Question: how do ants hold 10 times there weight

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  1. The strength of an ant has to do with its small size, but i didn’t know much more? A quick search of the internet revealed the following website…
    http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/f/ants-lift-50-times-weight.htm

    Fascinating stuff!! Since the answer lies in the realms of biomechanics or physics it might be something the Matthew could comment on? 🙂

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  2. Great question and answer, I did not really know either

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  3. I had a go at answering this question in a chat today. The link James has provided does a better job than I did!

    Summary: the strength of muscles are related to their cross-section – a 2D measurement. The mass of an object is related to its volume – a 3D measurement. So as you make something smaller, the rate at which volume decreases (ie mass) is relatively faster than the loss of strength due to the decreasing cross-section in the muscles.

    Hence ants are relatively “strong”.

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  4. Wow, that was really interesting. Great question and answer!

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