# How many straws would it take to break a camel's back? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2006, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562 "2006-04-28T06:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/21 "2014-05-13T09:30:29Z")
> [@cmdrpiffle](#): > > Snort! Anyone knows it’s 44, always 44. Did you NOT account for the hemispheric wave variation in the locations where camels are known to congregate? > > Amateur…😃 Whoa. A zombie from my own personal past timeline! What you, sir, have failed to realise is that the hemispheric wave variation is subject to quantum fluctuation modulation because of the inverse Heliconian Zebber effect. This only applies at sufficiently high camel-straw congregation densities, and is a very esoteric effect, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. This renormalises the answer to the expected value of 42. And you call \*me \*an amateur? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/22 "2014-05-13T12:52:07Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > The load capacity of a male bactrian camel is [240 kg](http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/x1700t/x1700t05.htm), _ie._ 240, 000 one gram straws. > > I don’t, however, know about African or Europea … _AAARRRrgggghhhhh_ [Updated link](http://www.fao.org/docrep/x1700t/x1700t05.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/23 "2014-05-13T20:33:27Z")
1, for large values of “straw”. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/24 "2014-05-13T20:47:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I can easily see Adam and Jamie going out to build competing model camels, each with a different breakdown method (“Now what breaks on the camel is its spine. I’ve made a “spine” out of pieces of PVC tubing held together by an elastomer that matches the cartilage “discs” in a camel’s spinal column…”), then loading them with weights, culminating in straws that they add one by one until the models snap. And then, at the end of the show, blowing it up. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/25 "2014-05-14T06:25:18Z")
The experiment would need to be done under impossibly rigid controlled circumstances. If the camel were alive and conscious and possessed any measure of free will, it would not be the final straw that would break his back. One could be a couple of straws short of the critical weight, and any very slight physiological change in the camel would cause the breakdown – possibly just breathing, or swallowing, or maybe even a pulse beat. Or a slight shift in wind or ambient temperature. Just as bridges do not collapse when one too many cars drive onto them, but when a whole panoply of factors all combine to exceed the capacity of the bridge to remain standing. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/26 "2014-05-14T10:35:08Z")
Mark Twain said it was a feather that did the job - (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ) ---
**Author:** ![cmdrpiffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b4bc9f/32.png) [@cmdrpiffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmdrpiffle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/27 "2014-05-14T17:27:48Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > Whoa. A zombie from my own personal past timeline! > > What you, sir, have failed to realise is that the hemispheric wave variation is subject to quantum fluctuation modulation because of the inverse Heliconian Zebber effect. This only applies at sufficiently high camel-straw congregation densities, and is a very esoteric effect, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. This renormalises the answer to the expected value of 42. > > And you call \*me \*an amateur? The IHZ effect. How did I not consider it? I shall go to the cliffs late today and do the right thing… ---
**Author:** ![HipGnosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/76d3ee/32.png) [@HipGnosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HipGnosis)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/28 "2014-05-14T17:53:14Z")
One of the earliest published usages of this phrase was in Charles Dickens’s ‘Dombey and Son’ (1848), where he says “As the last straw breaks the laden camel’s back”, meaning that there is a limit to everyone’s endurance, or everyone has his breaking-point. Since it’s the “last straw”, it can not be the ‘first’ (and only) straw. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/29 "2014-05-14T19:23:30Z")
Of course the straw that breaks the camel’s back will always be the ‘last straw’, whether it be the first or 17,146,852,311th straw, since any straw thereafter would be the ‘first straw after breaking the camel’s back.’ Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/30 "2014-05-14T21:14:12Z")
Also, it might be a tiny weak baby camel. Or an old, unhealthy, and weak camel. Or it might not be a real camel. It might be a camel constructed out of cheddar cheese. Or steel. Or even straw. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562/31 "2014-05-15T14:39:56Z")
> [@HipGnosis](#): > > One of the earliest published usages of this phrase was in Charles Dickens’s ‘Dombey and Son’ (1848), where he says “As the last straw breaks the laden camel’s back”, meaning that there is a limit to everyone’s endurance, or everyone has his breaking-point. > Since it’s the “last straw”, it can not be the ‘first’ (and only) straw. Invalid hypothesis. As rebuttal, I give the cliche (and Lynyrd Skynyrd album title) “first and last”. ETA 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-straws-would-it-take-to-break-a-camels-back/354562.md?page=1)