Comparing Crushing Forces: Human vs. Fly

[Rainie Metis]

Homework Statement

Hello All,

I might be at best HS level physics understanding but I’m quick study and need guidance. I am in a debate with someone who thinks a body can be crushed to the point of dust. I’d like to know if a comparison can be made, basic ratio: Human crushed by a building at freefall speed, pancake collapse vs. crushing of housefly. Can you calculate comparable crushing pressure, speed, weight?

I’d like to show comparable force and fairly closely prove the fly doesn’t disintegrated. I’m open to suggestions if there is a better comparison or proof. I’d love to prove this point.
Thank you for taking a look!


Rainie

Homework Equations

Building 417 meters high
100 floors
Mass 600,000 tons
Freefall speed

Equivalent force =
Fly roughly 12 milligrams

The Attempt at a Solution

I’ve tried to calculate force, velocity, weight and mass ratios. Getting a bit tangled up in measurements.

 

[Drakkith]

I am in a debate with someone who thinks a body can be crushed to the point of dust.

Dust? No, neither the human body nor a fly can be crushed to a point where their remains are just dust. Animals are composed of large amounts of water, which is why insects (and people) are squished into a goopy mess.

I’d like to show comparable force and fairly closely prove the fly doesn’t disintegrated. I’m open to suggestions if there is a better comparison or proof. I’d love to prove this point.

You don't even need to do any calculations. Just remember any time that you've ever squished a bug under your shoe. Increasing the crushing force won't change things. You just can't separate all that water from the other bits.

 

[haruspex]

a body can be crushed to the point of dust

Not sure what you mean by that.
If you mean to having the size of a speck of dust then yes, but it would require enough pressure to collapse the atoms into a ball of neutrons. Something like 10³⁴Pa, I believe.
But perhaps you only mean to the point where no solid structures remain larger than a speck of dust. Presumably that would correspond to the pressure needed to crush the strongest structures in the body, the teeth.

 

[Delta2]

Sorry for this , are you watching a lot of 1950s-60s cartoons lately? A human getting crashed by a huge building falling at terminal velocity?

Well without getting into detailed calculations I think a human crashed by a 600k ton building falling at terminal velocity gets way more crashed than a fly that we crash with the fly buster or whatever is called that thing...

 

[CWatters]

The original post doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's not clear what you are trying to compare.

A fly is probably made of much the same stuff as a human (both oxygen breathing carbon based life forms as they would say on star trek) so perhaps only the scale is different?

Perhaps compare the mass of fly Vs human and the energy in the fly swatter Vs falling building??