Fly versus glass window !

[uglymug]

hi, have been trying to find if there is a high speed film of a fly hitting a glass window, and what happens to the fly ?
weird i know but we have all heard them buzzing in at mach 1 to only hear them thwack into the window glass. How do they deal with it, why dont they knock themselves out, they just carry on buzzing as if nothing had happened !!! If it was us hitting a wall, well we all know what would happen. Only me just being curious.
have tried to do a search but cant find anything....................or can you ?

[Simpo Two]

They're not heavy enough to do themselves any damage. They just go 'Ow fk bks' and carry on.

[shakotan]

uglymug said:

hi, have been trying to find if there is a high speed film of a fly hitting a glass window, and what happens to the fly ?
weird i know but we have all heard them buzzing in at mach 1 to only hear them thwack into the window glass. How do they deal with it, why dont they knock themselves out, they just carry on buzzing as if nothing had happened !!! If it was us hitting a wall, well we all know what would happen. Only me just being curious.
have tried to do a search but cant find anything....................or can you ?

It's all about mass, and flies don't really have any.

Similarly to the theory about a penny dropped from the Empire State Building would kill you. It wouldn't, it simply doesn't have enough mass to cause damage. It might sting for a second, but that's about it.

[Beati Dogu]

What's the last thing that goes through a fly's mind as it hits a windscreen?

It's arse.

[Glassman]

Beati Dogu said:

What's the last thing that goes through a fly's mind as it hits a windscreen?

It's arse.

Its.

HTH

[V8LM]

If the glass is the windscreen of your car then the fly will obviously change direction. One moment it is flying towards you, the next it is on the glass going with you. The fly has reversed its velocity so at one moment in time had a velocity of zero - it was stationary. It was stationary because it hit your windscreen.

As the fly was stationary because it hit your windscreen, and the fly was in contact with your windscreen at this moment, so were you.

[Simpo Two]

The question was about a fixed window, not a windscreen with (presumably significant) forward motion.

[SantaBarbara]

Simpo Two said:

The question was about a fixed window, not a windscreen with (presumably significant) forward motion.

You need to ask the BBC if they can do a "Fly on the Wall " documentary ?

[Simpo Two]

That's a third option!

[otolith]

Based on what happened to the big dirty bluebottle that was in the house earlier, what happens after hitting the glass is that this filthy bugger smashes it against the door with his nose and gleefully eats it.

[SystemParanoia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7KSfjv4Oq0

I feel this Kurzgesagt Video is very appropriate to the OP's question... in a slightly indirect way

[MiggyA]

You need to get your head around the square/cube relationship of size and mass, OP. It's the reason insects can carry things that weigh many times more than themselves but an elephant might die if it fell down some stairs. On the other hand, scale up those insects to human sizes and they'd need a major redesign to cope with their own weight.

[Simpo Two]

otolith said:

Based on what happened to the big dirty bluebottle that was in the house earlier, what happens after hitting the glass is that this filthy bugger smashes it against the door with his nose and gleefully eats it.

'Skyraisin'

[otolith]

[paolow]

uglymug said:

hi, have been trying to find if there is a high speed film of a fly hitting a glass window, and what happens to the fly ?
weird i know but we have all heard them buzzing in at mach 1 to only hear them thwack into the window glass. How do they deal with it, why dont they knock themselves out, they just carry on buzzing as if nothing had happened !!! If it was us hitting a wall, well we all know what would happen. Only me just being curious.
have tried to do a search but cant find anything....................or can you ?

I read a report that discussed this a while back and remember after discussing with a friend of mine that the example given was 'can a fly stop a train' . If you google that - the top few answers should, well, give you your answer....

[MitchT]

Simpo Two said:

They just go 'Ow fk bks' and carry on.

For whatever reason I had James May's voice in my head when I read that!

[Mikeyjae]

No idea about the fly but I wonder why Mythbusters didn't cover the penny dropping from the Empire State Building myth? I am hoping somebody comes back and says they did so I can watch it.

[The_Doc]

A big fly could, could kill you in the face.... https://mythresults.com/bug-special

A Penny from a skyscraper won't kill you https://mythresults.com/episode4

God I love Mythbusters. I am planning on subjecting my children to it soon

Engineering and proper experiment design are the future for the UK