# Force Required to Crack a Walnut **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213 "2011-08-02T20:07:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/21 "2011-08-03T07:29:55Z")
I’ve cracked normal walnuts with my fingers, but it’s kind of hard, and some are too tough to crack. Having said that there are people who can do feats like these where they are [closing grippers than require insane foot lbs to](http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/captainsofcrush.html)close. Most grown men cannot close a # 1. I can \*barely \*close a # 2, so yes it’s quite possible there are some people out there with freakish hand and finger strength at the far end of the hand strength bell curve who could crack regular walnuts with ease. [This man quite possibly has the strongest hands in the world](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-cyoQWG9Ww&feature=related) and has closed a COC # 4 [One of the strongest men in the world closing a # 3](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwn11mM50f4&playnext=1&list=PL58C7736C959E0F96) [COC grippers wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captains_of_Crush_Grippers) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/22 "2011-08-03T07:42:14Z")
[Here is Mangus Samuelsson closing the # 4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfRfNJnNtok). He makes it look simple, but most people have no idea of the utterly insane amount of hand and finger strength it takes to do this. I’m guessing he could crack regular walnuts like corn chips. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/23 "2011-08-03T12:29:43Z")
> [@ryacko](#): > > Interesting, but it didn’t quite answer my question. I answered your second question: yes, it’s possible. As for the first, I doubt anyone has ever instrumented a nutcracker with a force transducer. But as a WAG, I’d say a force of 75 pounds, properly concentrated, would be enough to crack a typical walnut. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/24 "2011-08-03T14:40:25Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > It is all about pressure points. Remember that most adults can’t crack an egg with their hands if they wrap their fingers evenly around it and squeeze as hard as they can. Remember, force is just the amount of force one applies. It’s the force-per-area or pressure (e.g., PSI) that gets things done. If you can apply the force in a small enough area at a weak enough point, you don’t really need all that much. Say, if you try to stab me with an unsharpened pencil versus a sharpened pencil. The same force is going to have a very different effect based on the initial pressure. Or think: dull knife versus sharp knife. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/25 "2011-08-06T01:51:51Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Some years back my friend gave me a bushel basket of black walnuts. I made the grievous error of leaving them outside by the garage. > > I got up early the next morning to see not only a slew of shells all over the yard, but about a dozen squirrels in my drive way eating the nuts, cracking them open with their little jaws/teeth. > Fuggin Sonsabitches!:mad::mad::mad::mad: > > So I’m thinking there are some men who could crack them with their hands. No… I beg to difffer, I don’t think I’d bet on even the bruisers I show in the hand strength videos being able to do this. Black walnut shell wood has got to be among the hardest woods on earth, and is so hard and so thick I’d defy almost any human to be able to crack most black walnut shells with their bare hands and fingers. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/26 "2011-08-06T04:00:26Z")
One night my stepdaughter, her boyfriend, and I were sitting in my house. He mentioned the bowl of pecans on the coffee table and asked what they were. I told him what they were, he said he’d never seen them in the shell before, how do you eat them? Stepkid and I picked some up, cracked them with our hands, and proceeded to eat them. Boyfriend sat there for some time, frustrated and confused as to how we could crack them and he couldn’t. He didn’t realize he had to have two of them in his hand to crack them. He tried two, and proceeded to pulverize a nut with his first squeeze. That being said, English walnuts aren’t too hard to crack by hand. American black walnuts? Forget about it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/27 "2011-08-06T05:42:00Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Really but I said MOST adults so try it outside. I don’t know how strong you are or what kinds of eggs you keep on hand. It is really true for most eggs and most people however. Look at the size of their hands before you lay money on it. Small hands are more likely to crack the egg. I know I can’t fully enclose an egg in my hand, and I can easily crack it by palming and squeezing, because my fingertips provide great concentrated force points. Small hands, upper body strength of a boiled noodle, and broken egg. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/28 "2011-08-06T05:50:45Z")
I guess I don’t get the form of walnut. What’s the difference between the suture and the latitude? Or the poles, if I’m seeing _that_ wrong? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213/29 "2011-08-06T07:18:27Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Look at the size of their hands before you lay money on it. Small hands are more likely to crack the egg. I know I can’t fully enclose an egg in my hand, and I can easily crack it by palming and squeezing, because my fingertips provide great concentrated force points. Small hands, upper body strength of a boiled noodle, and broken egg. You’re quite correct. Once a medium to large hand curls completely around the egg, regardless of strength, there’s almost no leverage available to the fingertips to apply downward pressure. Small hands would be in a much more advantageous position re mechanical force application. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/force-required-to-crack-a-walnut/591213.md?page=1)