Sad but true — a human can fall and nearly kill themselves, and before they even check to see if they still have all their limbs, they’ll look around to see if anybody saw that.
Have we seen Stephen Hawking Bug before? Good one.
I’m quite the opposite. I’d rather be embarrassed than injured in the slightest. If I had to choose between mildly stubbing my toe and having all my clothes fall off on a stage in front of everyone I’ve ever met, I’d let myself be naked.
I gotta agree here. I do enough OTHER things to embarrass myself publicly. A little klutziness is just part of my image. It doesn’t embarrass me, and if anyone laughs then so do I.
The biggest ones do e.g. stag beattles but the smaller they get, the harder it is to trip.
At the scales of insects surface effect forces like water surface tension become more proportionally powerful than gravity. Humans have the opposite dynamic.
One of the major forces that humans can barely precieve but which rule insects is Van der Waals force, which are caused by… I won’t bore you.
For humans, Van de Waals force is what makes some apparently smooth object feel tacky e.g. an iPhone case. For insects, with their high surface area to volume and over-all small mass, it causes them to stick to everything.
Basically, insects are walking around on tacky glue constantly. Detailed motion studies of ants show that ants have to exert a great deal of energy just to rip their legs away from whatever surface they are standing on. In fact, most of the energy ants expend walking is burnt pulling their legs free.
In addition insects always have a tripod to stand on. That’s why they have six legs. Three leg form a tripod and a tripod will always sit level on any surface. So, three legs go down to form a tripod, then the insects moves the other three legs to form a second tripod before lifting the first.
So, insects always stand on a tripod that is adhered to the surface. Not a lot of tripping going on.
Once they get big enough though, their mass swamps the Val de Waal forces and they start stumbling around.
Wonderful! Thank you for the background on insect mobility. Are you an entomologist? Or a serious hobbyist? Or one of those people that wins at Trivial Pursuit with no effort?
I love how “cool bug guy” is pointing at tripping bug in panel 2. It is true that the first reaction is to look around to see if anyone was watching as we trip over our own feet.
I think having Hawking Bug’s antennae all crooked and broken is a bit harsh, but…I guess you’re just being realistic.
One time I was out walking, and I was in a hurry, so I was kind of running and hopping over bumps in the sidewalk and cutting corners and whatnot. Just as I see a guy coming towards me, I hop out of his way and lose my balance, starting to fall. The moment I feel my leg hit the ground a certain way, I realize “Hey, I totally can come out of this and still look slightly cool!” So I rolled with the motion of the fall and popped right back up to my feet. I think I was more surprised than he was that I actually managed to pull that off.
On a semi-related note, the great part about writing Stephen Hawking is that if you want to make it voice-acted, all you need is a free pre-installed program in Windows. Though according to Google, he may be losing even that speaking ability because of deteriorating facial muscles. His eye motions control the voice box, apparently.
Sad but true — a human can fall and nearly kill themselves, and before they even check to see if they still have all their limbs, they’ll look around to see if anybody saw that.
Have we seen Stephen Hawking Bug before? Good one.
I love the Hawking wheelchair design
I’m quite the opposite. I’d rather be embarrassed than injured in the slightest. If I had to choose between mildly stubbing my toe and having all my clothes fall off on a stage in front of everyone I’ve ever met, I’d let myself be naked.
I gotta agree here. I do enough OTHER things to embarrass myself publicly. A little klutziness is just part of my image. It doesn’t embarrass me, and if anyone laughs then so do I.
Once, I tripped off a mountain cliff and was never heard from again. True story.
*LIKE*
I love that Hawking Bug says “Dude”
Stephen Hawking + “Dude” = Win
I read Hawking Bug’s line in human/cyborg Hawking’s “voice”.
Do real life bugs ever trip? I wouldn’t think so given the eight/six legs.
The biggest ones do e.g. stag beattles but the smaller they get, the harder it is to trip.
At the scales of insects surface effect forces like water surface tension become more proportionally powerful than gravity. Humans have the opposite dynamic.
One of the major forces that humans can barely precieve but which rule insects is Van der Waals force, which are caused by… I won’t bore you.
For humans, Van de Waals force is what makes some apparently smooth object feel tacky e.g. an iPhone case. For insects, with their high surface area to volume and over-all small mass, it causes them to stick to everything.
Basically, insects are walking around on tacky glue constantly. Detailed motion studies of ants show that ants have to exert a great deal of energy just to rip their legs away from whatever surface they are standing on. In fact, most of the energy ants expend walking is burnt pulling their legs free.
In addition insects always have a tripod to stand on. That’s why they have six legs. Three leg form a tripod and a tripod will always sit level on any surface. So, three legs go down to form a tripod, then the insects moves the other three legs to form a second tripod before lifting the first.
So, insects always stand on a tripod that is adhered to the surface. Not a lot of tripping going on.
Once they get big enough though, their mass swamps the Val de Waal forces and they start stumbling around.
Wonderful! Thank you for the background on insect mobility. Are you an entomologist? Or a serious hobbyist? Or one of those people that wins at Trivial Pursuit with no effort?
You made me learn something today
Thank you!
Hawking bug is wise indeed.
I love how “cool bug guy” is pointing at tripping bug in panel 2. It is true that the first reaction is to look around to see if anyone was watching as we trip over our own feet.
I think having Hawking Bug’s antennae all crooked and broken is a bit harsh, but…I guess you’re just being realistic.
Is panel 3 a nod to The Emperor’s New Groove?
“Back! Elbow! Shoulder!”
Nope.
Tripping is just about on par with getting the “invisible-to-everyone-else” spider web in the face.
Awesome and agreed.
I want people to see me fall so i can yell at them for not trying to help me
One time I was out walking, and I was in a hurry, so I was kind of running and hopping over bumps in the sidewalk and cutting corners and whatnot. Just as I see a guy coming towards me, I hop out of his way and lose my balance, starting to fall. The moment I feel my leg hit the ground a certain way, I realize “Hey, I totally can come out of this and still look slightly cool!” So I rolled with the motion of the fall and popped right back up to my feet. I think I was more surprised than he was that I actually managed to pull that off.
On a semi-related note, the great part about writing Stephen Hawking is that if you want to make it voice-acted, all you need is a free pre-installed program in Windows. Though according to Google, he may be losing even that speaking ability because of deteriorating facial muscles. His eye motions control the voice box, apparently.
My theory is that he’ll figure it all out as soon as he can no longer tell anyone, because God/the universe/whatever is an asshole like that.
leave mr hawking alone you bully! shame on you mr huber
I love the way Stephen Hawking’s computer voice is depicted in a computer-readable font often used in the 1980s.
I should start a “Bug Martini out of context” blog…
(Pretty sure the majority of my content would be punchline panels, but…wait, why am I saying that like it’s a bad thing?)