Chapter 1: Chapter 1: The Cockroach that Grew a Hundred Times Bigger
“What would happen if a cockroach were to proportionally enlarge a hundred times?”
On the podium, the balding teacher looked intently at the classroom, eager to hear the students’ replies.
“It would steal chickens!” Almost as soon as the professor finished speaking, a voice echoed from a corner of the classroom.
“Hahaha…”
Immediately, the entire class burst into laughter.
The kindly faced teacher did not get angry after hearing this. He joined in the laughter for a moment, then nodded and said, “That’s an imagination projected onto a cockroach, not bad. Any other thoughts?”
“A cockroach that’s a hundred times bigger would be several meters tall. I think one chicken would definitely not be enough for it!”
The students once again erupted in laughter.
The teacher nodded and chuckled, “Good, continue!”
“If a cockroach’s body enlarges, the gravity it experiences would also increase. I think it could be crushed to death by gravity!”
“That’s not necessarily true. It is proportionally enlarged after all, its skeleton should certainly be able to bear the increased gravity!”
“…”
Seeing the active discussions of his students, the teacher felt relieved. He explained: “In biology, there’s a concept known as ‘allometric growth relationships’. This refers to a quantitative relationship between a creature’s behaviors, forms, and required energy with its size. Simply put, as a creature’s size changes, its attributes would change quantitatively, but this change is not proportional!”
While he was speaking, he started writing formulas on the blackboard.
“This concept was initially proposed by Julian Huxley in 1932. We can express it with a mathematical formula: E=70M^3/4.”
“A creature’s form and size grow linearly, which is determined by the square-cube law.”
“That is, when a creature’s body length doubles, its surface area becomes four times as large, while its volume and mass become eight times…
Shortly after this, Du Gang got distracted, or rather, he focused on a virtual panel that suddenly appeared in his mind.
[Du Gang]
[Rank One Ancient God]
Ancient Gods, a species that can grow infinitely!
In theory, as long as the energy is sufficient, they could pluck stars and swallow moons, growing to the size of a planet…
Beneath this description, there was a status panel./p>
The position on the first line, named the Base of the Ancient God, was already lit up. There was also a dimly lit note in brackets behind it: (Requires 10,000 Source Energy points to upgrade.)
“Base of the Ancient God?”
Just as Du Gang was puzzled about this, a flood of information appeared.
“The foundation for growth of the Ancient Gods, the maximum at Rank One is a height of ten meters, can ignore any negative impact on the human system after transformation, current available time per day: ten minutes.”
[Upon reaching complete Rank One, the transformation time limit is removed.]
The status panel was more like a skill tree. The top-most skill was the Base of the Ancient God, and beneath it, on the second line, there were eight branches.
The nervous system, locomotor system, circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system, endocrine system, urinary system, reproductive system.
At this moment, the eight branches on the second line were all dim, Du Gang understood that this was because they had not been lit up yet.
On the other hand, he had a vague feeling that he could transform into a ‘giant’ whenever he wanted to.
However, he resisted this urge, not daring to try it in the classroom and instead reopened his eyes
At that moment, the biology teacher was still lecturing.
“If this cockroach weighs only a gram and has a volume of 1×1×1＝1cm³, then it only needs to bear a weight of 1 gram on each square centimeter of its cross-section.”
“After enlarging it by a hundred times, its volume becomes 100×100×100＝1,000,000cm³. If its density remains constant, then its weight increases to 1,000,000 grams. Although its cross-sectional area also increases accordingly, it only increases to 10,000cm². What does this tell us? It means the weight that needs to be borne on each square centimeter of its cross section has increased a hundredfold!”
“So, if this cockroach were to enlarge a hundred times, it would soon be crushed to death by its own weight!”
Hearing this, Du Gang furrowed his eyebrows and raised his hand to ask, “Teacher, how could it survive after becoming larger?”
The teacher smiled and wrote four characters on the blackboard: locomotor system.
“What I said about it being crushed to death by its own weight is purely in terms of the locomotor system’s impact on it. Besides this, we also need to consider the impacts of other systems…”
“According to the square-cube law, as the cockroach enlarges, the amount of oxygen it needs also drastically increases. The growth of the surface area of its gas exchange organs can’t keep up with the growth of its volume…”
“So, on Earth, if a cockroach were to become a hundred times bigger, it would not only get crushed to death, but also die from lack of oxygen…”
Immediately after, the teacher wrote down the words “respiratory system”.
Du Gang was stunned, murmuring subconsciously: “Is there a solution to the lack of oxygen?”
Seeing his engrossed attitude, the teacher was very pleased and nodded: “Not necessarily impossible. If the cockroach increases the amount of its trachea, thus taking in more oxygen, it could survive…”
“Furthermore, if the concentration of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere increased, it could also provide more energy for it…”
“Scientists have found out that the creatures were very large during the dinosaur age. One of the reasons could be that the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere was very high…”
At this moment, another student asked: “Teacher, if the concentration of oxygen increased now, could I grow taller?”
The teacher squinted his eyes, a wide smile on his face: “If we ignore oxygen poisoning and you’re still in your growth period, an increase in oxygen concentration could indeed make you grow taller under its influence…”
“In this environment, compared to animals, plants would grow quicker, bigger, and taller!”
“Of course, under these oxygen-rich conditions, our offspring would also be taller and bigger!”
After saying this, the teacher spread his hands, laughed and said: “Students, that’s all for today’s lesson. Next class, we will study the reproductive system and the urinary system…”
“Reproductive system… Hehehe…” The students down the stage turned red in the face, laughing sneakily.
“Here’s a question, what are germ cells?”
“I would like you all to refer to your textbooks after you go home and learn more about germ cells. I’ll bring up an interesting question for everyone to answer in the next lesson…”
“Alright, class is over!”
The students immediately stood up and bowed: “Goodbye, teacher!”
The teacher nodded and left the classroom.
Not long after the teacher left the classroom, a student suddenly shouted, “Check the hot headlines on your phones!”
ps: This chapter is striving to top the Combat Power Ranking for January, the updated battle tactics and strategies can be found at the end of Chapter 207, feel free to take a look if you’re interested. (Confidential)
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