• Question: How do bees fly? I've heard it doesn't make sense, or is that a myth?

    Asked by anon-187179 to Stewart, Marton, Laura, Kathryn, David on 13 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: David Ho

      David Ho answered on 13 Nov 2018:


      The reason why things like flight are so difficult is that they involve “fluid dynamics” — this is the study of all things that flow, like air and water. The equations governing fluid dynamics are incredibly complicated, and nobody’s managed to solve them fully. In fact if you can solve them, you’ll become a millionaire! http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/navier%E2%80%93stokes-equation

      So the exact equations governing the flight of a bee aren’t known. But scientists do know quite a lot about how bees fly. One of the things that they’ve learnt is that bee wings aren’t rigid like aeroplane wings: they’re flexible like paper. This helps bees lift a large body with such tiny wings. There’s some more info with nice pictures here:

      https://askabiologist.asu.edu/how-do-bees-fly

    • Photo: Stewart Martin-Haugh

      Stewart Martin-Haugh answered on 13 Nov 2018:


      This is a myth! I think the popularity of the Bee Movie might have something to do with it:

      How bees fly is more complicated than how planes fly, because bee wings flap all the time. When things vary over time they are usually more difficult to describe with equations.

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