# How many men would it take to defeat someone who was 10x as strong/durable as a normal human? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2020, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707 "2020-07-29T12:24:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/61 "2020-07-30T22:39:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You form a circle by walking around the single man on both sides of him. > > Now I’ll grant you that if he turns and starts running away and he’s faster than anyone in the group, this isn’t going to work. But I feel the OP was asking who would win a fight, not who would win a foot race. I’m assuming for the purposes of this thread, the single man is not trying to run away from the fight. If he runs around, it will be for tactical advantage in the fight. Right, and I’m saying that when you spread out from your initial clump of people into a line that has two endpoints attempting to encircle strong guy, he’s going to run up and fight the endpoints one on one. He doesn’t have to run _away_, he just has to not passively let you encircle him. Strong guy’s best strategy for winning is to force as many 1-on-1 fights as possible, which means that until the group’s numbers are so large that they can essentially swarm him from every direction and ignore that strategy, then _they_ are going to have to huddle in a group for protection from _him_. People above were suggesting 20-40 people, but also assuming that they can encircle the guy. I don’t think they’ll be able to if he’s trying to stop them, which means you likely need hundreds. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/62 "2020-07-30T22:44:09Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > If I was the guy in the middle with a circle of people four deep surrounding me, I wouldn’t consider myself trapped in the circle - I’d consider the inner rows of the circle trapped inside with _me_ . And then they would close in and win the fight. It’s fun to talk about what Rorschach or Captain America or Neo or Beatrix Kiddo would do in a fight. But they’re fictional characters and the writer lets them win. In a real world fight, one man cannot defeat a crowd unless the crowd is really incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/63 "2020-07-30T22:48:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And then they would close in and win the fight. What’s winning the fight? Pressing in on him until he’s surrounded by closely-packed bodies isn’t going to stop him - he’ll just climb to the top of the pile, pushing broken bodies out of his way as needed. Even burying him in bodies would be dodgy - and hard to pull off in any practical sense. To stop this guy (who can probably literally pull arms out of sockets, remember) you’re going to have to do damage or actually immobilize him. I’m not really seeing how sqeezing him is going to hurt him, and I’m quite certain that he can fight his way out, literally climbing over the people in his immediate vicinity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/64 "2020-07-30T22:50:44Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Strong guy’s best strategy for winning is to force as many 1-on-1 fights as possible How does he force the other people to only fight him one on one? I said you keep your people close together as they form the circle. If the guy charges the guy at the end of the line and starts fighting him, there’s another guy standing six feet away. That second guy’s going to jump on the single guy’s back while he’s fighting the first guy. Then the third guy will join in while the single guy is fighting the first two. Then the fourth and fifth and maybe the sixth. At that point, there’s no sense adding more people to the fight yet, so have the rest of the group finish off the circle. You may be the strongest guy in the field but you’ve only got two hands and two feet. You can’t fight everyone at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/65 "2020-07-30T22:53:44Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Pressing in on him until he’s surrounded by closely-packed bodies isn’t going to stop him - he’ll just climb to the top of the pile, pushing broken bodies out of his way as needed. Like I said, this won’t work against Superman. But the OP says we’re talking about somebody who’s ten times stronger than anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/66 "2020-07-30T23:23:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But the OP says we’re talking about somebody who’s ten times stronger than anyone else. I think I’m either overestimating how quickly I’d lose a fight catastrophically to someone 10 times stronger than me or you are underestimating. I’m not sure how to resolve that difference in mental model. I think if I were on the flank and someone 10x stronger than me ran up (faster than me) and kicked me once, I’d be down for the duration of the fight with broken ribs or worse faster than the guy 6 feet behind me could do anything about it. There’s also the fact that a mass of people is hard to coordinate. It’s not like they’re all going to move in perfect unison. And someone faster and stronger will find and exploit holes and weak points. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/67 "2020-07-30T23:26:49Z")
Shouldn’t all of you be somewhere else on the internet playing video games? Wouldn’t it be easier to keep score? Just sayin’ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/68 "2020-07-31T00:53:49Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I think I’m either overestimating how quickly I’d lose a fight catastrophically to someone 10 times stronger than me or you are underestimating. > > I’m not sure how to resolve that difference in mental model. I’ll admit the ten times stronger factor is a wrinkle I never encountered. But other than that, I actually dealt with situations like this on numerous occasions. I think I have a more realistic appraisal of what a crowd fight is like than most people. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/69 "2020-07-31T05:58:50Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Shouldn’t all of you be somewhere else on the internet playing video games? Wouldn’t it be easier to keep score? Please do not belittle thread topics (around here we refer to it as threadshitting). If you think a topic isn’t worth discussing, just ignore it and don’t post in it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/70 "2020-07-31T07:12:08Z")
> [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Round 2: The superhuman has no weapons while the men have bats, crowbars and kitchen knives To put the question in real-world terms, how many cavemen armed with stone weapons did it take to bring down a woolly mammoth? ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/72 "2020-07-31T13:24:36Z")
The superhuman in the OP has normal human speed and agility. Only his strength and durability have been multiplied by 10. > [@begbert2](#): > > Also, am I the only one picturing this getting really, really gory in a hurry? It definitely gets gory in round 2 since the superhuman can easily use their weapons against them. Imagine what someone who can bench press 1,300 pounds would do to a normal person’s skull or ribs if he hit them with a crowbar. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/73 "2020-07-31T13:43:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@begbert2](#): > > > > Encircling a guy who can punch people across the room like a cartoon character might be difficult to pull off, mind you. > > [Is this what you’re imagining?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvLQMMaVmzU) Heh. I’d forgotten that all those knocked-down Agent Smiths sound like bowling pins (at 3:28). ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/74 "2020-07-31T17:02:09Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > how many cavemen armed with stone weapons did it take to bring down a woolly mammoth? A woolley mammoth did not have a human brain. And you did not attack them with steak knives. Superhuman would just kill one, tear off his head, take the weapon he had and dare the rest to attack. These are average guys, they’d bow down to him and start sucking up to him. Start buying him drinks and praising him then kill him in his sleep. These are humans after all. Shifty back stabbing animals. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/75 "2020-08-01T18:54:10Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > …These are humans after all. Shifty back stabbing animals. Simple farmers? People of the land? The common clay of the New West…? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/76 "2020-08-02T00:17:31Z")
I am 1.05 times as strong as the average man. Plus I am between 5’9 and 6’6 depending on which particular convenience store I am leaving. I didn’t know how many men it would take to beat me up. But I knew how many they were going to use… (Apologies to Ron White.) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/77 "2020-08-02T04:32:49Z")
I have the Perfect Joke, but Goddamn if I’ll say it on this board. Just a placeholder post. Don’t get excited. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/78 "2020-08-02T06:24:17Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > How about we flip the question to answer it? If we take an average man, how many people who are 10x weaker would it take to take him down? At what age can we say that a child is 10x weaker than an average man? Let’s say 8YO. How many 8YOs would it take? Probably 1-2 dozen. Have you ever wrestled with nephews (or been the nephew)? It sounds about right. Way more than that, throat punching eight year olds would thin the heard significantly in the first couple minutes. Next, round two drops and unka Charlie gets a couple knives in hand then kick, stab, run repeat. That parking lot is gonna be a mess. * * * Psychologically there would need to be some significant motivation to keep the normals from noping right out of there after the initial carnage. If superman had the same endurance as normal I’d say 10 waves of five men each would have him pretty well winded and once he’s out of gas he’s done for. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Crap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.crap/32/3131_2.png) [@Dr.Crap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Crap)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707/79 "2020-08-02T10:56:55Z")
It would take just one human centipede. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-men-would-it-take-to-defeat-someone-who-was-10x-as-strong-durable-as-a-normal-human/916707.md?page=3)