An ant may be able to survive me flicking it – but proportionally-speaking, I would not be able to survive such a thing. Is it happenstance that this is the case? Is there a “perfect” size for this universe?

828 views

An ant may be able to survive me flicking it – but proportionally-speaking, I would not be able to survive such a thing. Is it happenstance that this is the case? Is there a “perfect” size for this universe?

In: Physics

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

F = M * A

Therefore the less mass an object (or creature has), the less force they experience.

Let’s say you have a 0.5lb object and you accelerate it at 20m/s^2 (in comparison, a falling object accelerates at 9.8m/s^2, otherwise known as gravity, until it reaches its terminal velocity). That object would experience 4.536 N (Newtons) of force during acceleration. If you accelerate a human who weighs 160lbs at that same speed, they experience 1451.5 N of force, significantly higher than the small object.

We also are built quite a bit differently than insects, the way our circulatory system is design the more force applied to us the more likely it will cause significant damage as a result of our blood essentially sloshing around inside us, bursting blood vessels on one side and depriving the other side of oxygen-rich blood. Insects don’t have the same system and as a result don’t have this problem.

You are viewing 1 out of 6 answers, click here to view all answers.