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Mosquitos Have Little Trouble Flying in the Rain
sciencehabit writes with an interesting article about the (surprisingly not well studied) effects of rain on flying insects. From the article: "When a raindrop hits a mosquito, it's the equivalent of one of us being slammed into by a bus. And yet the bug will survive and keep flying. That's the conclusion of a team of engineers and biologists, which used a combination of real-time video and sophisticated math to demonstrate that the light insect's rugged construction allows the mosquito to shrug off the onslaught of even the largest raindrop. The findings offer little aid in controlling the pest but could help engineers improve the design of tiny flying robots."
Bats, unfortunately, aren't so lucky: "...these furry fliers need about twice as much energy to power through the rain compared with dry conditions."
A mouse could fall off a building and walk away. People, not so much. The smaller you are, the more resistant you are to long falls. It's why many dwarves become steelworkers.
You have to work your ass off to keep the things you like alive/going (plants, cars, house, etc), yet pests like mosquitoes, bankers, and politicians you just can't get rid of no matter how hard you try.
Surface tension is a rather interesting study of fluids.
Yes, Mosquitos could fly in the rain. However they would have trouble dropping their bombs accurately and obviously the recon version wouldn't get good photos.
The night fighter version would fare better with its radar, if there were any German bombers up there to intercept.
But of course sometimes they had to fly in bad weather, such as just before D-Day.
Physics doesn't scale by size either. Strength is related in different ways to length and to cross section, which is length (or breadth) squared. Mass is proportional to length (or breadth) cubed. That's not even remotely the same. Dropping a bug a meter is not like dropping an elephant a hundred meters.
But the bus analogy is still wrong, because the entire point of the article is that the mosquito is not smashed by the raindrop. Instead the mosquito simply merges into and falls with the drop, then escapes before the raindrop hits the ground.
So, it's more like phasing through the front of an oncoming bus, landing comfortably in one of the seats, then escaping out the rear before the bus plows into a concrete wall.
It's all the Scotchguard they spray themselves with.
*sigh* I don't understand these bus analogies. Can someone please give me a car analogy instead?
Not where I live. When it rains, it only makes them more vicious. And the hotter/wetter it gets, the worse they are. It is unbelievable, they fly in packs of five, four lift the blanket by the edges, one sucks. Then they change.
can carry a hundred times their body weight and I can carry thousands of ants.
I wouldn't recommend it. They have a mean bite.
Slipping shoelaces ?
http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2012/05/28/1205446109.DCSupplemental/SM01.mp4
Cheers.
If mosquitos weren't able to deal with rain, there wouldn't be a lot of mosquito's. They need water to reproduce in so they live in predominantly wet areas. Evolution made the rain resistant mosquito's breed and the non resistant ones extinct. Horses don't often fall down steep cliffs, nor do humans, so there isn't a lot of reason for them to develop a resistance against that. Mice reach their terminal velocity rather quick, so if they survive a 2m drop, they are much more likely to survive a 200m drop, since the difference in velocity isn't that much.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Just substitute bus by Ford F150 or Hummer, that's all
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Well, the mosquito would probably survive (the impact, not the drowning) when the drop it is in hits the ground, too. I often hit when I swat at flies (which are bigger and heavier than mosquitos), and they simply butt into the wall (with, relatively, quite some force), shake their head, curse at me and simply continue buzzing about.
These little things are built like tanks, I tell you.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
The findings offer little aid in controlling the pest but could help engineers improve the design of tiny flying robots.
Great! Because I was just thinking to myself, "we really need more tiny flying robots. If I have to wait 20 years for the CIA to solve the raindrop problem and weaponize these things, I'll die of boredom before videos of them assassinating people with them show up on YouTube."
Too heavy on the sarcasm? Fortunately I don't say stuff like this out loud.
But the bus analogy is still wrong, because the entire point of the article is that the mosquito is not smashed by the raindrop. Instead the mosquito simply merges into and falls with the drop, then escapes before the raindrop hits the ground.
So, it's more like phasing through the front of an oncoming bus, landing comfortably in one of the seats, then escaping out the rear before the bus plows into a concrete wall.
*sigh* I don't understand these bus analogies. Can someone please give me a car analogy instead?
It's like a raindrop that hits a Yugo. The raindrop merges into the Yugo. The Yugo stops because the electricity fails. You get out, a little wet because of the leaking roof, but still OK.
Add a bit of soap to the water. That tends to work a lot better in my experience, the insects get wet instead of having the water slide off.
Not a sentence!
In Winnipeg, it isn't that mosquitoes can't fly in the rain, they just don't like it very much. Usually, your basic Winnipeg mosquitoes just jack a car and drive to their next victim. If the driver's lucky, the mosquitoes will let him go instead of keeping him for an en route snack. If there's a dog or cat in the car...don't ask. It won't be seen again.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
When a raindrop hits a mosquito, it's the equivalent of one of us being slammed into by a bus. And yet the bug will survive and keep flying.
In other words, it's definitely not the equivalent being slammed by a bus.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Mosquitos can easily fly in rain, and also in fog and snowy conditions too. In fact the Mosquito was faster than all the German fighter planes chasing it. So they completely dispensed with all the defensive machine guns, improving its bomb payload. Darned good for something made of plywood and glue. Later they painted it black and used it as night bomber.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
When I jump off a 10-ft diving board, a lake-sized glob of water smashes me at 20mph. Amazingly, I survive.