According to the laws of aerodynamics, it is proven that the flight of the bumblebee is impossible. But he doesn’t know.
This is the phrase that for years has been leading marketing campaigns, sugar messages, motivating chains of social networks and all kinds of ads located in quite contexts. unscientific.
Of course it is true that if someone wants to get something, the first thing they have to do is believe in yourself and passionate about what he does, as we have seen in so many examples of scientific men and women, but motivate with wrong arguments not the best way to do it. So for you to see that the bumblebee does not actually disobey any law of physics When it flies, we are going to tell you what science says about it.
The origin of the legend about the flight of the bumblebee
Although it is not entirely clear origin of this statement, it seems that it goes back to the 30s of the 20th century, when a engineerdining with a biologisthe jokingly claimed that the calculations showed that it was impossible for bumblebees to fly.
There are many more versions, all of them starring an engineer who ensures that the wing size of these insects in proportion to the body leads to there being no way that it can maintain flight, but the truth is that after that there have been many scientists who have been in charge of deny it.
Why is the bumblebee flying?
The first argument that contradicts this phrase is the overwhelming evidence resulting from seeing daily how these bugs chubby and small-winged they fly without any problem. We already spoke in an article about the possibility that insects are aware of the environment that surrounds them;but possibly not to the point of being motivated by ignorance of adversity, so the reason does not seem to be.
Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the supposed scientific claims that deny this possibility.
In the few versions of the story in which a scientific explanation appears, the impossibility of the flight of the bumblebee is shown with calculations, but this is done based on a static flight, like the one of the planes, who move with their motionless wings.
However, it is known that most insects, including the bumblebee, they don’t planbut they move their flexible wings to high speed and with direction changes very fast, so that the turbulence created around them are what give rise to push.
This theory was demonstrated in a 2005 study, in which a group of researchers used robotic calculations and simulations to emulate the flight of this type of insects, checking that they are even capable of varying the movement angle and the flutter frequency, thus adapting to the circumstances of the environment in which they find themselves.
Always believe in yourself, whatever they tell you. But if the thing is going to fly, think twice. We know that we are not physically prepared for it.
