# What's the maximum height that an ant can fall and walk away?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 29, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978 "2010-06-29T20:23:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@NOLA\_Cajun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NOLA_Cajun)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/41 "2010-07-03T06:34:36Z")
How fast are these huge bugs hitting my windshield at when I’m doing 55? 60-65? 70-75? What’s the frequency on that, Kenneth?
They splatter everywhere on the windshield. But if I dropped one from the Empire State Building with it’s wings tied together… would it live when it hit the ground???
---
### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/42 "2010-07-03T11:42:06Z")
The terminal velocity of a falling bug may well be much lower than the speed you drive your car.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/43 "2010-07-03T14:48:02Z")
Someone from Moose Jaw (great name!) beat me to it.
The terminal velocity of a small to medium ant [with legs splayed] is about 4 mph (6.4 km/hour), according to the physics department of the University of Illinois. [_Bet you didn’t know that…_]
An ant goes 4 mph when she hits — about 1/30th times slower than a falling man on impact. She absorbs only 1/26,000,000th (1/26 millionth) times the energy of the man (assuming an ant weighs 1/10th of an ounce (0.3 g) and a man 180 pounds (82 kg)). No wonder the man probably dies and the ant walks away, unhurt. “Sufficiently small animals cannot be hurt in a fall from any height: A monkey is too big, a squirrel is on the edge, but a mouse is completely safe,” says biologist [Michael C. LaBarbera](http://pondside.uchicago.edu/oba/faculty/labarbera_m.html) of the University of Chicago.
[Cite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/The%20terminal%20velocity%20of%20a%20small%20to%20medium%20ant%20is%20about%204%20mph%20%286.4%20km/hour%29,%20according%20to%20the%20physics%20department%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Illinois.)
Interesting about mice, too.
Math types: Could that terminal velocity have been figured out from first principles?
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/44 "2010-07-03T14:52:24Z")
Huh. I would’ve guessed a mouse would go splat.
---
### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/45 "2010-07-04T00:51:04Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Math types: Could that terminal velocity have been figured out from first principles?
I’m not a math type, but not really. It’s a function of drag which can be modelled but is better determined experimentally. It’s not an exact science.
---
### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/46 "2010-07-04T01:30:22Z")
> [@Princhester](#):
>
> I’m not a math type, but not really. It’s a function of drag which can be modelled but is better determined experimentally. It’s not an exact science.
Didn’t they try that on an episode of “WKRP” IIRC turkeys failed to land successfully.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978/47 "2010-07-05T16:04:22Z")
> [@Gustav](#):
>
> Really? That’s surprising, my guys have taken so many swan dives off my shoulders onto the hardwood floor by now I couldn’t even begin to count, and they just shake it off in 2 seconds. I was actually wondering if there was a similar thing at work with them as with the ants. I guess I better hold off on putting it to the test.
It may have just been unlucky and landed headfirst, or something. The ethics of repeating the experiment sufficient times to determine this are a little murky, I fear. 😛
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-maximum-height-that-an-ant-can-fall-and-walk-away/544978.md?page=2)