# Strength of Gorilla?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589 "2004-12-13T13:25:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/1 "2004-12-13T13:25:06Z")

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How much stronger than humans are gorillas?

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/2 "2004-12-13T17:38:49Z")

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Here is a surprising [**statement**](http://www.berggorilla.de/english/faq/dvers/fragen/stark.html)

> [@](#):
>
> To date, no research has been conducted into how strong gorillas are compared to humans. Comparisons cannot be made very easily. Some people say that a silverback male is ten times stronger than a man while others claim a silverback is 27 times stronger. However, neither argument has been proved. A gorilla male probably looks much stronger than he actually is, as he doesn’t have that much more muscle tissue than humans.

or [**this**](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jul2001/995155256.Zo.r.html)

> [@](#):
>
> It wouldn’t surprise me if a human could bench press more weight than a  
> gorilla (if you could even get a gorilla to try it), but that very same  
> gorilla would probably be able to tear the arms off that very same human…
> 
> By way of comparison, you could put a 500  
> horsepower engine in a race car and in a tractor. The engine in both  
> vehicles is equally powerful. However, the tractor uses that power to pull  
> heavy objects but not to go fast, while the race car uses that power to go  
> fast but it cannot pull much weight…
> 
> The two creatures may be equally powerful, but they are completely unequal in  
> their abilities.

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/3 "2004-12-13T17:51:15Z")

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- 
  - 
    - Short answer: very probably, lots. A gorilla gets ahold of you, you should probably do whatever it wants.

- Longer answer: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_001b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_001b.html)  
~

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/4 "2004-12-13T17:51:45Z")

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I kinda remember reading somewhere about a gorilla who was trained to bench 2000 lbs., which is twice as much as the human record. I’ll see if I can dig it up.

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/5 "2004-12-13T18:10:23Z")

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Despite my above post, I too have a friend that many years ago got in a cage with a monkey for the purpose of boxing. The man warned him that it was much better to let the monkey do his thing and not to fight back. The monkey jumped across the cage, grabbed the face mask on the helmet that was supplied and spent three minutes pounding my friend on the top of that helmet. The friend states that he could tell the monkey possessed tremendous strength. :smack:

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strength-of-gorilla/279589/6 "2004-12-13T18:12:58Z")

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I don’t know how much stronger gorillas are than humans, but I **do** know that robots have the strength of five gorillas. But they’re only five feet tall.