How is it that bugs take no fall damage?
In: Physics
Terminal velocity.
There is a maximum speed things will fall depending on their size and weight and aerodynamics. Air resistance will be enough to keep them moving at a steady speed…
Most bugs are small enough…and drag against the air molecules enough… that their terminal velocity never gets fast enough to do serious harm to their bodies.
How can I flick a bug and it be totally fine? That’s like getting smacked by a tree and shrugging it off
Their terminal velocity is slow enough that they dont hit the ground with a lot of force.
Gravity isnt much of a danger to them, however, surface tension is. A lot of insects trying to drink water can get sucked in and die, whereas for us its no issue.
Bugs weigh very little. The impact force you take from falling is your mass times your velocity. Because bugs weigh so little, they have little mass to strike the ground with. Also, because of how little they weigh, they suffer more resistance from the air, which does a lot to slow and gentle their impact.
In short, the smaller the creature, the less damaging the fall. Bugs do take fall damage, but very minimal and their hard exoskeletons tend to absorb it quite well, with the exception of, IIRC, a spider that tends to break open when hitting the ground. You can basically drop a chick off the roof of a two story building and it will more or less be all good, getting up confused, shakes itself off, and continues on. If you drop a much heavier human, you’ll get broken bones, bruising, internal bleeding, organ damage, even death if they hit their head.
Fall damage depends on potential and kinetic energy produced by a body. Potential and kinetic energy is some kind of energy in a body with what, it can exert force to damage other things.
And potential and kinetic energy depends on two factors:
– Weight of a body and falling speed
If something with more weight falls. It would fall with more falling speed. Because gravity acts upon large and dense objects more strongly. Due to its large falling speed, it gains large enough potential and kinetic energy to cause it to fall with more exerting force and damage itself.
Similarly, bugs have less weight and due to its less weight, it falls with less speed and get less potential and kinetic energy and get less fall damage.
Note: Potential energy and kinetic energy are different terms. But they are both produced in a body when it falls.
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