Mathematicians? If I ride 100km...

**Big Dave** · 17th April 2009, 14:38

If I ride 100km the collection of bugs is quite substantial.

So If I have presented a frontal area of say .75sq m? through 100 linear km.

How big a fly swatter would that equal?

**Subike** · 17th April 2009, 14:47

a friggin big fucker
so while covering that 100k, how many times did you rear wheel revolve,
and then work out from that how many meters your pistons traveled up and down inside their bores.

**MisterD** · 17th April 2009, 14:47

Bored are we?

Same here, how long is your swatter and forearm combined? First you need to work out how far you move a standard fly swatter through the air...

**smoky** · 17th April 2009, 14:48

Originally Posted by Big Dave

So If I have presented a frontal area of say .75sq m? through 100 linear km.

How big a fly swatter would that equal?

About 14'sq per meter travelled, into the wind
about 11'sq per meter travelled, against the wind
or 10'sq per meter travelled windward

actually you would need to know the average temperature and amount of daylight to have an accurate calculation
What I was wondering is; why are there always more bugs going thru Huntley?

**vifferman** · 17th April 2009, 14:50

Assuming when you swat flies with a flyswat (~0.01 square metres), you move your arm about 0.5m, then using your bike (0.75 square metres) as a swatter over 100km, represents 200,000 x 0.75 = 150,000 times the swatting. Or a flyswat of 75,000 square metres.

**Maha** · 17th April 2009, 14:53

I am thinking, to a fly, it would to be about.....100sqm, in fly terms.
Edit: thats right, they have hundreds of eyes eh?....make that 100sq kms

**bungbung** · 17th April 2009, 14:55

If a regular swat is 100 x 150 (0.015m2), and is swatted over 150deg using your forearm mostly, perhaps the swat head travels 2.5m per swat.

Your bike converted to swats:

100km / 2.5m = 40,000 swats.
Bike frontal/regular swat = 0.75/0.015 = 50x area.
50 x 40,000 = 2,000,000 swats

0.015m2 x 2000000 = Single swat 30,000m2 sized

**bungbung** · 17th April 2009, 14:56

Originally Posted by vifferman

you move your arm about 0.5m

Swat head moves further

**vifferman** · 17th April 2009, 14:58

Originally Posted by bungbung

Swat head moves further

Not when I do it - economy of motion.

Also means the fly has less time to react to an approaching hazard.
BTW - apparently, they have difficulty responding to hazards approaching from two directions at once, hence the "Masai Clap". If you hold your hands equidistant from a fly parked on a surface, and above and slightly behind it, and clap, they will go, "Uh-oh - information overload!" and take off in 'default mode', which is straight up, and slightly backwards, to get splattered by your clapping hands. (If your hands are cupped, you can catch them instead).

When using a flyswat on a stationary fly, always aim just slightly behind them, because they jump backwards as they take off.

**Big Dave** · 17th April 2009, 14:58

Originally Posted by MisterD

Bored are we?

Nah - I'm dicking around on the interweeb.

**ManDownUnder** · 17th April 2009, 14:59

Originally Posted by vifferman

Assuming when you swat flies with a flyswat (~0.01 square metres), you move your arm about 0.5m, then using your bike (0.75 square metres) as a swatter over 100km, represents 200,000 x 0.75 = 150,000 times the swatting. Or a flyswat of 75,000 square metres.

Or to paraphrase, a square fly swat 273.8m per side