Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

How is Chubby the alligators weight estimated?

+1
−0

There is a massive alligator in Florida that lives near a golf course, and he is estimated to be the largest alligator in Florida history assuming the estimations of his size are correct.

Estimating his length seems fairly easy, but how would they estimate his weight?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

0 comment threads

1 answer

+0
−0

Chubbs, the alligator in the question, is 15 feet long, according to the OP's link. OP's source and mine: Sports Illustrated. According to this source

The state's [Florida's] biggest alligator on record is 14 feet long and 780 pounds.

The article does not say if the previous record holder (PRH) had recently ate or pooped, which might make a non-trivial difference, if the OP desires great accuracy and precision.

I'm glad the OP asked for an estimate, not a measurement, otherwise one would have to sedate the alligator and suspend him (most likely a him) in a sling attached to a spring balance.

For a zeroth order approximation for Chubbs, one would take (15/14) x 780 and get 836 pounds.

Of course Chubbs, if he had the exact morphology of the (PRH), would be larger in all three dimensions. This would give a first order approximation of (15/14)cubed x 780 = 959 pounds.

To refine that number, one would look at the largest diameter (or circumference) of both alligators and adjust accordingly. Maybe Chubbs (named after a local golfer, and not his figure) is svelte relative to the PRH -- or obese. You should be able to get a reasonable approximation to the ratio of diameters from photos, the photos normalized to a 15/14 length ratio. I don't advise using a measuring tape on an unsedated alligator.

Then the estimate of Chubbs's weight would be (15/14) x [D(Chubbs)/D(PRH)]squared x 780.

For any other alligator, use the same method with a reference alligator as close as possible in length and shape.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/20790. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »