It is very likely that you have heard or read the joke about the bumblebee’s inability to fly more than once. It says: “The bumblebee has a body shape and mass that, according to the laws of physics, make it unable to fly at all.” So why does it fly? Because he is not aware.” While this popular joke has a nice point, bumblebee flight is actually scientifically explained. Indeed, for a long time it was not entirely clear how bumblebees and some other insects do this, but the explanation has been around for years.
The remark that the flight of the bumblebee, due to its dimensions and anti-aerodynamics, is contrary to the “laws of physics”, those according to which airplanes fly, was first given 90 years ago by the French entomologist Antoine Mangan, who claimed the same for all insects, not only for bumblebees.
This remark acquired a cult status and was quoted countless times, so that finally the physicists also dealt with this question. Thus, in 2005, the flight of bumblebees was investigated by Michael Dickinson from the California Institute of Technology and his team, and a paper was published on this topic in the prestigious American journal PNAS.
Namely, airplanes fly due to the shape of the wings. There is a difference in the pressure of the air that flows over them and that is how the airplane rises. Birds fly in a similar way, and by swinging their wings up and down, they create the same effect, by reducing the pressure above them, due to which an inward drift occurs that keeps them in the air. This cannot happen with the bumblebee.
But with ultrafast cameras and careful analysis it has been determined that the bumblebee flaps its wings in a completely different way – swinging back and forth. Thus, in the air immediately above it creates a “mini-hurricane”, a small vortex of air. This mini-hurricane, similar to those large atmospheric ones, has an “eye” in the middle where the pressure is lower. Therefore, in this mini-hurricane, as in a dome, the bumblebee rises up.
These vortices are unstable and the flight is not as elegant as that of birds or airplanes, but the bumblebee still flies, using nothing else, but the laws of physics.
