Hummingbird, not on a treadmill...

Factual Questions
1

Manny peoples ask and now I wonder.

If the average hummingbird is X volume and weighs Y amount which will equal Z density.

If the density remains the same and it was enlarged to the size of the average person ( What is that amount? Assume overall average is 5’9’ so what is the average volume of the average human) which will give this new super sized hummingbird a weight of ???

Stated a different way. If a hummingbird is enlarged to the size of man, but retains the same density, what would it weigh?

If I had large graduated beakers and small ones, I could come up with the volumes necessary for the problem. I don’t have any beakers and my Google foo is lousy.

Anyone know a answer and willing to let me know?

2

Is someone holdig the mathematical answer hostage from you?

3

For spheres, and rectangular prisms, a scaling factor of x in height, width and length gives a new volume ofi x^3*old volume. Assuming this trend continues, (I think it does), then when you take a bird of height h, increase it to 5’9" it get 5’9"/h = x times bigger. New volume will be x^3 by original volume, multiply by density for weight.

If are doing this calculation make sure you watch your units.

4

Sticking with Wikipedia as my cite I’m going to take an average height of 165cm for a human.

So there’s a scale of 11cm : 165cm or a ratio of 1:15

So the volume will increase by 15^3.

Assuming the density stays the same, that places a 165cm hummingbird at a weight of 10.125Kg. (4.6 pounds)

On the light side for humans.

5

Great answer except the KG to Lbs conversion. 10.125kg is closer to 22.275 pounds.

Jim

6

:smack: Did the conversion backwards. Talk about tripping at the finish line.

7

The problem is that hummingbirds are a drastically different shape than humans, so that you can’t really do a comparison using total length of the bird vs height of the human.

A hummingird’s total length includes the bill and tail, both of which weigh very little compared to the body. The actual head and body length of a Rufous Hummingbird is more like 2 inches.

Using this as a basis of comparison, one gets a ratio of about 30^3, or 81 kg, or 178 lb. Pretty much the same as a human.

Because of the differences in body shape, it’s really impossible to give an answer to this question unless you define exactly what you mean by “enlarged to the size of a man.” What dimensions are you talking about?

For an equivalent body volume (which is probably the most appropriate comparison) a hummingbird would expected to be relatively lighter, because the bone structure is lighter, and much of the body as well as the bones is filled with air sacs. (This is true of most flying birds.) However, I am not sure offhand what the ratio is.