A Very Smart Spider

Not really since the exoskeleton would be too heavy for the spider to move.

If it grew proportionality, the muscles would be big enough to move the exoskeleton.

Nope, the muscular strength is (roughly) proportional to the cross sectional area of the muscle, while the weight is proportional to the volume. When graphed, the strength vs. size graph is proportional to 1/x. Holding all else equal, as an animal gets bigger, it becomes disproportionately weaker. This is why ants can lift things orders of magnitude larger than them, but a gorilla cannot, despite being orders of magnitude stronger than the ant.

Anyway, there isn't enough oxygen in the atmosphere anymore to allow for musculature that can support that kind of weight, which is why we no longer have dragonflies with six foot wingspans. Be glad that this is how science works, or else we would be fighting 8-ft roaches right now instead of discussing muscular tensile strength over the internet.

What if it grew bigger, but the muscles became more efficient and the exoskeleton became a bit more dense and stronger instead of just bigger?

gravity can't be scaled. that's the problem.

But weight can be, say a spider's muscle weighs 0.001lb and can move 0.002lb. 1000 times bigger it will weigh 1lb and move 2lb.

you have to do calculus, man. you're ignoring a crucial variable: area. you're assuming a linear progression, but that's not going to be the case

you'll most likely be dealing with a 1/x^2 function, so the more you increase muscle mass, the less effective it's going to be. it'll still be able to lift more weight as you increase muscle mass, but at a decreasing rate.

fuck, I meant a sqrt(x) function, not 1/x^2


..I think.

shit, I'm not sure what's going on right now. I'm tired, and it's late. I'll return tomorrow with a clear head, hopefully.

Ok if something is exactly twice as big (twice as heavy), then it's overall dimensions (length, width, height) are going to be multiplied by 1.26 because that is the cubed root of 2, which after all the dimensions are multiplied by that then its total volume would be twice as much. So a muscle that is 2 pounds would gain twice the mass making it 4 pounds, and say every 1/x/(cubic root of x) mass can move 2 newtons, if x represents the size of the muscle compared to the original size. Then following that you are right the muscle would get considerably weaker compared proportionately to the size as it grew, but it would also be able to lift a version of itself that was about 1 million times bigger.

Exoskeleton is not the problem. There were some huge insects in prehistory..Problem is low oxigen levels that can not support such organisms anymore and evolution of birds kind of punched them in to oblivion

Ever heard of the movie 8-legged freaks? It's so bad it's good, like the room

Ever see the movie Eight Legged Freaks? I don't remember if this type of spider was in it, but there were giant trapdoor fuckers snatchin people up from under ground, was freaky as hell. Awesome movie.

Yes.

You can have this, I've got two already.

SPOCK! SPIDER ALERT!

who said i was an loving god?

well shit...

SAVE US. SAVE US ALL

nope I love spiders

Nope, I think they are pretty cool.

What he said. Yes.

Thanks for the awesome gif, bro.

^ this

You know, if you think about it, it's actually pretty amazing that species evolved and learned to do that.

Megiddo... oh the memories.