
The physics behind how fire ants band together into robust floating “rafts” - furcyd
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/the-physics-behind-how-fire-ants-band-together-into-robust-floating-rafts/
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gbmor
I have a vivid memory of seeing this. Post-Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana, I
was wading in nearly waist-high water toward my former car. I then see several
of these fire ant rafts floating within about two feet of me, each several
inches across. The thought of the fire ants crawling onto me in such large
numbers, had I not noticed and waded into them, was terrifying.

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conformist
Also by David Hu: The universal law of mammalian urination time:

[https://www.pnas.org/content/111/33/11932.short](https://www.pnas.org/content/111/33/11932.short)

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jmpman
I’ve always wondered why the military hasn’t created massive airship aircraft
carriers using a collection of small bladder cells each isolated from the
other, inside of a heavily armored hull.

Such a platform could remain stationed above a battlefield, above the range of
small arms fire, and if properly constructed, even tolerant of multiple SAM
hits.

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alexhutcheson
Physics, mostly. To hold the weight of any significant armor, fuel, materiel,
etc. you would need an unbelievably large interior space surrounded by a
relatively thin exterior.

Deployment is another issue - how do you get it to where it needs to be
quickly?

Armor also isn't a good defense against modern missiles. The goal is to
intercept or avoid getting hit in the first place, rather than sustain
multiple hits.

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jmpman
I’m thinking more about a battlefield like Afghanistan, where the opponents
aren’t firing anything larger than a stinger, and there is already air
superiority. As buoyancy is a function of volume, which increases to the third
power, and armor just needs to increase proportional to the surface area,
which is the second power, a heavily armored floating aircraft carrier seems
possible.

~~~
jmpman
A 97000 ton aircraft carrier is equal in weight to the amount of air in a 450M
x 450M x 450M cube. Aircraft carriers are only 320M long, so this doesn’t seem
that far fetched.

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conformist
From the group of David Hu, who also brought us "cubic wombat poo".

See
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20975633](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20975633)

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dgritsko
This is reminding me to reread "Leiningen Verus the Ants" [1] again.

[1]:
[https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lvta.html](https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lvta.html)

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homonculus1
The scientific term for such a raft is "Isle of the Deep".

