In reference to the current column, on force of punches, it’s apropos to point out that, yes, twelves are too much for Emmpa.
Cecil was correct about using force rather than pressure. Heck, I can probably produce 1 million psi by simply standing on the head of a pin…
Something that seems a little weird to me:
(from the article) “A study of seven Olympic boxers in weight classes ranging from flyweight to super heavyweight showed a range of 447 to 1,066 pounds of peak punching force. Energy transferred from punch to target varied widely depending on how heavy the boxers’ hands and gloves were, how fast they punched, and how rigidly they held their wrists. The three flyweights, interestingly, delivered more oomph than all but the two super heavyweights.”
7 boxers
3 are flyweights, leaves 4 “other”
2 super heavyweights that punch harder than the flyweights, leave 2 “other”
These 2 “other” are presumably the super heavyweights who do not punch as hard as the flyweights. This means two things: One, Cecil used the word “all” to describe two people and two, this study has 2 super heavyweights who punch softer than the 3 flyweights that participated, and 2 that punch harder, which is far from really interesting. What I think is more interesting is that these people did this study with a sample size of 7 and only represented the super high and super low end, and nothing in between.
Not weird, just stupid science. A sample size of 7? What a joke.
No, they punched harder than all but the two super-heavyweights. The article changes the meaning of the sentence. Meaning, there were three flyweights, two super-heavyweights, and two from some weight class in between. Both super-heavyweights punched harder than all three flyweights, but the flyweights did better than the two intermediates.
And the reason I posted the OP is to point out that even a science fiction comic strip, featuring a supersoldier commando with the best bodily enhancements that 30th-century technology can provide, still doesn’t claim as much punch pressure as is attributed to Drago.
There were 10 boxers at the start of the study, but good data could only be collected from 7 of them. There were:
- 3 flyweights
- 1 light middleweight
- 1 middleweight
- 2 super-heavyweights
Data was collected on a total of 7 punches from the flyweights, 3 from the light middleweight, 3 from the middleweight, and 5 from the super-heavyweights, for a total of 18 punches which met all the criteria for “good” data.
A sample size of 7 boxers was actually not that small for most studies Cecil reviewed. It was alarmingly common to have sample sizes of 1-3 boxers in studies.
I bet he could easily best Drago if he cranked his powered fullerene armor up to “full”, though!