Home Science Question 1001: Can an ant survive if it falls from a building’s...

Question 1001: Can an ant survive if it falls from a building’s roof?

4
0

Normally, if you accidentally fall from the top of a high-rise building with a height of hundreds of meters, you will be crushed and crushed. What about the little ants?
With ants and small animals, the air resistance helps them a lot and makes their falling velocity very slow, sometimes their acceleration is negative (due to the wind blowing upwards). There was no harm in falling from the rooftops of tall buildings.

All objects falling into the air have terminal velocities depending on their size, shape and mass. The terminal velocity of an ant (6.4 km / h, according to the physics department of the University of Illinois) will be much different from the human terminal velocity (about 200 km / h). “For rats and any small animal, there’s really nothing dangerous. You can drop a mouse into a mine nearly 1,000 meters deep and when it hits the bottom, it gets dizzy and runs away. , provided that the ground is quite soft The air resistance acting on the moving object is proportional to the surface of the object.If the length, width and height of an animal are divided by 10, then the mass. Its amount is reduced by 1000 times while the surface area is reduced by only 100 times, so the air resistance for small animals is usually 10 times higher than the actuation force. Force is usually not an issue for insects, it can fall freely without danger, with the ability to cling. ” Michael Kaspari is an ecologist at the University of Oklahoma (USA), who has studied the aerial activities of wingless ants. Research shows that when ants are confronted with a predator, they jump in the air from tall branches and use their legs to steer their flight to the tree. The longer hind legs will allow the ant to travel through the air, preventing it from falling into places they deem dangerous. With this ability, it is possible that the ant has managed to cling to something before it falls to the ground, and whether it can grip or not, the ant will not die if it lands. The most ancient creatures still exist today It is thought that the earth currently has 10 million billion ants, despite the fact that they are killed a lot every day. According to biota, it is estimated that ants make up about 15-20% of the total number of terrestrial animals. Ants are animals belonging to the membrane wing, the layer of insects. Scientist Corrie Moreau and his French colleagues published a study that found ants appeared 140 to 170 million years ago. That means they are the most ancient creatures that still exist today, despite the intense fluctuations of the earth. Since then, it has been found that ants have a very high ability to survive in all weather conditions. Such survival is bestowed on nature, since they show no signs of consistent change. Which means it is very likely that an ant 170 million years ago and an ant now are no different. It is thought that the earth exists about 20,000 different species, with 4,500 families. They are found all over the earth. Even the extremely cold places are the poles of the earth, or the hot center of the equator. Ants come in many varieties, but the colors are usually just red or black. Especially, there is a species with white color added. Ants live in herds, with a quite separate social organization. Each nest has an average of about 100,000 children in a herd with a single mother (God ants, can live up to 30 years). Here, there is something like the way bees organize the swarms of life. The great majority of baby ants in the herd are worker ants (who only live 1-2 years) – such as the hardest and most hardworking workers on earth. The job of worker ants is to take care of queens, incubate eggs, transfer eggs, raise young ants, build caves, forage, guard … Few people know that all worker ants are female, but their reproductive organs are not fully developed, so they can never become God prejudices, but are forever just “cu-li” legs from birth. to death. Ants are considered the most powerful because they can carry food 10 times heavier than them. But to transport that heavy food, they have to use collective strength in coordination. Together, they carry the food they can find easily, when thousands of them work together. Ants are everywhere, anyone can see them or be stung by them, but few people know that they also have positive effects. The Masai people of eastern Africa have a habit of using ants as tools for wound healing. When one of the tribe was injured, they would capture a few large ones from the “army ant” group so that they would bite on either side of the wound, then remove the body, leaving only the ants on the wound. From there, the wound did not bleed and healed quickly. And interesting things about ants Ants are animals with a fairly sanitary life. Specifically the handling of the dead. When one is dead, the other ants in the herd together carry the dead ants out of the nest, with the sole purpose of keeping clean, avoiding infection or disease spreading. Worker ants will take care of carrying under the command of an ant that is believed to be responsible for the funeral of the flock. It was also surprising that ants were insects with a very advanced organizational system. Along with God ants, worker ants, and the commanding ants of burial, there are also “teacher” ants. Born, to have the necessary skills, they go through a learning process under the guidance of “teachers”. The “teacher” ants in the nest will teach the younger ants to do the necessary work. In the event that “students” learn slowly and “fail” on a test, they will be transferred to another job that requires less skills. Not only know how to find termites, but also know “breeding” to create a food reserve. They know how to feed insects such as aphids and moths to get the sweetness they produce. When it is time to harvest the sweeteners from the insect swarm, the ants “milk” using their antennae. It is extremely interesting to know that ant colonies carry a swarm of insects that they cultivate when moving to a new area. It is no different than humans taking cattle along to places where the grass is lush. People have talked about extraordinary in the ant world. They do not have ears but senses sounds from ground vibrations through the sensitive sensors on their legs. They have the ability to survive miraculously despite the extreme weather and climate. That is why ants are also one of the first organisms on earth to be sent to space by humans in experiments to conquer the sky. Ants have poor eyesight, in return they often use the earth’s magnetic field to guide their way. They are considered the smartest insects when there are more than 250,000 brain cells in the small head of ants. As a hard-working animal, ants are also said to be “great athletes”. If an ant was about the size of a human, then it could run at an average running speed of 55 km / h without ever getting tired. They can once again lift an object 50 times its weight with incredible strength.