the bee flying theory!

[tommy666]

i remember reading quite a few times in my life that bees should not be able to fly for some reason. what was the reason? and what is the new evidence/new theory which has shown why bees can fly? if there is no new evidence/theory, what is your opinion on the reason why the can fly, contradictory to the reason that they physically should not be able to?

[Loosehead]

This is an urban myth, it has long been understood how bumblebees fly. It is not very aerodynamic but acheives lift via it's particular pattern of wing flapping.

[fo3nix]

its a bit of an urban myth, believed by seemingly everyone.

once a guy had this equation, which basically would tell you if someone could fly or not. it was used on airplanes and things. he tried it with the bee, and it turned out that it shouldn't be able to fly.

the thing is, that the equation he used made a rather large assumption first: that the wings were fixed. but of course, a bee's wings are not fixed, hence it can fly.

[CT]

The bee gets lift by creating mini vortices, with it's wing flapping.

[andy-hughes]

The original theory was based on faulty reasoning - comparing the weight of a bee's body with the total area of its wingspan, as used in aircraft. If the bee were a 'fixed wing' flyer, the equation would hold true, and the bee would not be able to fly, but in fact, it has two sets of wings which operate independently of each other in a specific manner which means that the equation is invalid - as rthe bee knows quite well.