Why ants do not die when they fall from a higher place?

[Pradeepkumar]

Ants do not die when they fall from a very high place. But on the other hand humans will collapse when they fall from a very high place. Can you give a better explanation place, please..

Edited August 22, 2008 by Pradeepkumar
Typed wrongly

[Gilded]

Due to their body structure ants are capable of taking a surprising amount of punishment. But the main factor is their terminal velocity, the maximum velocity they reach when falling. It's very low compared to humans for example, meaning that they reach it in a very short time. Thus, an ant falling 600 meters from the top of a radio mast isn't going to get any more hurt than an ant falling 10 meters from a tree.

[Edtharan]

Ants do not die when they fall from a very high place.

It is to do with Air resistance. If you were to fall in a location without air, you would continue to accelerate until you hit the ground. But with air, you sort of have to push it out of the way as you pass through it. This creates air resistance and slows you down.

 

The faster you are moving the more air resistance, and the more massive you are the more air resistance it takes to slow you down. These two factors reach an equilibrium that we call "terminal velocity".

 

So a light Ant will have a much lower terminal velocity than a human because the human is much heavier. This means that even if we fall from the same height, a Human will usually be travelling much faster than an ant when they hit the ground, and therefore the human will be injured more than the ant.

 

There are other things you can do to increase your air resistance than just making your self lighter. The most common way is to increase your surface area. This means that you have to push more air out of the way and so it will slow you down more.

 

This is what a parachute does. It massively increases the surface area of the person who jumped out of a plane. So much so that their terminal velocity is low enough for them to survive (usually without injury).

 

Fur is also another way that you can increase your air resistance when falling. A furry animal will fall slower than when it is shaved. In some climbing animals this is enough to usually protect them from major injury or death.

[Bignose]

We've had this discussion before: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?p=341523#post341523