Difference between revisions of "1186: Bumblebees"

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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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There is an oft repeated legend that the according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that all the mechanics of bumblebee flight are not known and that the approximations to the aerodynamics equations which work well for fixed wing aircraft, do not work for bumblebees.  In recent years, there have been more sophisticated computer models of bumblebee flight, and they have found that bumblebee wings do indeed produce adequate lift.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

Revision as of 05:47, 15 March 2013

Bumblebees
Did you know sociologists can't explain why people keep repeating that urban legend about bumblebees not being able to fly!?
Title text: Did you know sociologists can't explain why people keep repeating that urban legend about bumblebees not being able to fly!?

Explanation

There is an oft repeated legend that the according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that all the mechanics of bumblebee flight are not known and that the approximations to the aerodynamics equations which work well for fixed wing aircraft, do not work for bumblebees. In recent years, there have been more sophisticated computer models of bumblebee flight, and they have found that bumblebee wings do indeed produce adequate lift.

Transcript

Science fact:
[A bumblebee is perched on the steering handle of an airplane.]
Physicists still can't explain how bumblebees can fly planes.


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Discussion

Bumblebee#Flight 96.238.211.171 05:49, 15 March 2013 (UTC)


Amazing that this urban legend is still going. I seem to remember reading that the aerodynamicist who came to this conclusion sobered up and withdrew his comments within a day or two, 80 years ago. DD (talk) 09:22, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

In Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds (Great Series) they shows slow motion footage of a bee's flight through smoke, revealing that the be TWISTS ITS WINGS in order to swing downwards twice in one flap of its wings, doubling its lift and removing the up-flaps negative lift. Here is the link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007vs8p.220.255.1.50 10:37, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I also saw this comic as a reference to the movie "A Bee Movie" where Jerry Seinfeld's bee character is helping the human land the plane. I realize the human is actually flying the plane in that situation, but the bees were helping her. -- User:Mattsinc (talk) 12:31, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Bumblebees DO fly planes. <Can't believe what I'm about to say...> Ask an economist <Forces self to overcomes retching impulse>. Bumblebee#Agricultural_use #TIL about Buzz pollination. 220.224.246.97 14:44, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

The alt-text also plays with this urban legend. Claiming that sociologists cannot explain why people like to claim that bumblebees can't fly is exactly like claiming that scientists cannot explain bumblebee flight, to the extent that the motivation for people to cite the myth about bumblebees is actually quite easily explained by the desire to discredit science as a way to avoid having to consider the implications of your own beliefs being contradictory to science (e.g. young-earth creationism). 74.77.132.55 03:47, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Correct, at least in my experience. I was raised as a Baptist, and I vividly remember my Sunday School teachers telling me this "fact" about bees. They were trying to do exactly what you said: discredit science and justify their beliefs. Diszy (talk) 17:46, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Does the explanation actually say that not all mechanics of bumblebee flight are understood? Because it's actually been completely understood for years. 173.245.63.180 07:34, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Nah, its just saying that one interpretation is that it is an alternate universe where physicist are just scrambling to try to come up with an answer to the claim that bumblebees can't fly airplanes. --Lackadaisical (talk) 21:21, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Of course bumblebees can't fly. Our bumblebee overlords just brainwash humans with the illusion that they can, as well as forgetting that our bumblebee overlords exist. Just some random derp 17:23, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

I get quite annoyed when people say that bumblebees can't fly. I was at my grandpas watch Joel Osteen and he said that bumblebess shouldn't be able to fly and then I died a little inside. 108.162.237.163 19:35, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Am i the only one who, until i read the explanation, thought it was a bumblebee on top of a robot panicking (presumably because there's a bumblebee on its head)? The two things on the sides are its arms and hands (it even has thumbs), the neck is somewhat craned, the white dots are the eyes and the small rectange under them is the wide open screaming mouth. 108.162.229.82

Can't... unsee it... --mezimm 108.162.216.193 14:35, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

This reminds me of a Danish comic from WULFFMORGENTHALER: Can Penguins fly. Translation.

I did not think Penguins could fly...
It seems like it is going very well...

Not at all the same but along the same lines. Penguins cannot fly, but this one flies a plane. Bumblebees can fly, but could not fly a plane. Well Penguins could not either, but at least they might reach the control panel ;-) --Kynde (talk) 08:44, 6 January 2022 (UTC)