If an insect is inside of a container, but flying, is it adding weight to the container?
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If it’s a closed container then yes (I think). It might depend on how you define the mass and small temporary fluctuations may happen.
For something to fly it must exert a force equal or greater than its weight downwards. This force comes from the wings of the insect acting on the air, i.e. exerting a force on the air. This force is downwards and therefore the air exerts a force on the ground. Any scales under the container will see this force as a weight/mass.
It gets trickier if the insect flies to the top then free falls. When free falling there isn’t any force being exacted by the insect, so the scales wouldn’t detect it.
For the sake of clarity there is a difference between weight and mass of a system, and what you think is measuring mass is almost certainly measuring voltage, which is linked to weight, which is linked to mass. So there is a bit of separation.
In almost all scenarios weight and mass are essentially the same thing, but not always and especially not when using measuring devices with some degree of separation.
The mass of a closed system is constant. You just might not be able to measure it as constant due to limitations in measurement techniques.
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