this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
81 points (92.6% liked)
Showerthoughts
41932 readers
487 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Biggest by mass, but a bird with the mass of a human cant fly (biomechanically impossible), so there needs to be magic fuckery involved.
Meaning that a shapeshifter that turns in a flying bird with the same mass as a human would likely not be as large as you think. Humans are very dense compared to birds. Assuming we keep that density, we could be smaller than some of the larger eagles or carrion birds.
The largest flying animal to ever live, as far as we know, was the Quetzalcoatlus, which is estimated to have a mass up to over 400 pounds. Thats more mass than 99% of all humans, flatly disproving your claim. Just because theres no living bird with that mass doesn't in any way mean its biologically impossible.
Why would you assume it would have the same density as a human? This is an arbitrary restriction you're adding to the scenario. Conservation of mass doesn't require conservation of volume.
I love the quetzalcoatlus, it's one of my favorite summons in D&D. 80ft fly speed, flyby, 10ft reach, 22 (6d6+2) damage with a flying charge, and only CR 2. 🤌
If you assume that we can change density then its possible sure.
If you just reshaped a person into a bird shape, its biomechanically impossible for them to fly.
Because otherwise you arent turning a person into a bird, you are just making a bird (or other flying mammal) with the same approximate mass as a human.
Seems implied to me
So the original post would just be "a flying bird with the same mass as a human would be a huge bird"
Which...sure
dig in those heals, double down on the argument you pulled out of your ass. you're part of what sucks about the internet.
UH huh