Scaling. This is why those tiny creatures you see roaming around on the ground are able to carry an object that is three to five times the size that their bodies actually are. Yes, I am talking about ants. Those “bugs” you go to the store to buy raid and traps to get rid of them. Yes, they can be annoying at times when they over populate in your back yard, but they can also be interesting to study. Next time you want to step down on one with that shoe of yours, you should maybe take into consideration that you would likely be amazed if you watched an ant from an “ant’s life” point of view.
Ants are able to produce a lot of muscle force, and this may appear tough, in your opinion, but really, is it? We may ask, how can such a little insect be so strong? Well, really, that object is not heavy to the tiny ant, as scientists discovered.
The tiny ant’s muscles contract. This contracting motion ends up creating the motion of a pulling force. The history of insect studies boils down to that of Mr. Wigglesworth. In his studies, he has investigated the muscle mass of insects and vertebrae. The insects he has studied includes that of those tiny red and black ants. These tiny little insects may look as if they are weaklings, but when they are “working”, they may probably just amaze you. Could you carry something that is four times the size of you, over your head? Be careful if you decide to go ahead and give it a try.
The reason to explain how an ant is able to lift an object much larger than their body size is because they do not have much weight to carry around in the first place. By this, it means that the only weight that ant has to carry is the object they are carrying itself. It’s not like the ant is overweight and has a lot of fat slowing them down. Thus being said, they have proportionately more muscle tissue (also known as muscle mass) that they can put to use, by carrying larger objects.
So next time you see some ants scattering around on the ground near you, watch to see if there are any ants carrying objects. Chances are, the object will be much larger than the ant is.
