If you were to take someone or thing with huge muscle mass and condense it as much as it can reasonably go, how much smaller would they become and how much greater would the effects be?
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1$\begingroup$ Hi Tyler, welcome to Worldbuilding! I don't think this is the right platform for your question, because, while your reason for asking it may be because of a world building process, this question is asking for a (theoretical) science-based answer. Maybe Biology.SE is a better fit? $\endgroup$– JoachimCommented Jul 12, 2022 at 21:33
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1$\begingroup$ Strength is due to muscle fibre size but more importantly the ability to simultaneously trigger fibres. Compressing their size may increase their ability to receive more oxygen for endurance but will decrease their strength, it also won't affect their ability to simultaneously trigger fibres. $\endgroup$– user96146Commented Jul 12, 2022 at 21:53
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$\begingroup$ Actually, compressing the fibers means you are using more energy and oxygen in a smaller space, and generating more heat in that same space. Circulation would be more difficult. These would rapidly become the limiting factors, which MIGHT be why these kinds of muscles are not the predominant type. $\endgroup$– DWKrausCommented Jul 12, 2022 at 21:57
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1$\begingroup$ Strength of muscle of a given length is proportional to number of muscle cells in the cross section, Compression doesn't increase the number of muscle cells Why would you expect an increase in effectiveness of muscle tissue in compression? Muscle fibers operate by contracting and expanding to generate tension. Being under compression would interfere, decreasing effectiveness of the muscle tissue would it not? $\endgroup$– Gault DrakkorCommented Jul 12, 2022 at 22:45
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4$\begingroup$ Does this answer your question? Increasing muscle power without increasing volume $\endgroup$– Escaped dental patient.Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 6:14
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1 Answer
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I might have an answer that's in the spirit of what you're going for, as long as you're not overly attached to muscles specifically.
If you want to pack as much biological pushing power as possible into a small space, then the spring-based mechanisms of jumping insects, mantis shrimp, or trapjaw ants could be one place to look.
However, spring based mechanisms may not match the feel of muscles that you seem to be going for, and so in that case maybe the hydraulic extension of spider legs would fit best.
Spiders extend their legs using a hydraulic system, pressurizing their blood (hemolymph technically) to extend their leg like a piston. For whatever theorycrafting you're doing here, it's also worth noting that hydraulics give you access to mechanical advantage, which means that you can increase total lifting strength by quite a lot if you're willing to slow the movement down. Scaling up this process to a human sized body or whatever you're trying to use does run you into limitations of bone strength and whatever biological justification you use to create the pressure vessel for the hydraulics.
As a potential reference, a Youtuber recorded their Brazilian black tarantula (weighing about 2-3 oz) pushing open the sliding door to its enclosure, which was estimated to take about 2 pounds of force. That's a 10-15x bodyweight multiplier in what (to use very scientific term) "feels" like a pretty superhero-esque situation, somewhat like pushing a boulder out of the way, or ripping open a door. It's also worth noting that the spider probably isn't smart enough to position for optimal leverage or even really understand what it's trying to do here, where something more intelligent could make even better usage of its strength.
While insects like ants can supposedly lift 5000x their body weight, I find the tarantula moving the door more compelling because it's an example of strength at such a larger scale. An ant scaled up to the size of a human would run into all sorts of problems. A spider would also encounter scaling issues, but a tarantula leg seems much closer to say, a human finger, than an ant leg seems to a tarantula leg.
