![]() An ant goes 4 mph when she hits - about 1/30th times slower than a falling man on impact. So she must dissipate much less energy on impact, than say a man falling at a higher velocity. That kinetic energy depends on the square of the velocity - not just velocity. ![]() When the ant hits, she must dissipate her falling (kinetic) energy in order to halt. Hitting ground, however, reaps the big benefits of falling slowly. An ant slows similarly.īut, it isn't falling that hurts, it's the sudden stop. Indeed, a man has a terminal velocity of about 200 km/h with arms and legs fully extended to catch the wind like a parachute and about 320 km/h when curled into a ball. She thrusts her legs out, presenting more surface to the air, to fall slower, like a flat sheet of paper instead of a balled-up sheet. An ant would fall faster, given a ball-like shape, but the ant's no dummy. The terminal velocity of a small to medium ant is about 6.4 km/h, according to the physics department of the University of Illinois. ![]() Eventually she reaches a speed at which the upward drag forces exactly balance her downward weight and she stops accelerating. The air, in turn, resists her movement with a force proportional to the square of her speed. An ant picks up speed as she falls through the air. Ants, like all objects falling through the atmosphere, have a terminal velocity that depends on their shape, size, and mass. ![]()
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