weight but only four times the muscle strength and bone thickness to support it. They might be able to, move, except that they're only getting half as much oxygen per pound, so they'd be gasping to survive.

Go up to ten times and you die quicker, collapsing and suffocating under your own weight rather quickly.

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