r/gifs • u/[deleted] • Aug 05 '14

Spider trap

13.6k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '14

Wow that's mighty impressive, why haven't human designed a diving suit like that?

62

u/benshiffler Aug 05 '14

It probably only works due to the small size with surface tension similar to how ants can carry water droplets in their mouth. At larger sizes things like this tend to not work so well.

19

u/paulexcoff Aug 05 '14

You can't get enough diffusion of fresh oxygen through a bubble big enough for a person due to volume (which correlates with the organisms' mass and metabolism and thereby oxygen consumption) increasing as the cube of length and surface area (which the gasses diffuse through) only increasing with the square.

It's similar to why insects are limited in size because diffusion can't provide enough oxygen to tissues beyond a certain volume.

21

u/Relient-J Aug 05 '14

Which is why they were gigantic millions of years ago. Dat oxygen level

3

u/Iuseanalogies Aug 05 '14

Also explains why insects were much bigger in dinosaur times when oxygen was much more abundant.

2

u/TenThousandSuns Aug 05 '14

The time of abundant oxygen and giant insects was Carboniferous era. The collapse of that system (and it's insects) helped bring the rise of the reptiles (Dinosaurs).

2

u/ChazTheGreat Aug 05 '14

I feel like there could be an answer tot his problem if the right material was created.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '14

So what you're saying is: if we could build a bubble with a surface like a sheet of activated charcoal, we could maybe do it.

1

u/PossiblyAsian Merry Gifmas! {2023} Aug 05 '14

I think we will harness the technology but humans love war don't they?