this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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A question that's been bothering me over the weekend. Have been utterly stumped by it, so asking here if anyone has clarification to offer.
question
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?I've been trying to figure how many kilos/grammes per metre but if you want to answer in pounds shillings and ounces that's fine with me.
Not very much. Their arms are tiny. Average weight of woodchuck is 3.9kg. if we look at a human (agile, long arms comparitively), and perhaps use the weight of a hammer (like from hammer throw competition), which is 16kg, and AVG human weight in hammer throw... maybe 90kg? That's gets us 17.7% of weight. Transfer to groundhogs that's about 700g, BUT their short arms surely limit this a lot. I'll say at least by 75%. Which leads to: 175g. A woodchuck could chuck 175g, if a woodchuck could chuck wood
This pretty close to the best answer I came up with. BUT. Woodchucks are rodents, not monkey-ancestor brachiators like us. So their shoulder and arm assembly is geared to grip & gather, not swing and bear weight. So the 'calculated' answer I came up with was 35grams. Given the moment arm and leverage etc. Plus claws get in the way - woodchucks don't have fingers/thumb for gripping like us. No doubt this question will continue to bother me.
You make some fair points. Perhaps only a 75% reduction was far too generous in hindsight. i think 35g is a bit too light though.these woodchucks are quite capable diggers. If you imagine it scooping up the wood in a digging fashion, perhaps flung betwixt its legs, I feel it could get a bit of power that way.
True. The initial question does not specify if the chuck in question is forward directed or rear directed. Damn questions that miss out on the most important info.