Why can ants lift objects heavier than themselves?

Why do ants have many times more strength than themselves? Ants are small animals in the animal kingdom, but they have a lot of strength. If you weigh an ant and the weight of the object it carries, you'll be amazed!

It lifted almost 100 times more weight than it did. There has never been a person in the world who has been able to lift more than 3 times his own body weight, and in this sense, the strength of an ant is much greater than that of a person. Where does the power of this Hercules come from?

It seems that this is an interesting "mystery". After a lot of experimental research, scientists have finally debunked this "mystery". It turns out that the muscles in the claws of the ants are a very efficient "prime mover", several times more efficient than an aero engine, and therefore can generate considerable force.

We know that any engine needs to have a certain amount of fuel, such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, or other heavy fuel. However, the "muscle engine" is fed with a special fuel. This "fuel" does not burn, but it can also release latent energy and convert it into mechanical energy.

If there is no combustion, there is no heat loss, and the efficiency is naturally greatly improved. Chemists already know the composition of this special "fuel", which is a very complex compound of phosphorus. That is to say, in the claws of the ants, there are billions of tiny electric motors that are powered.

This discovery aroused a strong desire of scientists to create a similar "artificial muscle engine". In terms of development, if the powerful and dexterous automatic equipment such as the ant's claw were to be applied to technology, it would lead to a fundamental change in technology, and elevators, cranes and other machines would have a completely new look. Nowadays, the cranes we use generally rely on electric motors, but the efficiency of the work is far worse than that of ants.

Why? Because thermal power generation relies on burning coal, water turns into steam, and the steam pushes the impeller to drive the generator to generate electricity. This goes through several processes, such as turning chemical energy into heat energy, thermal energy into mechanical energy, and mechanical energy into electrical energy.

In these processes, part of the heat energy generated by combustion runs away in vain, and part of it is consumed because it has to overcome the friction generated by mechanical rotation, so the efficiency of this engine is very low, only 30 40. The ant "engine" uses the special "fuel" in the muscle to directly convert it into electrical energy, and the loss is very small, so it is very efficient. People were inspired by the ant "engine" to create a fuel cell that converts chemical energy directly into electricity.

This type of battery uses fuel for a redox reaction to generate electricity directly. It does not have a combustion process, so the efficiency is very high, reaching 70 90 .

I can lift a thing that is 100 times heavier than oneself.

Mechanologists have determined that an ant can lift more than 400 times its own body weight and haul objects more than 1,700 times its own weight. Mark Moffett, an entomologist at Harvard University in the United States, is a scholar who has studied Asian ants. According to his observations, more than 10 united ants can carry maggots or other food that are more than 5,000 times their own weight, which is equivalent to 10 big men with an average weight of 70 kilograms to carry 3,500 tons of heavy objects, that is, an average of 350 tons per person.

Why can a little ant have such magical powers? Scientists have done a lot of research and analysis, and proved that the ant body is a treasure trove of miniature animal nutrition, and every 100 grams of ants can produce 2929 kilojoules (700 kilocalories). Scientists have discovered that ant leg muscles are an efficient "engine", and this "muscle engine" is made up of billions of delicate "small engines".

That's why ants can produce such extraordinary powers. The ant's "muscle engine" uses a special "fuel", a very complex phosphorus-containing compound called adenosine triphosphate, or ATPIn many cases, the slightest bit of acidity produced by the muscles during activity (a sensation that we commonly refer to as "sour arms") can cause a drastic change in this "fuel", which causes the long molecules of muscle protein to contract in an instant, producing tremendous force.

This special "fuel" can directly release the latent energy without combustion, and convert it into mechanical energy, plus there is no mechanical friction, so there is almost no energy loss. Because of this, the efficiency of the ant's "muscle engine" is very high, up to more than 80%, which is the mystery of the "ant Hercules".

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Problem description: It is said that ants are the most powerful animals in the world and can lift and carry objects that weigh many times their own weight.

Why is that?

Analysis: There is a problem with relative proportions.

No matter how strong an ant is, it can't lift a kilogram of apples. And the weight of the apple you pick up, for example, is only 1,400 of our weight.

Translate this ratio into the world of ants. Maybe it's just a single body hair on the ant's body that has this weight.

Ants can drag objects that weigh more than 50 times their own weight, if you look at it purely in absolute proportions, this is equivalent to a person weighing 100 kilograms to carry 5 tons of things, but in fact we do not consider the characteristics of gravity according to the objective proportions, only in terms of area rather than volume, for example, if a cube is doubled, its actual volume should be increased by seven-eighths, not half as we think, which is easy to understand, because the object is three-dimensional, The increase in volume is necessarily greater than the area of one of its faces. For example, a cube with a side length of 2 cm has a volume of 2 x 2 x 2 8 cubic centimeters; If the side length is 4 cm, the volume is 4 x 4 x 4 32 cubic centimeters; The volume should be magnified 8 times.

According to this ratio, if the size of the ant is enlarged to the size of a person, the increase in the volume of the ant's legs will certainly not be as large as the absolute weight of the increase in the volume of the body, (which is easy to understand, since the absolute value of the body is inherently larger than the legs.) Their legs are not enough to support their bodies, and they don't even have the strength to stand up, let alone the most powerful animals in the world. According to the principle of gravity, the greater the weight, the greater the gravitational pull of the earth, which is why a small bug like a flea can jump hundreds of times higher than itself, indicating that the larger the individual, the greater the force needed to overcome the gravitational pull of the earth.

The mass (or volume and weight) of the small ant itself is very small, and the gravitational force is of course very small, if the volume is doubled, even if it is not a cube, its volume must increase many times, and the pressure on the body is bound to increase many times, and the thin legs of the ant are a special structure in the state of small insects to deal with the gravitational force, if with the doubling of the volume of the body, the increase of tens of millions of times, the pressure of the body is bound to increase by tens of millions of times, from the perspective of mechanical principles, it is impossible to cope, That's why elephants, rhinos, and hippos have thick legs.

So, if an ant can lift several times its own weight because it is small, if we humans were scaled down to the size of an ant, we would also be great strongmen.

Ants can lift objects up to 52 times their body weight. This is because the bones on the ant's limbs grow outside the muscles, and its muscle fibers contain special enzymes and hormone proteins, which can release huge amounts of energy with little activity, and there is almost no loss, which is incomparable to other animals.

Antidae (formicidae), body length 2 20 mm, antennae knee-shaped, 9 10 segments, 1 2 nodules at the base of the abdomen, most recognizable. In the camp "social life", there is a clear polymorphic phenomenon, and there are male ants, female ants and female worker ants with underdeveloped reproductive system in each nest (some species of worker ants, there are soldier ants with developed palate). Most species of female and male ants have wings, while worker ants and soldier ants have no wings.

An ant can lift something more than 400 times its own weight.

The reason why ants are able to lift things many times their own weight:

The muscles of the ant's legs are so well developed that we can compare it to an efficient miniature muscle engine, which is made up of billions of small muscle engine parts, so the ant can have such a powerful and amazing power. The muscle engine of ants needs to be fueled by a compound called adenosine triphosphate, which is an acidic substance produced when the body's muscles are heavily active. As a result of this change, the elongated molecules of muscle proteins contract violently in an instant, producing extraordinary power.

This special acidic substance can directly release energy without combustion, and convert it into mechanical energy, and because there is no mechanical friction, there is no loss and waste of energy at all, so that the efficiency of the ant muscle engine reaches more than 80%. When an ant carries an object, the muscles in its legs produce adenosine triphosphate, causing this acidic substance to change violently, causing the muscles to contract instantly, pulling billions of small muscle engines to generate power, so the ant can lift heavy objects that are hundreds of times heavier than itself.

The small ones can lift more than 400 times. Bold can lift more than 1,700 times. Anyway, it's about.

An ant can lift more than 400 times its own body weight and haul objects that exceed 1,700 times its own weight.