For years we have heard that bumble bees are an anomaly – well, specifically that the fact they fly is impossible…
Of course, we know they can fly – and in reality, they should be able to fly.
Apparently the story that a bumble shouldn’t be able to fly, but does, started in 1930′s Germany at a dinner party where a biologist and a physicist got into a “debate” (fueled a little by alcohol – surprise! ☺) over biological and man-made flight. The physicist calculated (based on fixed-wing aircraft theory) that accounting for the size, shape and weight of the bumble bee, it should not be able to fly. Of course, the biologist pointed out that the bee flies very well – thank you very much!
Later, after everyone sobered up, the physicist realized that he had applied the wrong logic to the bee – seems bumble bees have more in common with helicopters than airplanes… their wings beat about 300 times per second – giving them lift more like an helicopter rather than thrust like a propeller.
For more on bumbles…
http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/bumble_bee/
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bumblebee_%28G1%29 – OK, so not about the insect, but for those of us that grew up in the 1980′s one of our favorite Bumblebees!
