Low Gravity?

[Seykxetskxe te Vawm 'Ewan'ite (Kalin Kato)]

Alright, so I do not if this has been asked before or not, but it is bugging me and I don't have much time to search through the forum to check. Why does Quatrich tell Jake "This low gravity will make you soft...." I thought the only thing that affected humans there was the air, hence the masks. But gravity? They never seem to be affected by that factor, throughtout the entire movie. Maybe the information is in the ASG or something, but can someone quench this thirst of mine? hrh Irayo.

[Ikran Ahiyìk]

You need smaller force to pick up something, or walking in a place with lower gravity. So you will be weaker after a while.

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

It's 0.8g. A bit weaker. You would get a little bit of atrophy, not too much. You could more than correct for this by lifting weights.

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

i do not know much of science, but even i know what low gravity can do to you. with the weight of gravity here, we don't notice a difference in anything because were use to how our organs work with it for thousands of years. in lower gravity, however, the organs, such as the heart and lungs, do not have to work as hard to pump blood and do the other things as they do here. This is good, wherefore less stress on our bodies mean longer life spans, but it can also reduce the strength the arms and legs can produce and that leading to weaker limbs than on earth. so you indeed have to work harder to keep the muscle tone from earth on pandora.

[Seykxetskxe te Vawm 'Ewan'ite (Kalin Kato)]

Ah oki, irayo everyone.

[Kätsyín te Zotxekay Tsyal’itan]

All he means by low gravity is that the force of gravity on Pandora is less than on Earth. That also explains why the Na'vi and even the trees are incredibly tall by Earth standards. Less gravity means less force resisting the ability of things to grow vertically.

[Human No More]

Low gravity means less force used for day to day tasks, so over time you will lose a percentage of muscle mass. It also allows individuals to grow larger - if a human spent part of the stage of their life where they were growing in a lower gravity environment, they would be taller (although still not as tall as a Na'vi)

[Syaron]

Astronauts on the space station experience a gain in height due to the zero gravity effects on the spinal column...no gravity means no compression. Also their faces tend to bloat because no gravity affects blood flow creating round swollen faces. Long term space flight will have to resolve the gravity problem or face having astronauts that will not be able to walk after, say, a two year Mars mission. Lack of gravity greatly affects cardiac action too. Gentle spinning (a la 2001: A Space Odyessy) will be necessary unless the physics of producing artifical gravity (a la Star Trek et al) is overcome.

Syaron

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

Also, gravity is the limiting factor in the evolution of the size of metastable bipedal (i.e. no tail or similar to balance tings out) organisms: The larger an organisms grows the sturdier the skeleton needs to be, most importantly those parts protecting the nervous system. However this adds weight which again limits the growth. If you do the calculation for earth's gravity you find out that the growth of metastable bipedal lifeforms like humans is limited at about 2.5m/8feet, before the organism cannot no longer withstand it's own weight. Incidently this is also the range of human large growth records.

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

If the bones of organisms are reinforced with a super strong, lightweight material like carbon-fibre those limits might be a bit higher...

[Human No More]

Indeed - the Na'vi would have a higher limit.

Although really, I'd be happy to have a tail and be taller... I can't see any downside there, only positives

[Hufwe ta'em]

I think the gravity are only few lower on earth, but a na'vi are not affected

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

they are absolutly affected! they wouldn't be as strong and tall as they are if they grew on earth.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

they are absolutly affected! they wouldn't be as strong and tall as they are if they grew on earth.

You'd expect them to be stronger had they developed on earth.

[Ikran Ahiyìk]

20% affects everything.

[Eyamsiyu]

Another thing that it will tend to do is affect physics a bit.  We already know this about lower gravity, that if you jump with the same force as on earth you'll jump higher.  So this also is justification for some in-movie physics.

[Ikran Ahiyìk]

Sran... lower acceleration due to gravity..

[Duma Vadamee {Aungia Tsawkeyä}]

an example is the part where Neytiri falling of a branch to land on those huge leaf things

[Ikran Ahiyìk]

This related to gas pressure also.
There is not any clearly visible examples of 80% gravity from the movie at all...

[Kätsyín te Zotxekay Tsyal’itan]

an example is the part where Neytiri falling of a branch to land on those huge leaf things

That really isn't an example of low gravity though. All that is is Neytiri using something sturdy but flexible to deccelerate her descent. You could do the same thing here on Earth if there are any ferns that big.