What if ants were human size?

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asked Jul 29, 2023 in Science by ShonAcoff (840 points)
What if ants were human size?

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answered Aug 1, 2023 by Wendell (41,840 points)
If ants were human size the ants surface area would no longer be sufficient enough to get enough oxygen from the air and then the ant would suffocate.

The ant's legs would also suffer from the scaling issue as well.

Ants could lift a human if they were not so tiny and to lift a human it would take at least 6 kg of ants to lift a human.

If ants were to try to lift a human though the ants would be crushed and they would not be tall enough to lift the human off the ground either way.

In terms of body weight ants are stronger than elephants.

Elephants can only carry around 2 percent of their own body weight while ants can carry as much as 100 percent of their own body weight.

Ants are considered the strongest animals in the world because they can lift weights disproportionate to their tiny size.

Unbelievably it's their tiny size that's the key.

The square-cube law explains why an animal's ability to lift heavy objects changes with its size.

Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera.

Ants appear in the fossil record across the globe in considerable diversity during the latest Early Cretaceous and early Late Cretaceous, suggesting an earlier origin.

An annoyance more than anything else, most ants in the United States aren't directly harmful to people.

If left to run amok, however, ants can destroy structures, spread bacteria and, in extreme cases, cause serious allergic reactions.

That's why it's best to nip an ant infestation in the bud.

However, several different ant species have been know to kill people, and they were not all fire ants.

In fact, deadly ant species have killed people living in regions all over the world, including America, Australia, Africa, South America, Europe and elsewhere.

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