Eli5 how can insects survive a slap from humans, a creature that’s gigantic compared to them

Question

Eli5 how can insects survive a slap from humans, a creature that’s gigantic compared to them

In: 4969

Answer 1

Will try to answer as easy as possible.

To change the direction of an object depends on one thing: it’s weight (which it’s mass times acceleration), because depending the weight of it is directly proportional to the force required to change it’s direction and that object has resistance to that change. If the weight is little being directly proportional then the force on that object is small.

So even though your slap might have a big force, because the object(being) you are hitting is small only a small part of that force is transferred before it has the same direction as your slap and so the impact is smaller.