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.
“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.
Exo Skeleton. Without an internal structure to overtly disrupt a blunt force has to put enough pressure on a both sides of the exoskeleton to break the structural integrity. Your hand has fat as well as your body. Somewhat fatty hand strikes insect perched on somewhat more fatty skin location and you do not get uniform pressure to break the carapace. Now you may have done internal damage that ultimately will kill the creature but like a gut wound that is going to take time. Note that you can kill or disrupt an insect on your neck much easier than on on the fleshy part of your arm. If the bug is on your outer forearm you are much more likely to disable or kill it with a strike from the palm.
Exo Skeleton. Without an internal structure to overtly disrupt a blunt force has to put enough pressure on a both sides of the exoskeleton to break the structural integrity. Your hand has fat as well as your body. Somewhat fatty hand strikes insect perched on somewhat more fatty skin location and you do not get uniform pressure to break the carapace. Now you may have done internal damage that ultimately will kill the creature but like a gut wound that is going to take time. Note that you can kill or disrupt an insect on your neck much easier than on on the fleshy part of your arm. If the bug is on your outer forearm you are much more likely to disable or kill it with a strike from the palm.
Exo Skeleton. Without an internal structure to overtly disrupt a blunt force has to put enough pressure on a both sides of the exoskeleton to break the structural integrity. Your hand has fat as well as your body. Somewhat fatty hand strikes insect perched on somewhat more fatty skin location and you do not get uniform pressure to break the carapace. Now you may have done internal damage that ultimately will kill the creature but like a gut wound that is going to take time. Note that you can kill or disrupt an insect on your neck much easier than on on the fleshy part of your arm. If the bug is on your outer forearm you are much more likely to disable or kill it with a strike from the palm.
Humanity would be better off as who-sized creatures. No fighting over space, near infinite resources, and we’d just bounce off frickin’ everything while flinging ourselves around.
Too bad at that size we’d also freeze to death almost instantly and drown in the surface tension of our own spit.
Humanity would be better off as who-sized creatures. No fighting over space, near infinite resources, and we’d just bounce off frickin’ everything while flinging ourselves around.
Too bad at that size we’d also freeze to death almost instantly and drown in the surface tension of our own spit.
Humanity would be better off as who-sized creatures. No fighting over space, near infinite resources, and we’d just bounce off frickin’ everything while flinging ourselves around.
Too bad at that size we’d also freeze to death almost instantly and drown in the surface tension of our own spit.
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