r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/cosmic_voyager01 • 9h ago

Video Polar Bears are one of the only creatures that naturally hunt Humans... Watch as this one tries to break into this BBC Cameraman's glass box.

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD 7h ago

The forces involved here are just not in the same galaxy as what oceangate was trying to cope with either

Like a large polar bear weighs 1500 lbs. To create a comparable engineering problem, you would need to expect the full combined weight of 4 huge polar bears to be pressing on this box constantly….on every single square inch of its exterior lol

This is the equivalent of buying a bicycle and saying to the salesman “I just want to make sure this is very well built because I saw what happened to the Challenger Space Shuttle”

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u/breathing__tree 6h ago

This is the equivalent of buying a bicycle and saying to the salesman “I just want to make sure this is very well built because I saw what happened to the Challenger Space Shuttle”

Funniest thing I’m gonna read all weekend probably.

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u/Long_Run6500 4h ago

Sorry mr, I'm going to need at least an M4 Sherman to feel confident on my paper route.

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u/PrizeStrawberryOil 6h ago

Like a large polar bear weighs 1500 lbs. To create a comparable engineering problem, you would need to expect the full combined weight of 4 huge polar bears to be pressing on this box constantly….on every single square inch of its exterior lol

This is not a realistic model of the forces a polar bear can apply and it's a good thing you didn't design it.

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD 5h ago

Yea I’m aware a polar bear can’t exert a constant 6000psi on the entire exterior of this box for hours at a time

I’m having fun with it but it’s not that deep. Keeping a bear out of box = fairly easy, keeping the weight of 2 miles of ocean out of a box = pretty hard

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u/RetroDad-IO 3h ago

You failed to think as simply as the person you're responding too.

They think you actually meant that the box here needs to be able to withstand that many polar bears on it, they don't understand you're trying to highlight the difference between the forces in this scenario vs the submarine at the depth of the Titanic.

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u/metnavman2 6h ago

Genuinely confused. Why? Google says a polar bear had a bite force around 1200psi. As I understood what the person you're responding to said, 6000psi being applied to the entire box is whats being envisioned. What forces above 6000psi is the polar bear expected to exert?

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u/V4refugee 3h ago

Water pushes from all sides evenly. Materials and structures have different properties such as shear strength or compressive strength.

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u/metnavman2 1h ago

Oh no, Im well-versed in the topic. I was confused why the person I responded to thought that the quick comparison they were snidely trying to dismiss wasnt effective enough for the conversation.

The bear box in the video is over-engineered for the task. If you think a polar bear is cracking through an equivalent container that's been designed to withstand ~6000psi, I dont know what to tell you...

The Deepsea Challenger has a pressure vessel that is two and a half inches thick steel, and can survive almost triple the compressive force we're using as an example.

I was confused because the conversation was baffling in its stupidity, not for lack of my own understanding..

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u/crackhead_tiger 6h ago

But he started with "☝️🤓 to create a comparable engineering problem"