How do flies walk on the ceiling?
In: Physics
What will really make you wonder is finding the youtube video of the gecko hanging from the ceiling by only one foot, and it’s not gripping it with claws, because geckos don’t have claws.
We think that what’s happening is that the (seriously something like) half a million split hair ends per gecko foot are pressing into the ceiling, and you get a situation where the electrons on a foot molecule push the ones on the ceiling molecule away, and you get a plus and minus side for both of them, but the opposite charges are next to each other, and so the two molecules attract each other. This isn’t very strong per molecule, because the electrons aren’t good at staying there, but apparently if you do it enough, you get sizable lizards that go up a vertical pane of smooth glass.
If you want to find more explanations and graphics, put London Forces into YT (there was a Dr. London, it’s not named after the city).
Things we perceive as being smooth, are only smooth to *our* touch, and all the tiny hair like stickers protruding off the fly’s feet grip the micro fractures of the surface they are on, add that to the van der wall effect someone else mentioned, and flies can walk upside down.
Their feet are divided into millions of tiny hairs, that adhere to surfaces due to Van der Waal (pronounced Van der Val) forces.
This also works for much larger animals such as geckos.
They have sticker–like things on their feet (or legs) which allow them to “stick” onto surfaces like this, or other such surfaces. This is also why some people will get grossed out if a fly lands in their food, I think.
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