Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Soaring Butterfly

We’ve always heard bugs like flies, bees, and mosquitoes flying with a buzzing sound. But why isn’t there any sound from a butterfly?
How come I’ve never heard any sound like flapping of wings from them?

Here’s the reason:
The way a bamboo-copter works is usually spinning around in the air, lifting itself higher and higher. In the same time, we could hear the sound of the bamboo-copter as it cuts through the air.

The sound can only be heard when the bamboo-copter spins about 20 to 20,000 times in a second. Any number below or above that range would not be heard. This is works the same for bugs like flies, mosquitoes and bees as they usually produce a buzzing sound from their wings.

Entomologist (1) discovered that a fly flaps its wings for about 150 to 250 times per second, a mosquito flaps about 600 times per second, and a bee flaps about 200 times per second. As for butterfly, it only takes 5 to 8 flaps per second. This explains why we could not hear any sound when a butterfly flies by.


(1) Entomologist – Scientist that studies about insects.

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Written at 1:28 AM by Paper Pilot.