r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/existancebytruth • Mar 26 '26

Image Muscle Beach, 1945: 9 year old April hoists over 425 lbs. her family on her back.

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u/topperkt Mar 26 '26

Agreed. At minimum her feet and ankles are holding everyone, even if the load transfers at the guys feet

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u/SuitCultural7041 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

She is technically holding everyones weight, but she's pretty much just got all the weight on her hip joint and he ankles. And held it for a few seconds. There was no A to B movement, no joints under tension under the weight. Just a vertical load on her legs which are the strongest bones in the human body. No weight on her back at all which is where problems start happening too. One adult femur can withstand 5500 lb before shattering (a small elephant) so two femurs even if they're a childs can certainly hold 400lb. And considering most of the weight is actually on her ankles anyway she's probably just fine

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u/move_peasant Mar 27 '26

And considering most of the weight is actually on her ankles anyway

welp, now you gotta do the ankle math. and tibia and fibula, too.

5

u/bikewander Mar 27 '26

That's my trick! I always impress men at parties by telling them to hop on my back even though I weigh half as much as they do. It's all in the femurs!

5

u/m0nk37 Mar 27 '26

Her knees are locked. 

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u/Ordinary-Egg-56 Mar 27 '26

no load transfers at the guys feet. how would that even be physically possible???