[jcl]

I guess the trouble and expense outweighs the curiosity. In particular, I bet the intersection of people who have a spare giraffe and people who don't mind an ASPCA/PETA protest is very small.

Another example of an easily testable issue: Do people swim faster or slower in a more viscous fluid? Newton and Huygens, among others, argued back and forth over this, but no one bothered setting up an experiment until 2004. The paper went on to win an Ig Nobel Prize. (Answer: Viscosity doesn't seem to affect a person's swimming speed.)

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040920/full/news040920-2.htm...

[mawhidby]

Along the same lines, the Mythbusters had an episode about swimming in syrup. Here's a link to the first part of the episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs4Q5jZSJbA