If you were shrunk down to the size of an ant, would you perceive a human to be walking incredibly slow, is that just a movie thing?
In: Physics
When a giant robot in a movie takes one step, it may look slow to you. But keep in mind: the robot is covering three city blocks in a single step.
That single step may take five seconds, while you could take a step in half a second. But could you cover three city blocks in five seconds? That robot is actually moving really, really fast.
Conversely, look at something like a hamster or, indeed, an ant like you mentioned. When it runs, its tiny legs are moving super fast, right? Think of how tiny rodents scurry.
But you could easily outrun a hamster or especially an ant. You take one step, and it’s equivalent to a hundred or a thousand of their little steps. Their little legs are going so fast, but they’re actually traveling pretty slowly compared to you.
Massive things have more inertia, which means it takes more effort to get them moving and more effort to stop them. Think of how easy it is to get a ping pong ball rolling, compared to a bowling ball. This is why we perceive “slower” things as being bigger and heavier. But in another sense, they’re not actually “slow”: they can only do so many motions in the same amount of time, but each motion is so much bigger. Just like you can’t scurry your legs nearly as fast as a mouse, but you cover so much more distance with each step that it doesn’t matter.
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