- #1
KingNothing
- 881
- 4
Planes and Bees
Hey everyone...thanks ahead of time. This is a somehwhat general question.
A person concluded that a bumble bee could not fly, and his basis was that he determined that a plane with the same design and wingspan proportions etc. could not fly.
Now, of course this is wrong, but why is it that this particular method is wrong?
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I was thinking it was because of the fact that bees have moving wings, which seems pretty alright.
How does the wingspan of a plane vary with the body's size (mass)?
If you double a bee's mass, would doubling the wing size provide sufficient lift (assume mass varies directly with volume in living things)?
Also, aside from biology, why is it that smaller organisms such as ants can lift weight much more than their own (10 times), while mid sized can lift about 5 times their weight, and humans should lift about twice their weight (parallel squat)? There is some sort of physical relation, right?
Hey everyone...thanks ahead of time. This is a somehwhat general question.
A person concluded that a bumble bee could not fly, and his basis was that he determined that a plane with the same design and wingspan proportions etc. could not fly.
Now, of course this is wrong, but why is it that this particular method is wrong?
-----
I was thinking it was because of the fact that bees have moving wings, which seems pretty alright.
How does the wingspan of a plane vary with the body's size (mass)?
If you double a bee's mass, would doubling the wing size provide sufficient lift (assume mass varies directly with volume in living things)?
Also, aside from biology, why is it that smaller organisms such as ants can lift weight much more than their own (10 times), while mid sized can lift about 5 times their weight, and humans should lift about twice their weight (parallel squat)? There is some sort of physical relation, right?