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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw
From: throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Those amazing flightless bees
Message-ID: <151@rtp47.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 13:32:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: rtp47.151
Posted: Tue Aug 20 13:32:38 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 02:56:20 EDT
References: <1600@watdcsu.UUCP> <41500005@ur-univax.UUCP> <647@mit-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Data General, RTP, NC
Lines: 17

> A better question is: how do bumble-bees fly? (You know, the big fat ones!)
> Last I heard, nobody could "scientifically" explain their aerodynamics.

Yes, I realize that this posting was a joke, but this raises an
interesting common misconception.  The calculation resulting in the
conclusion "bumble-bees can't fly" was done using aerodynamic equations
and assumptions of a fixed-wing aircraft, engine of power so-and-so,
etc.  The calculation was done as a joke, by some engineers in the 50's.
It was promptly picked up and distorted by the infamous Sunday Science
Supplements of the time, and became instant folklore, an example of
something that science can't explain.

--
"I't a JOKE, son.  I keep throw'n 'em, and you keep miss'n 'em."
                                Foghorn Leghorn
-- 
Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC
!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw