Eli5: how do birds like Falcons come out of a 200+mph dive without being ripped apart by air resistance when they spread their wings?

Question

Like the title says. I know Falcons and raptors can dive at 200+ mph. So when they spread their wings to slow down how do they handle the insane force that they would be experiencing?

In: 160

Answer 1

Scaling laws are relevant here.

The strength of a muscle is proportional to its cross-section area (length ^ 2). But its mass is proportional to its volume (length ^ 3). So the ratio of strength to mass scales as (L ^ 2) / (L ^ 3) = 1 / L. Which means that, for a similarly shaped animals, the small ones (low L) are strong AF relative to their mass, while big ones (high L), are really strong on an absolute scale, but weak relative to their mass. Which is why elephants can’t jump, ants seem super strong, and falcons can handle higher g forces than Maverick.