Talk:1186: Bumblebees

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 03:47, 28 May 2013 by 74.77.132.55 (talk) (addressed significance of alt-text)
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Bumblebee#Flight 96.238.211.171 05:49, 15 March 2013 (UTC)


Amazing that this urban legend is still going. I seem to remember reading that the aerodynamicist who came to this conclusion sobered up and withdrew his comments within a day or two, 80 years ago. DD (talk) 09:22, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

In Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds (Great Series) they shows slow motion footage of a bee's flight through smoke, revealing that the be TWISTS ITS WINGS in order to swing downwards twice in one flap of its wings, doubling its lift and removing the up-flaps negative lift. Here is the link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007vs8p.220.255.1.50 10:37, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I also saw this comic as a reference to the movie "A Bee Movie" where Jerry Seinfeld's bee character is helping the human land the plane. I realize the human is actually flying the plane in that situation, but the bees were helping her. -- User:Mattsinc (talk) 12:31, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Bumblebees DO fly planes. <Can't believe what I'm about to say...> Ask an economist <Forces self to overcomes retching impulse>. Bumblebee#Agricultural_use #TIL about Buzz pollination. 220.224.246.97 14:44, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

The alt-text also plays with this urban legend. Claiming that sociologists cannot explain why people like to claim that bumblebees can't fly is exactly like claiming that scientists cannot explain bumblebee flight, to the extent that the motivation for people to cite the myth about bumblebees is actually quite easily explained by the desire to discredit science as a way to avoid having to consider the implications of your own beliefs being contradictory to science (e.g. young-earth creationism). 74.77.132.55 03:47, 28 May 2013 (UTC)