4 ms·

> An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolu

> An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution. I’m pretty sure I could also get stuck in a loop in a forest if the circular trail is 370m in circumference, let alone the human-sized equivalent of it (which, assuming a human walks at 3 mph, would be 7.5 miles or 12 kilometers)

panarky 5y ago
To travel 370 meters in 2.5 hours, an ant would have to travel 41 millimeters per second. That seems like a very fast ant.
- bnegreve 5y ago
  41 mm/s is not fast, according to this website a black ant runs at 80mm/s: https://idswater.com/2019/12/13/how-fast-is-an-ant-in-mph/ https://idswater.com/2019/12/13/how-fast-is-an-ant-in-mph/
- mathattack 5y ago
  I had to convert. That equals an inch and a half. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ants scurrying around that fast. May depend on which type of ants. Alternatively - could an ant run a meter in 25 seconds? Seems reasonable. A quick Google search shows some can go upwards of 800mm/sec but they’re outliers. https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-fastest-ants-clock-855-millimetres-per-second https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-fastest-ants-clock-855-... Btw - I appreciate that you took the time to check the numbers yourself. Very few people do the math on their own first.
- londons_explore 5y ago
  I just wonder who marked an individual ant in presumably rough forest terrain, and then watched it for 2.5 hours...
  - alisonkisk 5y ago
    All you need to do is warch one ant for a minute or few and extrapolate.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
    > An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution. William Beebe, apparently.
  - tjbrennan 5y ago
    You can click through the citation and read the excerpt. It's an amusing bit of writing about the joys of discovery.
  - dtgriscom 5y ago
    Miniaturization: ant pedometers.
singularity2001 5y ago
unless you walk with a partner who knows how to read the position of the sun or remembers landmarks
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
boogies 5y ago
In fact, a study showed humans walk in circles as tight as 20 meters in diameter when they can’t see landmarks or the sun. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/41uchtdorf?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference..., ^F scientists, click ⁴ for picture; https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf [PDF with brief summary]; probably https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf [should have full article but it seems to want broken JS to download multiple PDFs so I didn’t bother])

panarky 5y ago

To travel 370 meters in 2.5 hours, an ant would have to travel 41 millimeters per second. That seems like a very fast ant.

bnegreve 5y ago
41 mm/s is not fast, according to this website a black ant runs at 80mm/s: https://idswater.com/2019/12/13/how-fast-is-an-ant-in-mph/ https://idswater.com/2019/12/13/how-fast-is-an-ant-in-mph/
mathattack 5y ago
I had to convert. That equals an inch and a half. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ants scurrying around that fast. May depend on which type of ants. Alternatively - could an ant run a meter in 25 seconds? Seems reasonable. A quick Google search shows some can go upwards of 800mm/sec but they’re outliers. https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-fastest-ants-clock-855-millimetres-per-second https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-fastest-ants-clock-855-... Btw - I appreciate that you took the time to check the numbers yourself. Very few people do the math on their own first.
londons_explore 5y ago
I just wonder who marked an individual ant in presumably rough forest terrain, and then watched it for 2.5 hours...
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  All you need to do is warch one ant for a minute or few and extrapolate.
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
  > An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution. William Beebe, apparently.
- tjbrennan 5y ago
  You can click through the citation and read the excerpt. It's an amusing bit of writing about the joys of discovery.
- dtgriscom 5y ago
  Miniaturization: ant pedometers.

singularity2001 5y ago

unless you walk with a partner who knows how to read the position of the sun or remembers landmarks

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

boogies 5y ago

In fact, a study showed humans walk in circles as tight as 20 meters in diameter when they can’t see landmarks or the sun. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/41uchtdorf?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference..., ^F scientists, click ⁴ for picture; https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf [PDF with brief summary]; probably https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf https://www.mpg.de/788272/S003_Spectrum_038-043.pdf [should have full article but it seems to want broken JS to download multiple PDFs so I didn’t bother])