Frans Lemmens/Alamy
Do spiders survive if thrown from a height out of a window?
Hillary Shaw
Newport, Shropshire, UK
In simple terms, an object’s speed when falling through air depends on its shape and weight. For us, the highest, or terminal, velocity when falling near Earth’s surface is about 200 kilometres per hour, but for a cat it is nearer 100 km/h and for a squirrel about 40 km/h.
Spiders vary in size and weight, but assuming that a spider weighs about 3 milligrams and has a cross-sectional area of around 100 square millimetres, it will reach a terminal velocity of around…
