[Leica] re: digital film and bumblebees

[Kyle Cassidy <cassidy@netaxs.com>]

fwiw, the "scientists prove bumble bees can't fly" thing is an urban
legend. (you can look it up on alt.folklore.urban) it has been proven that
bumblebees cannot _glide_. which they do not, in fact, do.

from the AFU archives:

> Bumblebees CAN fly! The oft heard ridicule of scientists that say a 
> bumble cannot fly because its wings are too small, in spite of the 
> evidence of their own eyes, is based on a misrepresentation of an 
> incident that occurred in the 1930's. McMasters (in the Amer. Sci. 
> 77:164-169) reports that a noted Swiss professor of aerodynamics at a
> dinner party with biologists was asked about the aerodynamics of wasp
and bee
> wings. He performed some calculation for the bumblebee based on a smooth 
> wing and got a low Reynolds number, "proving" the bee incapable of 
> flight. He obviously knew that the calculations were simplistic, and 
> later (after examining a wing under a microscope and noting the bent and 
> folded nature of the wing), corrected his error, but like the news media 
> of today, the correction received little notice.


just doing my bit to end internet rumors,

kc

(at least internet rumors that i haven't started)