Game of insects and floating tensions
2005/10/04 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia
The edge of a well is not flat from the point of view of an insect. In fact, at the point of contact between water and land, water rises due to the surface tension of the liquid, that is, a zone called meniscus is created. Large insects easily overcome the meniscus when they want to get out of the well. However, small insects should use a very special technique to get out of the well.
MIT researchers from the United States have studied this technique through high-speed videos and have managed to understand the key to the technique: insects push the surface of the water to deform it in the front and back of the body. As a consequence of these deformations, the surface tension increases and the insect uses this great tension to ascend to the meniscus, which is also a zone of high surface tension, where the liquid itself joins both zones to minimize the tension throughout the surface.
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