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Bumble bee physics-C

[not]TheBrightestBulb

Entry posted by [not]TheBrightestBulb

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I've heard around the water cooler that, due to a bee's mass, its tiny wings shouldn't physically be able to make it fly. However, I have recently learned something new about it. V

irtually all insects flap their wings through a wide arc, about 165 degrees. Frequency generally varies with size: The larger the insect, the slower the wing beat. Mosquitoes, for example, beat their wings about 400 times per second, while fruit flies beat there wings about 200 times per second. Birds beat their wings much more slowly - about 50 times per second for hummingbirds-however their lift is much greater. But bees, which are 80 times as large as fruit flies, flap their wings only 230 times per second. They're ability to fly comes from their wings going through an arc of only about 90 degrees, much less than most insects. And although most insects produce the majority of lift about halfway through the stroke, when the wing is moving fastest, bees get an equally large contribution at the beginning and end of the stroke from the rotation of the wing.

Always Enlightening,

[not]TheBrightestBulb

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