Why does a flying insect not die when you slap it in mid air ? The slap should have the same impact as being hit by a bus .
In: Physics
Physics says force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. The mass of an insect is very low and the area of your hand it impacts is also pretty low, so it’s unlikely all of the force of your swing is going into the insect. Most of that force is just going into swinging your arm around and pushing the air around. Your hand is also made of relatively flexible stuff, so some of the force goes into deforming the soft tissue of the hand hitting the insect. Compare that to the bus and the person being hit by it, and the amounts of mass are much larger. The area of person being impacted by the area of bus are much larger as well, so more force can be transferred from the bus to the person.
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