# Determining a Whackagi's Strength

If you don't know what a Whackagi is, please click here. My problem is simple; I know how dangerous Whackagi are, but not how dangerous they are to what they hit, how much damage they can do with a single blow.

Here's what I know:

1. Strength-A Whackagi has the same strength as a gorilla, but...

2. Square-cube law-Oddly enough, as far as I understand the square-cube law as it applies to this scenario, a shrunk (artificially size reduced( human would be proportionately stronger; so a 50x smaller human would be 50x stronger. Whackagi are 4 feet 10 inches tall, the maximum height to qualify for dwarfism, and have the strength of a gorilla proportional to their size (which is about that of a dwarfen sumo wrestler). I don't know how impactful that will be, but I assume it will be a noticeable increase.

3. Physiology-A Whackagi's body has a cartilaginous skeleton, with strength akin to steel (and proportional flexibility, ie. the flexibility you'd expect from steel-hard cartilage), and its muscles are like steel cables. Its flesh is formed of what appears to (and most likely is some form of) blue, vulcanized rubber. This rubber is so tough that Whackagi are entirely impervious to medieval weaponry (like broadswords, warhammers, battleaxes, and war picks) inside and out. I'm not sure how effectively Whackagi can impart force with a body of vulcanized rubber (albeit extremely tough vulcanized rubber).

Thus, my question is How Strong Is A Whackagi?

1. The best answer will account for the Square-Cube Law to determine how strong a Whackagi is really. You see, Whackagi are creatures of magic, so they have the raw (base) strength of a silverback gorilla, multiplied by the difference in size between a dwarf and a gorilla. My question is, how much stronger will they be?

2. The best answer will also account for the composition and design of a Whackagi's body, to determine how well Whackagi can impart force (push, lift, throw or break objects), how high they can jump, and whether it really is feasible for a Whackagi to use their six-foot-long tongue to grab and pull in an adult male. Please assume the strength of a Whackagi is uniformly spread throughout the body.

Also note that Whackagis have two simple cylinders for legs (like an elephant or sauropod) and that their two arms and tail are stalks, each tipped with a ball of rubber (which I call "flails") that are about the same thickness and length as a tomahawk handle.

• you forgot the link, and please explain what do you mean with " strength decreases as size increases and increases as size decreases if the strength remains the same"
– L.Dutch
Apr 11, 2021 at 3:50
• You have directly quantified that whatever a "whackagi actually is, it is as strong as a gorilla. If it is smaller than one that is neither her not there, perhaps they are stronger proportional to their weight, but in absolute terms they seem to be "as strong as a gorilla" Apr 11, 2021 at 18:32
• @L.Dutch-ReinstateMonica: I did, hope it helps! Apr 12, 2021 at 13:31
• @JonSG: good point, but as far as I know, Whackagi should be proportionately stronger due to being smaller than a gorilla. There are questions about shrunk humans and such on the site that suggest that the square-cube law makes strength inversely proportional to large size but increased strength is directly related to smaller size. A good example would be ants. Apr 12, 2021 at 13:34
• Ants are proportionally stronger (based on size) than elephants but certainly not absolutely stronger. Your statement in the link that they have the strength of a gorilla, proportional to their size` might actually suggest they are weaker in absolute terms. Apr 12, 2021 at 14:50

They Can Barely Move

A gorilla is about 6ft tall when fully upright. A smaller gorilla (5ft tall) has muscle fibres 5/6 as thick as the big gorilla. Hence the small guy is 5/6 as strong as the big guy. Say the big guy can pull a 400kg load and push a 150 kg load. The small guy can pull a 333kg load and push a 125kg load.

The problem here is that no one seems to know exactly how strong is a normal-sized silverback gorilla. I cannot find any reliable source online. My guess is somewhere between 5 and 10 times as strong as a grown man, depending on the task. Note strength in one task does not translate to strength in another. While (I imagine) a gorilla can easily lift or shove a person, they are bad at moving quickly so cannot throw a punch or a ball quickly.

Unfortunately the Whackagi is effectively weaker then the small gorilla, since when it lifts a boulder for example it has to (a) lift the boulder and (b) bend its own arm. Some of the strength is used to bend the material in the first place.

The problem is I don't see a gorilla being able to bend a vulcanised rubber beam the thickness of its own arm. So my guess is the Whackagi cannot move at all.

How to fix this:

Give it a segmented body like an insect. Each body part is rubberised and very rigid. But the joints are made of something else that can actually bend. I'm thinking of Regice from Pokemon that is made of rigid ice crystals and can only articulate in certain ways.

This type of Whackagi is about the strength of the small gorilla. For story reasons that's really no different than the strength of the normal gorilla i.e "strong enough to push over a horse or plough through an armored man, not strong enough to break down a wooden portcullis."

The rigid body means it is bad at bursts of movement, like striking and jumping. This is true for large animals in general (humans aside). Likewise it cannot move its flails very quickly. Fortunately the flails are heavy enough that speed is not necessary. Even dropping the flails on a victim makes them go splat.

• If Whackagi could selectively stiffen and loosen parts of their body at will, making them rigid or flexible, could that work? I am intrigued by your segmentation idea, just trying to analyze my options. As a side note, how well do you know Pokemon? Apr 19, 2021 at 16:49
• @Alendyias If it can make parts flexible at will, then I imagine it can move with the same strength and agility as a small gorilla (however much that is). On the other hand I'm unaware of a real material that can do that. Apr 19, 2021 at 19:12
• Maybe something like this? youtube.com/watch?v=CDsNZJTWw0w&t=433s with the electricity supplied by the nervous system. Though I don't know how soft/rigid/power-efficient this stuff is. Apr 19, 2021 at 19:14
• I'm mostly familiar with the Pokemon games, generations 1-5. Anything after that is a grey area. Apr 19, 2021 at 19:16