Can a human break out of a giant spider web?

[LordGriffin1000]

As the title says, if a spiderweb was big enough to trap a human on It (like when an insect is stuck on one), is it physically possible for a human to break free?

 

[Dragonite007]

"The next time you brush aside a spiderweb, you might want to meditate on its delicate strength—if human-size, it would be tough enough to snag a jetliner. Now, scientists know just how these silken strands get their power: through thousands of even smaller strands that stick together to form this critter's clingy trap."

Source

Quick answer: No

 

[Oliver_de_jesus]

random thief who was captured by Spider-Man: No

 

[Deagonx]

Depends on what you mean. If it's just a massive amount of real-life spider web, it'd still be pretty easy to break out of. Insects get stuck mostly from the sticking.

Of course, any number of fictional properties could be applied to the webbing to change this, in which case it'd just be up to that author. As Dragonite points out, if you up-scaled the tensile strength to size, eventually it'd be strong enough that it couldn't be broken by a human, but it still might not trap them unless it was wrapped around them.

 

[BasedNecoScaler69]

As the title says, if a spiderweb was big enough to trap a human on It (like when an insect is stuck on one), is it physically possible for a human to break free?

spiderwebs are tougher than steel

News: Spider Silk Is Stronger Than Steel. It... (The New York Times) - Behind the headlines - NLM

(The New York Times) Spider Silk Is Stronger Than Steel. It Also Assembles Itself.. Associated research findings from the National Library of Medicine.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[LordGriffin1000]

Depends on what you mean. If it's just a massive amount of real-life spider web, it'd still be pretty easy to break out of. Insects get stuck mostly from the sticking.

Of course, any number of fictional properties could be applied to the webbing to change this, in which case it'd just be up to that author. As Dragonite points out, if you up-scaled the tensile strength to size, eventually it'd be strong enough that it couldn't be broken by a human, but it still might not trap them unless it was wrapped around them.

I mean thick giant spider weds that came from a spider bigger than any human (The character was stuck on the web but not wrapped up). How strong would the adhesive properties be? Anything special?

 

[BasedNecoScaler69]

Depends on what you mean. If it's just a massive amount of real-life spider web, it'd still be pretty easy to break out of. Insects get stuck mostly from the sticking.

Of course, any number of fictional properties could be applied to the webbing to change this, in which case it'd just be up to that author. As Dragonite points out, if you up-scaled the tensile strength to size, eventually it'd be strong enough that it couldn't be broken by a human, but it still might not trap them unless it was wrapped around them.

the webbing could easily join together to strengthed

 

[BasedNecoScaler69]

I mean thick giant spider weds that came from a spider bigger than any human (The character was stuck on the web but not wrapped up). How strong would the adhesive properties be? Anything special?

the strength of an average spiderweb is about 1.1 gigapascals. defintely enough to trap a human if it was human sized.

1100 MPa = 11216.92 kg/cm2

 

[Deagonx]

I mean thick giant spider weds that came from a spider bigger than any human (The character was stuck on the web but not wrapped up). How strong would the adhesive properties be? Anything special?

Unfortunately I'd have to stick with "depends on the author." We can generally assume the tensile strength of a web will increase with size the same way a rope would, but while more rope/larger rope intuitively increases in strength, larger amounts of adhesive very quickly stop being more helpful as the only think that really matters is the layer immediately connecting you to the other object. For instance, a giant tub of elmer glue wouldn't be harder to deal with than a decent layer of super glue in terms of adhesive strength.

So, large amounts of the adhesive that spiders use probably wouldn't be of exceptional adhesive strength unless the author wanted it to be. Which, for a giant spider, they probably would (the same way Spider-Man's webs are pretty much impossible for a normal person to get out of) but yeah.

 

[LordGriffin1000]

Alright then, that pretty much answers my question. Thanks for the replies, I'll close this.