Eli5 how can insects survive a slap from humans, a creature that’s gigantic compared to them
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Not an answer, but in Animorphs, the team were falling from really high up and realised that they wouldn’t be able to do all the morphs that they needed. So they stayed in their insect morphs until they hit the ground, and were able to survive.
Because the insects were so small, they had a low terminal velocity, and landed with little force.
Not an answer, but in Animorphs, the team were falling from really high up and realised that they wouldn’t be able to do all the morphs that they needed. So they stayed in their insect morphs until they hit the ground, and were able to survive.
Because the insects were so small, they had a low terminal velocity, and landed with little force.
Their exoskeleton are quite hard and can resist impact. Also, their insides are basically liquid and they don’t have to worry about an organ bursting like an animal would.
Not an answer, but in Animorphs, the team were falling from really high up and realised that they wouldn’t be able to do all the morphs that they needed. So they stayed in their insect morphs until they hit the ground, and were able to survive.
Because the insects were so small, they had a low terminal velocity, and landed with little force.
Their exoskeleton are quite hard and can resist impact. Also, their insides are basically liquid and they don’t have to worry about an organ bursting like an animal would.
Their exoskeleton are quite hard and can resist impact. Also, their insides are basically liquid and they don’t have to worry about an organ bursting like an animal would.
Forces are equal in size and opposite in direction (Newton’s 3rd Law). The force you can apply to an insect in flight is only as great as the insect can give back. The insect can’t push back very hard so you can’t push back hard on the insect. Think of a tug of war with a small child. You can only pull as hard as the child can pull back. Measure the tension in the rope.
Forces are equal in size and opposite in direction (Newton’s 3rd Law). The force you can apply to an insect in flight is only as great as the insect can give back. The insect can’t push back very hard so you can’t push back hard on the insect. Think of a tug of war with a small child. You can only pull as hard as the child can pull back. Measure the tension in the rope.
Forces are equal in size and opposite in direction (Newton’s 3rd Law). The force you can apply to an insect in flight is only as great as the insect can give back. The insect can’t push back very hard so you can’t push back hard on the insect. Think of a tug of war with a small child. You can only pull as hard as the child can pull back. Measure the tension in the rope.
“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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