Name: Why Are Chimps Stronger Than Humans? - Instant Egghead #30
Uploaded: 2021-05-15T09:07:08.000Z
Duration: 2 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Chimps can be three to five times  stronger than humans.

That means a really strong chimp  could, in theory,

lift around sixteen people over its head.

But, can eating bananas  and swinging around in trees

After all, aren't we supposed  to share 99% of our genes?

Studies have shown differences  in the way our muscles are built

but muscle control may be  a much more important factor

Chimps seem to have less control  over how much muscle they use at once.

While this may sound counter-intuitive,  this can account for the difference in strength.

Compared to humans, chimps have  less gray matter relative to body weight.

Gray matter is the part  of the nervous system

that contains the nerves  responsible for controlling motion.

These branch out from the spine  into the muscles

Some neurons can contact  many muscle fibers at once.

Activating these neurons causes all  of the muscle fibers that touches

This combination  of neurons and muscle fibers

And these are used for gross motor skills

Small motor units let us do  delicate complex tasks

like playing a video game  or plucking a ukulele.

Therefore, their motor neurons  are more likely

This means when they do  engage their muscles

it's an all-or-nothing response  which we see as strength.

Unlike chimps, our neurons  control smaller bundles

So keep this in mind the next time  you think of challenging a chimp in a pub;

You might want to try  thumb wrestling instead.

For Scientific American, I am Yasmin Tayaq.

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Why Are Chimps Stronger Than Humans? - Instant Egghead #30

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