Bumblebees

[shhyouaretired]

I just learned something interesting about bumblebees from my newest collection of training info: the Triathlete's Training Bible. I'll transfer what it has to say here:

A few years ago, as the story goes, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed an interest in the bumblebee. The lab folks reckoned

Comments

[archdukechocula]

That particular "problem" is actually more of a folk incident, and has been explained handily. Science has a burden of proof, and naturally the more complex or unusual a phenomena, the longer it will take to explain. Often to make a replicable experiment, a high degree of technological sophistication is required. For example, without telescopes, it was difficult to explain the oscillation of Jupiter since we couldnt see all of its moons. In the case of the bees, it simply required sophistacted cameras and the ability to duplicate a bee's wing, which isnt something that could have been done 50 years ago, or 70 years ago when this actual tale originally emerged.

According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beat per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Jokingly, not being aware of scientists proving it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under "the power of its own arrogance

[shhyouaretired]

In 1994, upon turning forty years old, Dave Scott decided to come out of retirement and take on the Hawaii Ironman following a five-year absence

[archdukechocula]

That the two aren't particularly related?

[shhyouaretired]

Haha okay fair enough. Are you one of those naysayers, by chance? :)