How is it that bugs take no fall damage?
In: Physics
Their body can take the proportional impact force of freefall on earth. This is because of the square cube law. As an organism gains surface area by 1, it’s volume increases 3. Smaller organisms terminal velocity with their mass doesn’t create a disproportionate impact.
If an object gets larger and maintains the same density, the volume of that object increases much faster than its surface area. Or, as the outside of something grows, the inside grows way more.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KSfjv4Oq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KSfjv4Oq0)
This is a good explanation and a pretty cool video to watch on the topic.
Tarantulas are very susceptible to injuries by falling as far as I know. So pet tarantula enclosures should not be built with steep falls. Yes. Even the smaller falls that could happen inside the enclosure. They could result in abdominal bleeding or broken legs.
I’ve heard that cats are the same (not willing to test), their fur slows them down enough to prevent fall damage.
Late to this party but here is a video by Kurzgesagt explaining this very thing perfectly!
It’s like the saying goes. The fall doesn’t kill you, it’s the sudden stop.
Newton: an object at rest tends will stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. And object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. This is momentum.
The faster you fall the more momentum your body gains. When the force of that momentum exceeds the strength of you bones/structural integrity of your body, when you stop your body’s own momentum will crush it against the ground. Because the momentum is greater than the strength of the body, the body breaks.
Bugs have very little mass and relatively large surface area to that mass so they have a very low terminal velocity (maximum speed they can fall/point at which the force of air resistance which increases as speed through the air does, matches the force of gravity so you stop accelerating). Their mass and terminal velocity is so low that they don’t have enough momentum at their maximum falling speed to exceed the strength of and break their body.
So no matter how far they fall they never get hurt on landing.
Lease cutter ants use this to their advantage by purposely jumping out of trees when they want to get down because they can’t be damaged from the fall.
Bugs are Small so no fall fast. No fall fast means doesn’t splat hard. Bugs don’t splat hard.
Additionally, beetles have a protective shell encasing their squishy bits. Because they’re so small, they need armour to protect themselves from damage that would otherwise kill them. Humans are complex enough that we can heal bruises instead of dying from them, so we don’t need armoured skin.
To break anything you need to spend a certain amount of energy, depending on the material it is made. It’s easier to break the shell of chocolate egg by hitting it , than it is to break a baguette, than it is to break a cube of steel.
Every material needs a certain amount of energy to break its structure.
Energy is greater when the speed of the moving object is greater and when the weight of the moving object is greater.
A bug is very light. Its weight is very small. Thus when falling from a table, the energy it gets from the speed is smaller than for example an egg gets.
Also, a bug’s shell is made by cythin which is extremely durable. You know that when you try to squash a bug, you need to make some effort. That energy you spend to squash a bug is higher than the energy the bug has during the fall.
So you get a creature that is small, light, which is also extremely well armored. The fall energy it gets is not enough to break its shell. It’s smaller than what your finger can produce to squash it.
All your weight really means is the measurement of gravity on your person. So the bigger you are the more gravity pulls you down.
Insects don’t take “fall damage” because they don’t weigh much. So when they are being pulled towards the earth it’s not with as much force as it pulls a human. So since they don’t fall fast they don’t get hurt.
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