I fought the (Square Cube) Law, and the Law won

Seriously, is there any plausible way to get around this bastard, or are impossibly big things just impossible outside the vacuum of space or the deep sea?

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

Well, the only thing I've come up with till now is using anti-gravity suits or the like, so you don't actually have take them to these extreme environments. Personally, I thought of using a magical mineral that can be bonded to an animal's skin to simulate this effect.

I got nothing to compensate for oxygen transfer problem though.

edited 7th Jun '14 1:19:55 AM by Elfhunter

If I knew how I know everything I know, I'd only be able to know half as much because my brain would be clogged up with where I know it from

If you want a 7 ton alien, make it elephantoid instead humanoid. Want something bigger than that? Make it whaleoid.

Some things just aren't possible with Earth biology or even near-future tech, not without antigrav of some kind. Gravity is a strict mistress.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Bigger things are possible with stronger materials and energy sources, and more efficient use of either. To what extent, I'm not sure.

Maybe they compress and accumulate oxygen when they're less active?

edited 7th Jun '14 8:17:40 AM by ManInGray

They're impossible there, too, due to cooling issues also arising from the square-cube law.

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Regarding plausibility: the majority of your audience probably won't even have heard of the square-cube law, and those that have will chalk giant size monsters to the willing suspension of disbelief. Only the worst kind of nitpicking nerd will actually care enough for it to spoil their enjoyment of a work, but those people are unpleasable so there's no point in trying to please them.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Wrong. It's not "worst kind of nitpicking"; it's "have you at least given thought to this?" We're generally all right with explicit handwaves on the lines of "black box tech"; a good work engages the reader's attention and makes him think about it, and it's somewhat insulting to find that the writer has thought less about his work than his readers have.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Except the writers always put less thought into it than the readers do, because unlike the author, the fans' only concern is nitpicking, not writing the damn thing

edited 7th Jun '14 3:04:34 PM by KSPAM

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

You would have to posit some sort of energy field to hold things together, or else some phlebtonium that actually gets stronger in proportion to how much of it there is in a structure. That is, the tensile strength increases when it is surrounded my more and more of the same material.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are probably right.

One friend of mine developed a character for our RPG group that was an Expy of Hank Pym/Micro Lad/Leviathan/Giant Boy, and the explanation he gave was thus:

The "Pym Particles" (or whatever he called them) absorb the extraneous mass as the object/person grows, thus allowing them their normal mobility.

edited 7th Jul '14 9:40:47 AM by RedneckRocker

Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.

It;'s minimum effort handwaving, but My solution for it is that abnormally large creatures are made of materials that are ridiculously strong, light, or both compared to more mundane materials and generally have some measure of super strength even when considering their large size. This also handily Justifies Giant Equals Invulnerable

Way you could work this into a setting would include attempts to harvest said material form them...emphasis on attempt.

The Square Cube Law is the original "Stop Having Fun" Guy. Ignore it and continue on your merry way.

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!

You can have huge things. They just have to be remarkably light and incredibly strong.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Or eldritch: "your puny laws of physics have no dominion here, mortal".

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Yeah, but that stretches into a different context entirely: Things that we either do not understand or which challenge our understanding of how things should work. It's like walking into a closet on the second floor of a dinky row house and finding an amphitheatre the size of the Capitol Dome, which is to say that it breaks a lot of rules or obeys them in a way that makes no sense to modern methods.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

True—and admittedly I do see that the original poster requested plausible approaches.

My Games & Writing

Also, If something was basically a living zeppelin, i.e basically a giant gas bag with some organs attached to it, it could also be huge because it would be size without much mass, and would have all that gas boueying it up.

I ran into this law too while writing an Evangelion fic. However, I think I found a workaround in that particular universe: muscles, of course, basically convert chemical energy into kinetic energy via metabolism. Due to the square-cube law, Evas are incapable of producing enough energy via metabolism alone to move - hence why they require electrical power to operate, despite being living organisms. And there you have it: square-cube law bypassed without supernatural physics-fuckery.

edited 12th Jul '14 11:32:17 AM by amitakartok

lol I guarantee you could write a story that totally ignores and violates the sql and almost no one would care in the slightest. It just doesn't matter, and is one of the main things that gets willingly-belief-suspended and handwaved the most.

The amount of disdain for adhering to Like Reality, Unless Noted here is staggering. Cool of Rule, people.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

It honestly depends on what you're making. If you're making something inorganic, well, then it's all in the materials.

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