# Raindrops
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [May 18, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771 "2008-05-18T18:35:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/1 "2008-05-18T18:35:05Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080516.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080516.html)
Obviously falling raindrops don’t kill or injure us, for the reasons stated. But are they as fearsome and destructive to tiny insects as shown in movies such as _A Bug’s Life_ and _Antz_?
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### Author:  [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2008, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/2 "2008-05-19T05:56:07Z")
I think it was another column that said they’re even worse than that. The droplets bind the insects in a tight liquid jail of suffocation.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2008, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/3 "2008-05-19T13:48:51Z")
There’s [this recent Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbugs_in_rain.html) by **Doug**. I can’t find anything about quite how they’re affected.
The rain thing is a nice way of explaining terminal velocity. As for the skydiver’s “pointy end” comment, I expect he _was_ kidding - how could you resist a great line like that?
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/4 "2008-06-09T04:50:40Z")
:: bump ::
Anyone else?
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### Author:  [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/5 "2008-06-10T05:08:49Z")
You really need to know this _that_ bad?
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### Author:  [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/6 "2008-06-10T05:20:02Z")
The velocity/momentum of raindrops isn’t really a problem for insects. (Unlike in movies, where they’re ton-sized boulders.) The reason for this is that the world changes as you change sizes (something that doesn’t happen in movies, which seem governed by human-scale physics). On smaller scales, things basically have a lot more strength (think superman in a yellow sun), and even though in proportion to insects the raindrops _are_ huge and _are_ fast, like ton-sized bolders to a human, in the tiny-scale world of insects boulders ain’t a sweat.
The worst thing that can happen to an insect is to get glued to a waterdroplet. Although the insects evolved special skin against this, if it does happen the insect can’t fly and sometimes can’t breathe.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/7 "2008-06-10T13:44:20Z")
[QUOTE=Alex\_Dubinsky]
You really need to know this _that_ bad?
[/QUOTE]
What can I say? My thirst for knowledge is unquenchable.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/8 "2008-06-11T07:25:25Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Anyone else?
[/QUOTE]
[Only this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=463275).
At the risk of repeating myself, it’s a good question.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raindrops/449771/9 "2008-06-11T17:20:14Z")
Thank you! Hadn’t seen that earlier thread.