– how are flies so darn fast to react?!

1.04K views

Just spent too many (unsuccessful) minutes hunting a fly in my kitchen. I tried to encourage it out the door but it clearly wants to stay.

It’s goading me and it’s bloody massive. Like bumblebee size.

I went at it with a magazine, kitchen roll and dishcloths but all were fruitless.

I read they perceive time differently so is it that they see me in slow motion? How does something operate in the world around them at a different ‘base speed’ if that is the case?

EDIT/UPDATE: thanks for all the comments. Some very cool and interesting things said that I’m going to follow up on. Not sure if it was the same one but a little while ago approached another behemoth of a fly with a white kitchen roll super slow and successful smushed it. Almost felt bad. Almost.

In: 145

26 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The TL;DR answer:

Flies are really small

So, information needs to travel smaller distances in the fly’s body than in the person’s body

Therefore, the fly reacts to stuff faster

There are other factors such as the fly’s compound eyes letting it see way more than a human can but this is the main one

You are viewing 1 out of 26 answers, click here to view all answers.