Home SCIENCE Can a Piranha Bite Through Steel – Puting Piranha’s Jaws To The...

Can a Piranha Bite Through Steel – Puting Piranha’s Jaws To The Test

Advertisemen

Piranha is fish known for sharp teeth. South American people uses its teeth to create tools and weapons.Even the people who catch these dangerous small predators have to be careful when the fish is out of water and near to him.

image/source: River Monsters™

Biologist Jeremy Wade will try to test how sharp is the piranha teeth are, after catching the piranha in the Amazon river using a tough plastic lure.First, he tried a 300 pound breaking strain Kevlar fabric the same material used to make bulletproof vests, its teeth slides effortlessly through the Kevlar cutting it in two.

For the ultimate test, Jeremy tried woven steel, same result, just like the Kevlar. It’s a sobering reminder of the flesh slicing potential of these prolific predators on those rare occasions when piranhas do attack humans, its death by a thousand cuts.

Advertisement

The measured bite force of the black piranha, at 320 newton (N), was nearly three times greater than that exerted by an American alligator of comparative size, said the study.One newton is the force required to move a kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of mass at one metre (3.25 feet) per second squared.

Advertisement