How is it that bugs take no fall damage?
In: Physics
Basically same way we don’t damage using parachutes. Some bugs have simply air friction and weight ratio that it’s like having a natural parachute at all times.
To a such bug, air is more like a liquid, so it falls through it like you would sink into a deep lake. Even if lake is super deep – like 15 stories deep, you still won’t crash the bottom of the lake in the end, water slows you down so much all the way.
Even though acceleration by gravity is same, water limits the speed you end up with (called terminal velocity) much more than air would. But if gravity was – 10 times stronger – say – on different a planet or whatever, you could totally splat to the bottom of such lake and water friction couldn’t overcome it enough to save you.
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.
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.
Bugs are Small so no fall fast. No fall fast means doesn’t splat hard. Bugs don’t splat hard.
Late to this party but here is a video by Kurzgesagt explaining this very thing perfectly!
I’ve heard that cats are the same (not willing to test), their fur slows them down enough to prevent fall damage.
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.
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.
[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.
How can I flick a bug and it be totally fine? That’s like getting smacked by a tree and shrugging it off
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