I released a spider today and after launching it from about six feet up, which was about 72 times its height, I started to wonder about this.
EDIT: Took out a typo. I didn’t think anybody would care or notice but you know, Reddit.
In: Biology
Some can take no damage. This is due to an exoskeleton in some bugs. It’s also due to the [square-cube law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law). Bones and muscles increase in strength based on their cross-sectional area. This increases at a rate proportional to the length squared. Mass, by contrast, increases at a rate proportional to the length cubed. This means that as bones and muscles get larger, their strength is increasing slower than their mass. For bugs, the strength to weight ratio is much, much better than in humans. Most bugs have a terminal velocity (the fastest speed the object can fall on Earth due to air resistance) much slower than would be required to damage the bug.
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