Eli5 how can insects survive a slap from humans, a creature that’s gigantic compared to them
In: 4969
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall” in reverse.
Basically they don’t have much mass. It takes very little force to accelerate them to hand-swinging speed, so their bodies don’t have to actually absorb much impact before your hand has transferred all the force it’s going to transfer.
Edit: Your hand is also fairly soft, and the amount of give of your flesh has is nontrivial. The size of your hand doesn’t really matter, but hardness certainly can – the bug’s body will compress slightly to draw out the duration of the impact (which means more time allowed for the bug to accelerate, i.e., less damage done) and your hand will do the same.
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