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"Ballooning" Spiders Use Electrostatic Forces To Generate Lift

Posted by samzenpus on from the when-spiders-learn-to-fly dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Many types of small spider release threads into the air which then lift and carry them significant distances. Biologists have found them at altitudes of up to 4 km. The conventional thinking is that the threads catch thermal air currents which then carry them away but this does not explain how spiders perform their trick even when there is little or no wind. Now one physicist says the explanation is the atmosphere's natural electric field which has an average downward-pointing magnitude of 120 Volts per metre. He calculates that a strand of silk need only gain a negative charge of around 30 nanoCoulombs to lift a spider. That explains how the spiders take off on windless days, how they reach such great heights and how several strands can lift heavier spiders of up to 100 milligrams."

6 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, But... by Atmosphereum · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this explain how Spider-Man can shoot and then swing on webs that are attached to... what? Clouds? The International Space Station?

    1. Re:Yes, But... by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a shame that they ruin it with that - the rest of the story is totally plausible.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Yes, But... by camperdave · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sigh! Spiderman's webs attach to skyscrapers, streetlights, bridges and the like. That's why you never see him swinging around in the suburbs. Spiderman only fights crimes downtown.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Yes, But... by meerling · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're trying to work out continuity issues from an old and poorly made no budget ancient cartoon?
      You might as well complain that dropping an anvil on sombody's head will not result in a bump but will crush their freaking skull and kill them.
      Besides, Spiderman doesn't do web flight. He must not have been bit by a gossamer spider. :)

  2. Airborne mini drones, here we come.... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Funny

    This really bugs me.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  3. Re:eh? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 3, Funny

    The sky webs read "crispy bacon". Poor Wilbur.