How do spiders use the power of electricity to trap prey? Detailed answer

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How do spiders use the power of electricity to trap prey? Detailed answer

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How do spiders use the power of electricity to trap prey?

The glue with which spiders cover the threads of the web does more than just keep flying insects. Due to its electrostatic properties, it also contributes to the fact that the threads of the web themselves are drawn to insects, which, in the process of flight and friction against the air, have accumulated a static charge on themselves (no matter positive or negative). The threads can deviate up to 2 mm, but at a tremendous speed - 2 m / s. The sticky spirals of the web have also been found to deform the Earth's electrostatic field at a distance of a few millimeters. Whether insects, such as bees, can sense this deformation in advance and adjust their course so as not to fall prey to the spider remains to be seen.

Authors: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How is ocean depth measured?

Scientists who study the sea are called oceanographers. Since the depths of the ocean are dark and cold, scientists don't know much about them. Some parts of the ocean floor were studied only through the windows of research submarines and through the eyepieces of bathyscaphes made specifically for studying the depths of the sea, but still this information is clearly not enough. One of the problems of interest to oceanographers is the depth of the ocean. Measuring it is called "listening to depth".

In the old days, measurement was done using a rope with a load tied to it, which was lowered into the water. Later, very thin wire was used for this, such as the one from which piano strings are made. Today, scientists can get a much more accurate idea of the depth of the ocean floor with a single invention called an echo sounder. It uses echo to study the ocean floor. A device installed on board the ship sends a sound signal. Sound travels through the water at a speed of about one mile per second. It is reflected from the bottom and caught on the way back by a special device.

The deeper the water, the longer it takes for the echo to reach the side of the ship. A modern echo sounder sends ultrasonic waves to the bottom. Then the instruments register the echo in the form of a black line on a sheet of special paper. Usually this paper contains the decoding of these signs in fathoms (a fathom is 1,8 meters). With the help of an echo sounder, you can easily determine the depth of the sea. But the device can do more than just that. He can draw a detailed line of the seabed under the ship by listening to the bottom every few meters along the ship's course.

If a ship passes over a submarine, the echo sounder registers its exact shape. If the bottom is flat, the echo sounder will depict it the same way. The echo sounder will not miss even a small unevenness of the bottom less than a meter high!

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Wireless charging without mats or pads 03.08.2021

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Finnish Aalto University has been able to get around this problem: their new transmitter creates channels of energy in all directions, automatically adjusting them if the receivers are in motion. Phones, laptops and all kinds of gadgets equipped with a new receiver can simultaneously receive energy for charging batteries and for direct operation - without physical contact with the charger or fixation in a certain place.

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