The formidable snap is good for more than capturing prey. When an ant snaps its jaws against the ground, the resulting force can launch the ant into the air. Here are typical data: An ant rotates its mandible, of length 1.30 mm and mass 130 μg (
which we can model as a uniform rod rotated about its end), at a high angular speed. As the tip strikes the ground, it undergoes an angular acceleration of 3.5×10⁸ rad/s². If we assume that the tip of the mandible hits perpendicular to the ground, what is the force on the tip?
