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Asked by minecraft creeper to Rob, Martin, Martin, James, Elizabeth on 6 Mar 2015.
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Robert Woolfson answered on 6 Mar 2015:
We’re too big and heavy to be able to fly the same way birds do.
The biggest bird ever was a bird called Argentavis magnificens, which weighed 72 kg and had wings over 3.5 metres, meaning with it’s wings stretched the bird was as wide as a house with two floors is tall. Imagine having to move arms the height of a house every time you wanted to go somewhere. It makes no sense for our bodies to develop flight when we can walk or climb places instead.
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Martin Wieczysty answered on 6 Mar 2015:
We are far too heavy. Birds are light and have hollow bones which make them even lighter. Large birds spread out their wings and use a combination of wind and “therms” (or rising hot air) to hover, but again you need to be really light to do this.
We can however “fall with style” – there are crazy people who jump out of planes wearing special suits with “wings” which allow them to glide towards earth. In the future I imagine technology will allow us to fly – there is already a company that has made the first functioning “jetpack”. I do not think it would be possible to make an Iron Man suit though – but who knows?If we manage to put an artificial atmosphere on a moon with very low gravity we may be able to fly.
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James Coombs OBrien answered on 9 Mar 2015:
Very good question. I would have to agree with the other two answers that we are just too fat to.
We have evolved to have larger brains rather than flight but this does mean that we are clever enough to design machines that we can fly. Being able to fly was just not useful for us.
Penguins used to be able to fly but can’t any more because it was more helpful for them to become amazing swimmers. Similarly it was better for us to get bigger brains then be able to fly.It would still be pretty cool though…
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Elizabeth Cooper answered on 9 Mar 2015:
A bird can fly because its wingspan and the wing muscle strength.
Humans are not too large to fly, but our strength simply cannot support our weight in flight. An average adult male human would need a wingspan of at least 6.7 meters to fly!
The only way we can fly is on a aeroplane or helicopter 🙂
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